The People in the Statistics

page detail from On Hallowed Ground: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 2018, photo by jch.

Fundraising dinner for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, fifth of five narratives.

Here are statistics from a recent year at St. Jude Hospital[1]:

· 3,395 hospital admissions

· 308,386 outpatient encounters

· 420 research protocols open to enrollment

· 5,875 patients on prospective trials

· 302 postdoctoral fellows

· 205 clinical residents and fellows

· 83 graduate research scholars

· 778 peer-reviewed original research publications.

Statistics are important measures, but never tell the whole story.  Just a brief reflection on the statistics reminds me that every day, on average, nine children are admitted to St. Jude, some for the first time. Tonight, like nearly every night, these patients and families are facing surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, coping with confusion, anxiety, and grief, and served by medical staff for whom this work is familiar and regular, but never routine.

As tonight we hold in our hearts these children, families, and hospital staff, join me in an attitude of prayer as we listen to words of evening prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Worship ….

We give you thanks, O God, for revealing your Son Jesus Christ to us by the light of his resurrection: Grant that as we sing your glory at the close of this day, our joy may abound in the morning ….

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.

NOTE

[1] Statistics from 2017 Annual Scientific Report, per Walter T. Hughes, Jr., M.D., On Hallowed Ground: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 2018, p. 109.

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