When the first patients arrived at Dr. Jeffrey Norris' clinic, they had no idea they were sick. The staff found them sitting in the waiting room, exhausted and queasy—skin a sickly yellow, lids drooping over jaundiced eyes.
They came in off the streets for walk-in appointments, battling nausea in the downtown San Diego clinic, at a time when they'd normally be waiting in line for a shelter bed. Many had been treated here before for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or alcoholism. Today, they rattle off a list of complaints: fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea. Normally these symptoms would not cause concern in the clinic, which serves the nation's fourth largest homeless community, but those eyes—the whites yellowing like old wallpaper—were definitely alarming.
Norris says his staff noticed the symptoms immediately and came to him, saying, "Something's off here."
[For more on this story by EMILY MOON, go to https://psmag.com/social-justi...break-housing-crisis]
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