Washing Jackson's Feet

Washing Jackson’s Feet

Date: Tue Jan 17 11:05:36 2006

Subject: Jackson Jean-Baptiste

Dear Bishop Jenky, Sister Judith Ann, Joe, Gerry, Keith, Paul, and Doug Marshall,

As you may know, Jean-Baptiste is a patient at Cleveland Clinic. I never received a meaningful response from any of you regarding helping Jean-Baptiste when I mailed you repeatedly asking for your help since the spring of 2005. Many people from Peoria have driven the 8 hours to Cleveland to visit Jean-Baptiste. They are very sad to see him in the condition he is in and feel bad that OSF would not accept him or even answer their e mails regarding Jean-Baptiste.

A couple of days ago my niece and I watched a nurse’s aide wash Jean-Baptiste’s feet. He sat in a chair at bedside as she carefully and gently washed his feet and toes and put cream on them. Most of his life he didn’t even have shoes. She commented how nice his feet were. She doesn’t wash many 21 year old’s feet because she cares for Americans who are much older with this degree of heart failure due to valve dysfunction.

Jean-Baptiste’s illiterate mother who lives in a cinder block house without water or electricity on a mountain side over looking Port-au-Prince, has lost 3 males in her family including her husband and is about ready to lose the fourth. We have no way to contact her about her son’s status.

A physician from Doctors Without Borders recently wrote that silence breeds injustice. I would respectfully advise all of you to travel to Cleveland with one of the former host families when they visit Jean-Baptiste and explain to them and to Jean-Baptiste your motivation for your silence and abandonment of him. Wash his feet, like the nurse’s aide did, and tell him you are sorry.

Sincerely,

John Carroll


Correction--Doug Marshall, OSF attorney, did email me in the Spring of 2005 stating that OSF would not take any patient referred by me, so I guess this was a "meaningful response".