On October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbor. The New Colossus, a poem by Emma Lazarus, was inscribed on a tablet in the pedestal in 1903. In its lines these words appear:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddling masses yearning to breathe free.”
I always think about Emma Lazarus’s poem on the Statue of Liberty when I think of Texas Health Resources Harris Methodist Hospital, which stands in Southwest Fort Worth, a manila brick palace with arms outstretched, proclaiming to all: “Come unto me all who are sick and suffering pain and I will give you aid and comfort.”
While working in my office on Friday, June 12, I began to feel uncomfortable. What’s wrong? Tired? Too much work? Flu? Listeria? I left the office and went home. I lay down on my bed. In two hours all hell broke loose. What to do? Wanda called our sons Don, Jr. and Blake. They came. Decision made: Call 911. In 15 minutes an ambulance appeared and three medics made a quick exam and I was on the way to the Emergency Room at Harris Southwest in accordance with their command: “Come unto me all who are sick.”
In my stupor I heard Wanda and Don, Jr. and Blake and nurses and doctors figuring it all out. After all the lab tests their diagnosis was gastroenteritis and I would not go home. I would remain in the hospital. And what treatment I was accorded! During the night I told the technicians, “You must think I am the President of the United States!”
When morning came the same professional attention was rendered by nurses and PCTs, all garbed in gowns, gloves and smiles. About noon a doctor appeared and gave me a thumbs up and I was on my way to the green, green grass of home.
And on Monday, June 15, back in my office, good as new! That was the weekend that was!
How blessed Fort Worth is to have Texas Health’s Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest calling out to all: “Come unto me all who are sick and suffering pain and I will give you aid and comfort.” Their mantra describes them well: “Healing hands. Caring hearts.”
Don Woodard
Fort Worth