On a black, rainy night, a honking horn and someone yelling, “Baby! Baby!” prompted Dr. Anne Brooks to open the door at the home she shares with four fellow Roman Catholic nuns in Tutwiler, Miss. A woman, pregnant with twins and obviously in the throes of labor, pleaded for help. Brooks sprang into action, directing her housemates to assist her as she safely delivered the first baby. The second baby was born in the ambulance that arrived moments later.

House calls and 12-hour days at Tutwiler Clinic have been part of Sister Anne Brooks’ routine for more than 30 years. At 74, Sister Anne’s only concession to her demanding schedule is a brief nap during her lunch break. Caring for 8,500 patients a year that live in the impoverished Mississippi Delta region might seem like sufficient challenge for a small town’s only physician. But Sister Anne is also responsible for keeping the doors open. Seventy-four percent of her patients live in poverty, and have no insurance or money to pay medical bills. Private donations account for more than 75 percent of the clinic’s current operating funds.

In addition to Sister Anne, the Roman Catholic nuns serving Tutwiler include a nurse practitioner, a registered nurse and a licensed counselor who all work in the clinic, and a community outreach worker who heads Habitat for Humanity (with 37 homes built and five currently underway).

“We have found another family here,” Sister Anne says. “We’ve been here a long time. We’re all gray-haired now and this community is home.”

After having worked as a teacher first and then returning to osteopathic medical school to become a physician, Sister Anne decided to settle in the Mississippi Delta region because it had some of the nation’s highest poverty rates. She sent query letters to several town councils. Tutwiler, with no doctor and a boarded-up medical clinic, responded first. Although council members later admitted they were extremely skeptical, they agreed to fix up the clinic.

 

Read the rest of the article here: https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/rural-monitor/nuns-help-desperately-poor/

Article written by Candi Helseth.

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