As I translated this sentence in my head from Dr. Jose Gonzalez, the Director of Emergency at a public hospital in Santo Domingo, I immediately recognized the cliche. But coming from someone who had dedicated his life to public service and, currently managed an emergency room that lacked resources and funding, it seemed to ring true in the care he offered in his hospital. From an outside perspective the emergency room seemed crowded and hectic. The care provided seemed primitive and time consuming. There were patients, IVs, and tools everywhere. Patients were treated in chairs at the foot of another patient’s bed. But in his lecture to us, he stressed how much his doctors cared about their patients beyond the immediate injury. Unlike your doctors in the United States, Dr. Gonzales stressed, they take the time to ask about your diet, your family life, your environment, your worries, your fears, what creates harmony and truth and meaning in your life. Dr. Gonzales’s doctors seemed to recognize that these are the elements that lead to a healthy life. In that small dark classroom, Dr. Gonzales’s lesson seemed to ring true. He had to teach his doctors to love themselves in order for them to help others and he tried to pass that lesson to us. I think it’s what a vast majority of Americans struggle with. I know it’s what I struggle with.
Fast forward three days, we were working in the Batayes, one of the poorest communities I have ever stepped foot in. We were building latrines and cementing floors but in hindsight, that doesn’t seem as important as the connections we made with people who lived a different lifestyles than ourselves. I tried to take Dr. Gonzales lesson to heart.
