Hananiah Pierre-Louis is running Boston for BMC. Here’s why.
"I have a firsthand understanding of how BMC is aiming to make a healthier community by being both an employee and a patient."
In our “Why I’m Running” series, Boston Marathon runners share what’s inspiring them to make the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston on April 15, 2019.
Name: Hananiah Pierre-Louis
Age: 35
From: Randolph, Massachusetts
Bib #: 27493
My name is Hananiah John Pierre-Louis. I am a 35-year-old Randolph resident. I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to run my very first Boston Marathon with Team BMC for Boston Medical Center, a medical institution that is very dear to my heart.
I have a firsthand understanding of how BMC is aiming to make a healthier community by being both an employee and a patient. I was first introduced to BMC 20 years ago when I first immigrated to the beloved city of Boston from rural Haiti. BMC was the hospital a family friend advised my parents to take me to in order to get my immunizations so that I could register for high school. A few years later, I was rushed to another well-renowned local hospital after sustaining a minor concussion from a fall. I can vividly recall the ER nurse frustratingly wondering out loud why they brought me there and not to BMC upon learning that I was uninsured. Besides subjecting me to an avalanche of embarrassment, fear, and anxiety, her comment also impressed upon me a sense of curiosity about why BMC was the place she believed uninsured patients like me should have been brought for medical care.
Today, as a registered nurse who works in Primary Care at BMC, I have had the privilege to learn from the inside why BMC carries such a reputation as a home for the marginalized and downtrodden. It goes beyond a catchy, heart-warming slogan. It is a culture that is exercised on a daily basis through programs like affordable supportive housing projects, substance use programs, and the Food Pantry and Violence Intervention Advocacy Program. Those are only a few examples of initiatives that make BMC unique and earned it the reputation as a medical refuge for the marginalized and downtrodden.
Check out our entire “Why I’m Running” series.
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Editor’s note: Entry may have been lightly edited for clarity or grammar.
