Handing off primary care patients at the end of a pediatric residency.

I met Diego (names in this article have been changed to protect patient privacy) for the first time in my primary care clinic at Boston Medical Center when he was 3 days old. When I entered the room, both he and his mother, Esmerelda, were crying. Esmerelda had fled an abusive relationship in the Dominican Republic and arrived in Boston alone, just in time to deliver her first son. She knew no one in the city. I was an intern at the time, just 1 month into my career as a doctor, and felt like crying too.