photo by Deana Smith
At around 10 years old, Brian Bauman rode alongside his mom to deliver food to homebound people on her Mobile Meals route. They often drove into neighborhoods he had never entered, venturing inside homes to talk and help people unpackage their food. The experience sparked a lifetime of service.
“I got to see what other people’s lives are,” says Bauman, now a pulmonary critical care physician and the medical director of the pulmonary service line at Summa Health.
Bauman took over his mom’s route in high school — with the help of friends. Before leaving for medical school, he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and was stationed as an emergency services coordinator with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Yakima, Washington. There, he helped people deal with evictions, power shutoffs, medical bills and more. With volunteers only getting paid $80 a month, Bauman was touched by the generosity of neighbors who invited him in for meals.
“It really gave me this opportunity to see all the challenges people face on a day-to-day basis,” Bauman says. “Then, becoming a physician, it was much more easy for me to see how many other things go into people’s lives and their health — how hard it might be to pay for medications or be healthy if you can’t afford food.”
Now, he volunteers at the free clinic at Open M, an Akron nonprofit offering primary and specialty care, dental work, lab work and more to uninsured community members. “Most physicians get into medicine to help people,” he says. “Working at Open M is the purest way of doing that.”
Bauman offers internal medicinal care, such as the management of chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. As a pulmonary doctor, he also helps patients manage breathing issues like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Bauman recalls one patient who was coughing up blood and losing weight. He performed a physical exam to confirm the symptoms pointed toward lung cancer, then referred the patient to Summa (which admits uninsured patients) for a CT scan, biopsy and radiation therapy.
“Patients were so thankful,” he says. “They know you’re there out of the goodness of your heart.”
He is vocal about his service, prompting others to join him. A retired colleague followed Bauman in volunteering at Open M, and Bauman’s son runs the community service department at his high school, St. Ignatius.
“Whenever I get to tell people about places like Open M, I’m passionate about it,” Bauman says. “Volunteering gives us the opportunity to see what’s really happening in the world.”
