Dr. Jim O’Connell could have had a prestigious fellowship in medicine. Instead, he chose to provide urgently needed health care to homeless people across the city of Boston. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tracy Kidder followed Dr. O’Connell for five years to chronicle his transformative work.
Senseless Death
In Boston, unhoused people die at roughly 10 times the rate of others. Sometimes they’re horribly murdered or die of overdoses, but more often they become severely ill from diseases that are otherwise rare in the modern world. On top of that, contemporary hospitals discharge patients very quickly, meaning that many people can’t get the care they need. One doctor can’t fix everything. But he can try.
