Jim witnesses a motorcycle crash at the Isle of Man and stays with the injured man, deciding to become a doctor.

Jim begins his medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital after attending Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Tom Durant meets with Jim and the chief of medicine to recruit him into the Health Care for the Homeless Program.

Jim arrives at the Pine Street Inn shelter clinic carrying only his stethoscope, uncertain what awaits him.

Barbara McInnis tells Jim to set aside his stethoscope and spend time soaking patients' feet in betadine.

Jim writes to defer his Sloan-Kettering position and ultimately declines it, choosing to remain with the Health Care for the Homeless Program.

The Health Care for the Homeless Program launches its first outreach van to reach unhoused patients who never appear in clinics or shelters.

The program establishes a small respite facility where unhoused patients can recover from illness with consistent food, shelter, and care.

Barbara McInnis dies from surgical complications following an accident, and the new program headquarters is later named in her honor.

Jim meets Tony Columbo at the Street Clinic and pays $120 out of pocket for Tony's Suboxone prescription.

Tony becomes a fixture at McInnis House, keeping Jim informed about patients and helping regulate the community on the street.

Jim is brought before the hospital board for unprofessional gift-giving after Tony reports him to shield Jim from patient demands.

Jim and Kidder accompany Tony through Boston's court system as Tony attempts to resolve outstanding sex offender registration warrants.

At Mousey Park, Tony confesses to Jim that he was sexually abused by a priest named Father Alan E. Caparella.

Tony dies from a drug overdose outside Seven-Eighty, and the community leaves a small memorial for him at Mousey Park.

This pool traces Dr. Jim O'Connell's path from witnessing a motorcycle crash to becoming a lifelong physician for Boston's unhoused population. It covers his recruitment into the Health Care for the Homeless Program, his foundational training under Barbara McInnis, and the program's most significant milestones. Jim's commitment deepens as he declines a prestigious oncology career and devotes himself entirely to street medicine. Tony Columbo emerges as a central figure, becoming both a patient and an informal partner in Jim's work at McInnis House. Their relationship is tested and deepened by legal battles, personal revelations, and Tony's eventual confession of childhood abuse. The pool spans the full arc from Jim's calling to the program's ongoing legacy after Tony's death.

The headline story of Jim O'Connell's mission and Tony Columbo's journey.

Jim grows up in an Irish working-class Newport family; his father stocks shelves at a liquor store and his mother is hospitalized for mental illness.

Jim applies to the University of Vermont and is denied before eventually being accepted to Harvard Medical School.

Jim and two friends celebrate matching to Massachusetts General with drinks, encountering a man in a leprechaun costume who warns them against residency.

Jim soaks patients' feet for over a month before a patient named Mr. Carr begins trusting him and accepting his medical advice.

The Street Team holds twice-weekly meetings; psychiatrist Dr. Bonnar reveals 90% of patients have substance abuse or mental illness and 75% endured severe childhood trauma.

A veteran named Gary leaves the hospital against medical advice; his infected wound later becomes so severe his leg must be amputated.

A dying man named Santo is found outside Pine Street Inn pouring vodka through his esophageal feeding tube to be among his shelter friends.

After the initial grant funding runs out, the program shifts to Medicaid and must learn complex new administrative requirements to survive.

Jim and Kidder ride the Monday night outreach van and encounter a woman claiming she has lice who declines a ride to a shelter.

Police forcibly evict elderly and unhoused residents from South Station the moment temperatures rise just above freezing.

The Street Team holds its annual memorial at Mousey Park for patients who died during the year; Tony attempts to hide alcohol from Jim.

John Cotrone, helped into housing by the Street Team, meets Jim for coffee each Friday morning at Finagle a Bagel.

A regular patient named BJ has his second leg amputated at Mass General due to an incurable infection, and Jim visits him afterward.

Formerly unhoused board member Joanne Guarino gives her annual speech at Harvard Medical School, urging incoming doctors to listen and show compassion.

At a gala, Jim presents Beckie's story — a patient housed for over nine years now being evicted as her building converts to condominiums.

This pool reveals the personal histories, secondary characters, and institutional challenges that shape the Health Care for the Homeless Program. Jim's working-class upbringing and his early struggle to earn the trust of the Pine Street Inn nurses form a foundation for understanding his character and methods. Individual patient stories — including Gary's amputation, Santo's final days, and Beckie's eviction — illustrate how systemic failures play out in real lives. The pool also traces the program's administrative evolution, from grassroots nursing to the complex demands of Medicaid funding. Supporting figures like John Cotrone, BJ, and Joanne Guarino each represent a distinct dimension of what recovery and community can look like. Together, these events reveal the human texture behind the program's headline mission.

The people and struggles behind the program's everyday reality.

Barbara McInnis gives Jim a page from Emmanuel's Book, telling him his job is simply to give love and not to fix everything.

The Health Care for the Homeless Program charter is written, forbidding mental health services, research, and most volunteers to protect patients from exploitation.

A man presenting with AIDS symptoms at Boston City Hospital is dismissed as malingering by a neurologist and dies in a car outside.

The AIDS crisis fills the program's respite with dying patients as fear and misinformation about transmission spread rapidly through the shelter community.

Jim privately reflects on Camus's Myth of Sisyphus as a metaphor for the program's Sisyphean work while colleagues unwind together at Doyle's bar.

The Street Team begins prescribing housing vouchers to long-term patients; over ten years, only 12% of surviving participants remain housed.

Jim and Kidder walk to Seven-Eighty and observe the narcotics epidemic firsthand, with used needles littering the ground and overdoses occurring openly.

Tony begins telling people that Jim is his great-uncle, revealing how deeply he has come to depend on their relationship for purpose.

Jim reflects that Tony stands apart from all other patients, including two brilliant former professors named Harrison and David driven to houselessness by mental illness.

Tony takes Jim and Kidder on a tour through Boston's trains and tunnels, showing how he survives and sharing the city's history.

Tony's outstanding warrants for failing to register as a sex offender are dismissed, but he learns he must register for the rest of his life.

Tony's health deteriorates sharply, his hospital stays grow more frequent, and his paranoia intensifies during stays at McInnis House.

Jim falls ill and requires a pacemaker implant; his patients and colleagues come to visit him in the hospital.

During COVID-19, the Street Team continues outreach on the streets while Jim, in a vulnerable health condition, attends team meetings via Zoom.

Kidder tours Jim's portrait gallery; a patient named Gretel explains she wants a portrait so her estranged children can one day find her.

This pool focuses on the pivotal moments of revelation and transformation that shape Jim, the program, and its patients. Barbara McInnis's early mentorship reframes medicine as an act of love, while the AIDS crisis forces the team to confront the limits of what they can do. Jim's private reflection on the Myth of Sisyphus captures the emotional cost and sustaining philosophy behind decades of work. Tony's relationship with Jim deepens through shared history and difficult truths, culminating in Tony's confession of abuse and his eventual decline. The pool tracks how systemic failures accumulate — in housing policy, the courts, and the opioid epidemic — to shape lives and outcomes. It ends with Jim's portrait gallery, a quiet testament to the humanity the program has worked to preserve.

The decisions, discoveries, and emotional turning points that define the mission.