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MIAMI - Dr. Pedro Jose Greer stands in a cool, dim operating room at Miami's Mercy Hospital, looking at a glowing image of a patient's digestive system on a flat-screen TV.
Greer is a gastroenterologist, and the patient lying on the treatment table has a potentially dangerous cauliflower-like growth on the lining of her colon. The patient's name is Nora Turcios, a 45-year-old woman with a family history of cancer.
"That's a polyp right there," Greer says, more to himself than any of the three nurses in the room. During the 15-minute-long colonoscopy, he snips off part of the mass for a cancer biopsy and then reviews Turcios' paperwork.
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Turcios, a housekeeper, doesn't have health insurance. Not important, shrugs Greer.
Greer, known to his patients as "Doctor Joe," tells them all: If they lose their insurance while under his care, that's OK — he'll continue to treat them, regardless of how much, or little, they can pay.
"When did it become acceptable in my profession," says the 53-year-old physician, "to say 'No' to somebody because they have no money?"
It's that attitude that led to Greer's recent honor: the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was given the award in August because he cares for the poor with dignity. In 1984, Greer founded the Camillus Health Concern, a Miami clinic providing medical care to more than 10,000 homeless and low-income patients annually. He also founded the St. John Bosco clinic, which treats low-income and immigrant patients in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. His latest effort is academic: Greer is now the assistant dean of academic affairs at Florida International University's new medical school, where he stresses the need for ethics in medicine.
As one would expect, Greer has strong thoughts on revamping the nation's health care system.
"Maybe," he says, "if we took care of everybody, we wouldn't need reform."
Last Edited by We Are Doomed on 10/12/2009 10:09 PM
United States
