MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the Hidden Brain podcast. "My Unsung Hero" tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. Today's story comes from Mark Metersky. In 1985, Metersky was a medical student doing rotations at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. One of his patients was a young man who struggled with heroin addiction. He'd been in the hospital for a lengthy stay to treat a heart problem, and Metersky found him difficult to work with.
MARK METERSKY: He was manipulative. He would bargain. He was the bane of my existence. In the same room was a very unfortunate young man dying of AIDS-related lymphoma. He had exhausted all treatment options, and the only thing we could do for him was to treat his pain. Unfortunately, 40 years ago, we were much less skilled at treating pain, for a variety of reasons, and in this patient we were not doing a great job. I was called one night at about 3 a.m to see him, trying to improve his pain control - likely by giving him more pain medications.
When I got to the room, the lymphoma patient looked horrible. He was delirious, barely conscious, clearly in pain, sweating diffusely with his hair plastered to his forehead. However, his head was in the heroin addict's lap, who was rubbing his back and wiping his forehead with a warm towel. The heroin addict was providing the support and compassion and comfort that we were not doing a good job of providing.
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METERSKY: This had a profound impact on me in two ways. The obvious one is to always be cognizant of patients' suffering. But it also told me that there are very few patients, or people in general, who are all good or all bad. You'll find generosity and compassion in some unlikely circumstances. And these are both lessons that I've tried to carry to the present day.
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KELLY: Mark Metersky lives in Avon, Connecticut. And you can find more stories of unsung heroes at hiddenbrain.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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