I volunteered for a few hours with a student clinic the students at IUSM are starting up. We were performing prelim. health screens for people in a very poor part of town. I was assigned to man the greeting/filling out forms table at the door. Now I have to be careful with this story b/c I can't violate HIPAA rules, but this is more about my encounter with a person and his needs rather than a medical case. I hope that's ok.
"For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me...Truly I say to you, as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." -Matthew 25:42-43, 45
In any case, two homeless people, R and K, walked in. K, a man, sat down, seemed really tired, distraught, disappointed, discouraged. He filled out the forms I gave him and went through all the health screening stations we had set up, then grabbed a cup of coffee and a blueberry pastry and sat down in front of me to eat, so I struck up some awkward conversation with him.
Then, after some silence, he started telling me about how he was sick of the life he was living, "done with this debauchery," so he said. He said he needed new socks, new clothes (judging by the look of the clothes and the odor, he was right), would go to a hotel to take a bath if he had money. He also walked with a noticeable limp, which he attributed to being stabbed a few months ago. All I could do was sit, nod, say I'm sorry he was struggling, and offer him more food to take with him. We were there merely doing health screenings for people. I had no idea what to do, so I told him about IMC, a church in downtown that offered free food every Sunday morning before worship, and said that I'm sure they could help him more. He left, came back, and left again, then came back, and just sat in a chair and slept.
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." -James 2:14-17
I felt, and still feel like such a cop-out. But I honestly had no idea what I should have done. I was there with medical students, and I didn't want to set a precedent or try to meet a need that the student clinic was not meant to fulfill - at least not according to the leaders, yet. But I feel like the priest and/or the other person who walked right by the guy on the side of the road that the Samaritan ultimately helped. I wanted to take the guy somewhere to get some new socks and stuff - but I still found myself sanitizing my hands after he left, partially out of protocol and partially because I was paranoid. I need to learn how to love with the same compassion and love that Jesus shows the poorest of the poor, the most rejected of the rejected, the least of the world.
What would you have done?
12 years ago
