六歲小孩給醫生上的一課

Dr. Joe Greer: I had just started my 1)internship， and I was in the 2)ICU and there was a man dying of 3)tuberculosis. He had a little 4)wristband that had his name， and it said “no address.” And I knew that this man had， at the very least， parents， maybe siblings， a spouse. And we went out to try and find his family. And what I saw was a little window into this world of poverty that existed in my backyard， that I didn’t even know was there.

And then we went out under the bridges， started seeing patients on Tuesday nights.

Mrs. Greer: Well， I remember when you first came home telling me about the homeless， I was shocked because we live in a suburb. And unless you came downtown， you didn’t see it.

Dr. Greer: Not at all.

Ms. Greer: It wasn’t a reality.

Dr. Greer: A physician’s supposed to take care of everybody. That’s what medicine is. You’ve got to love people. You have to realize that no matter how many hours you work in the hospital， you get to go home at night. Somebody there doesn’t—and that’s what medicine is.

One day， I…I went to the clinic. And it was lunchtime and it was a mother， and she had three of her kids from the 5)Salvation Army. And her youngest son about， I guess， six years old， had a sweet smile. And I handed him my sandwich， and the kid took the sandwich out of the bag， unwrapped it， broke it in half， took a couple of bites， and he stuck it back in the wrapper. And I couldn’t figure out why the kid was doing that.

And I asked the kid， “Why’d you do that?” And this little boy just looked up at me and said， “It’s for my brother.” And that was probably one of the most important lessons I ever learned—that a 6-year-old homeless child is teaching us what we’re all supposed to do: Think about somebody else.

喬伊·格里爾醫生：那時我剛開始實習，在重癥監護科，那里接收了一個因患肺結核而奄奄一息的病人。他手上戴著一個小手環，上面寫著他的名字，卻寫著“住址不詳”。我知道這名男子最起碼有父母，或者兄弟姐妹，又或是配偶。于是，我們都走出去嘗試尋找他的家人。然后，我看到的是一個通向貧困世界的小小窗口，這個世界僅離我咫尺之遙，而在那之前我卻一直沒有察覺到。

自此之后，我們就出去尋訪天橋底，開始在周二晚上探訪病人。

格里爾太太：嗯，我記得你初次回家跟我說起那些無家可歸的人時，我感到很震驚，因為我們住在市郊。要不是到城里去，你是看不到這種情況的。

格里爾醫生：根本看不到。

格里爾太太：那就像不是真的。

格里爾醫生：醫生應該照顧每一個人。那就是醫學的意義。你得愛所有人。你得明白無論你在醫院工作多少個小時，你晚上都可以回家。但那里有些人不能——那就是醫學的意義。

有一天，我到診所里去。當時是午飯時間，來了一位母親，她的其中三個孩子都來自救世軍。她最小的兒子，我想大概是六歲大吧，笑得很甜。我把我的三明治遞給他。這孩子從袋子里把三明治取出來，打開，掰成兩半，咬了幾口，然后用包裝紙重新包好。我搞不懂他為什么要這么做。

我就問這小孩：“你為什么那樣做呢？”這小男孩只是抬起頭看著我說：“那是給我哥哥的。”那可能就是我人生中學到的最重要的其中一課——一個無家可歸的六歲小孩教會我們所有人都應該做的事：為他人著想。……