Practice medicine from the heart, says speaker at CHA opening session

Published: 2006-06-05

ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) -- Health care must come from the heart, not the balance sheet, a physician who works with the homeless in Miami told participants in the Catholic Health Association's 91st annual assembly June 4. Dr. Pedro Jose Greer Jr., founder and volunteer medical director of Camillus Health Concern, a Miami clinic that treats more than 10,000 homeless men, women and children each year, gave the opening keynote talk at the CHA assembly. The scheduled speaker, Dr. Paul Farmer of Harvard Medical School, was unable to get to Orlando from Haiti, where he had gone for the funeral of a close friend. Greer, a self-described storyteller who peppered his talk with jokes about his own Cuban-Irish heritage and other topics, turned serious as he addressed the assembly about the lessons he learned from his patients, including a homeless and hungry 6-year-old boy who, when given a sandwich at the clinic, took only two bites and stored the rest in his pocket to share with his brothers at home. Praising the "wisdom and humanity of a homeless child," Greer said, "I hope to God that one day all of us can become like that 6-year-old."

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