From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

My story is about a group of unsung heroes.

He just pulled up a chair, and we talked, I'd say for about 90 minutes or so.

I don't know if she really understands or appreciates the full impact that she's had in my

life and still continues to have.

Today's story comes from Mark Materski.

In 1985, Mark was a medical student doing rotations at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

One of his patients was a young man who struggled with a heroin addiction. He had been in the hospital for a lengthy

stay to treat a heart problem, and Mark found him difficult to care for. 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.

...