July 1, 2009 City morgue transformed into hospital for the homeless Play video

(NECN: Latoyia Edwards, Boston, Mass.) - Diabetes, HIV and the common flu are exacerbated in the homeless population because of their lack of access to medical care.

NECN's Latoyia Edwards goes inside Jean Yawkey Place, once the old Boston City Morgue, that has been now transformed into a medical safe haven for the homeless.

Lee Wing, a homeless man for 15 years offers a token of appreciation to Doctor Jim O’Connell. Doctor Jim has followed Lee through his continuous seizures and many visits to Boston hospital emergency rooms.

Until recently, emergency rooms were the only treatment option for the homeless, their hospital stays were extended because they had no other place to recover, sometimes creating a shortage of beds.

Twenty years ago Jim, a Harvard trained physician- traded in his dream of becoming an oncologist to lead the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program. In 2008, he and his dedicated staff created Jean Yawkey Place.. A state of the art building for homeless medical services--including an expansive dental office, the BMC Clinic, and Barbara McGinnis House where the homeless can recover from hospital procedures.

The Jean Yawkey Place building is enshrined in medical history. From 1933 to 1972 it was the world-renowned Mallory Pathology center where the best doctors trained. After that the building became the Boston City morgue.

The morgue's Egyptian theme architecture still remains--but after an elaborate blessing

The Jean Yawkey Place transformation from morgue to medical masterpiece did not come cheap; 40 million dollars of hard nose fundraising, the first million-dollar donor was Jack Welch.

Doctor Jim O’Connell is not done yet--he plans to build housing for the homeless in an old medical treatment space in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.