The Haitan

We have a patient that has a very sad story. He was born into a wealthy family in Haiti during time of major political strife. When he was 18 years old, his father, who was still very wealthy at the time, had him board a plane to New York City. From that point on, he was on his own --the Haitian government prevented the rest of his family from leaving Haiti and froze their bank accounts.

He worked as a taxi driver in New York City for many years before coming to San Francisco. Today, he is a patient of ours struggling with HIV disease, crack addiction, poverty, and extreme loneliness.

He always comes into the clinic in a jacket and tie, a reminder of past prosperity. His loneliness is his most pervasive quality. He often comes in just to speak with me or the nurse (occasionally he will have a medical complaint). He speaks about Haiti all the time, and usually has some kind of stereo playing Haitian music. As far as I know, he has little or no contact with his family to date.

You can learn a lot from his story, about the cause of poverty and illness, and about the broad, even global, impact of political and social injustice.