- It is the most rewarding thing you can do in life.
That exchange that we have with our friends out here,
there's a moment of relief when somebody gets
their skin washed.
When they get a bandage, when they get wrapped,
that's the moment that is indescribable.
Morning my friend.
We've got Gatorade, snacks, sandwiches.
And if you wanna wash your hands,
we can help her wash, oh yeah, let's wash some hands.
Anything you wanna look up, hi you,
lemme see, number the wraps that I did?
Did you see me do that I'm blind on that.
We're gonna soak it for 10 minutes.
We can all agree that wounds need to heal.
You can do this.
You can start your own wound walk.
And that's what we hope you do.
(soft music)
My name is Michael Sean Wright,
and we founded a Wound Walk OC.
We for several years have gone with a medic bag
and cleaned wounds for you and I,
if we get a nick or a scrape, we get to wash that.
But if you live outside and that's where you call home,
that nick and scrape will turn into something
that no one should have to go through.
Imagine if you didn't have flowing water on your skin for
a couple of months, we say that these are the types
of wounds that are like civil war injuries.
We've got snack, Gatorade, let's see.
Good.
I'm gonna wrap this for five minutes.
Like we did last time.
This is that far side of the park.
When you live outside, there's that sense of at any moment,
you're gonna be asked to move.
So people find different places to hang out.
This is their new spot.
- This is different, I guess, we're all coming down
and going down to the Santiago Park
and seeing everybody's different situations
and their life stories and different
states of being, every person has his or her own experience.
- I think it's looks better.
We're gonna give you a to-go-pass.
I'm gonna put this in here, plus this.
During this pandemic, there was nobody out in the streets
from different organizations, helping these folks.
A group of neighbors and friends decided
we're gonna scale up at this time,
we increased our capabilities.
Our goal here is to identify, triage, stabilize,
and get people into a clinic environment.
Most of the people who live out here,
the emergency room is their primary doctor,
that doesn't work.
What the ER doc can do stabilize and then release out
to the street where it's gonna get worse
and worse and worse.
We wanna make sure that we have a primary care physician
that can look at it over time.
What we're able to do is take pictures of the wound.
Hopefully knock down that infection get them to clinic
and monitor their recovery.
Starting to hurt?
If the swelling goes above your elbow.
- Go the hospital.
So we don't wanna see the swelling above your elbow.
- In California, about three years homeless for about seven
or around there.
- What happened?
- I have a phobia walls.
I was raised in a really abusive situation.
I spent about 15 years in a closet.
Last time he saw me my leg was about three or four times
the size of my other leg, I thought it was an abscess,
but I was like, I'm confused as to how I got abcess
there and he assessed it and come to find out
it was a venomous spider bite.
He's been a lifesaver honestly.
He fixed my leg and then he actually recommended me to go
to a clinic that he knows on 10th & Broadway.
- Alright, Nick, you've taken care.
I'm gonna see you, I'll be back here Saturday, too.
You're welcome, sir.
We were very concerned that the folks that we see on
a regular basis would be even more vulnerable
during this time.
They didn't have access to masks so then we gave them
some masks, would love to tell them to wash their hands
all the time, because that's the number one thing
that we could do to stop the spread of the virus,
but there was no access to the ability to wash their hands.
Because folks who live outside rely on places like
Jack in the Box or Denny's or the public library,
to be able to wash their hands.
All the businesses were closed.
Now, what do you do?
So we created hand washing stations and an opportunity
to bring sanitation to them.
Where we ask questions, like,
have you lost the sense of smell, taste?
We ask them if they're feeling hot and tell them
that immediately call 911, if they're starting
to have that symptom.
This is what we have to do as a community.
If you're walking down the street and you see something
on the ground, you should pick that up.
If you're walking along and you see a human down,
you should stop.
You should tend, every single one of us is connected.
You can help today, you can pack a survival pack,
you can visit your local shelter.
You can find the organizations within your communities
and donate some time.
We all have something that we can do,
and that we're good at.
This problem, isn't going away unless we step up
and we do something.
It's not up to somebody else, it's up to us.
(soft music)