Crowd camps out for first day of free health clinic at Cal Expo
Published: Saturday, Apr. 2, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Melissa Jones, 43, wrapped herself in a blanket and slept on the sidewalk early Friday morning just to get a chance to feel her fingers once again.
A former legal assistant from Visalia disabled by nerve damage, Jones was one of 1,050 people who camped out or waited for hours to receive free medical, dental and vision care at a massive, four-day clinic at Cal Expo.
The event, by a medical volunteer corps led by a former Amazon bush pilot who hosted television's "Wild Kingdom" program, revealed the mass of people lacking health insurance and routine care.
It was the 639th free health clinic for Stan Brock, an outdoorsman-activist whose Tennessee-based Remote Area Medical Volunteers Corps has traversed the United States and the world since 1985.
More than 450 Northern California medical professionals and hundreds of other volunteers joined Brock in helping people receive minor dental surgery, eye care, glasses and medical checkups, often for long-neglected conditions.
Jones, who moved to Sacramento to care for a father injured in a car accident, frequently loses feeling in one hand and suffers shooting pains to her shoulders from job-related injuries and a failed wrist surgery.
She didn't mind waiting for a doctor and medication to soothe her symptoms and restore sensation to her hand. "This is wonderful," she said.
The California Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Tzu Chi Foundation invited Brock's group to Sacramento and served as hosts of the event.
They encountered people such as Sacramento resident Debba Brown, 53, a former construction worker disabled by a back injury and challenged by ovarian cancer and hepatitis.
Brown showed up at midnight, three hours before volunteers began issuing admission slips for the 5:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. clinic. Uninsured for 10 years, Brown was looking for a dentist, an eye doctor and a physician whom she could talk to about whether she needs a liver transplant.
She made her way into the vast scene of dental chairs, vision testing equipment and doctors' tents and gushed over what she saw.
"There are a lot of people, but there is no bickering," she said. "We're just thankful that this project has come to California to help us out."
Jennifer Smith, 20, an Oregon native who has been living in a camper with her fiancé while she looks for work, got a session with Red Bluff cardiologist Dr. Dean Scofield to see if he could diagnose searing pain on her side that makes her nauseous and dizzy. "I've been wanting to know what is wrong," she said.
Scofield, seeing patients with everything from "eye problems to foot problems," said the event shows "there are a lot of unmet needs.
"It is sort of sad in the United States that there is such a lapse in medical care that people have to sit out here for five or six hours" to be seen, he said.
Dressed in his safari-style RAM corps uniform, Brock said the volunteer staff members at his clinics often discover medical conditions such as diabetes or hypertension – "sometimes to the level where people have to go to the emergency room."
The Sacramento event was packed with people seeking dental or vision care, services for which they are least likely to have insurance, Brock said. By midday Friday, sponsors put out an urgent call for more volunteer eye doctors.
Many turning out for the Cal Expo clinic, which continues through Monday, lost jobs and health insurance in the recession. But Brock said people struggling without health care is a constant in good times and bad.
Naval veteran Ed Stofer, 42, of Sacramento cradled his crying daughter, Courtney, 3, after she had two teeth extracted so that her permanent teeth could grow in properly. A dentist had earlier recommended the procedure, but Stofer couldn't afford it.
Comforting the girl, he hailed the volunteers who helped her. "These guys are just wonderful, wonderful people," he said. "I've been thanking everybody I can."
IF YOU GOWhat: Remote Area Medical Free Clinic
Where: Cal Expo, Parking Lot D
When: Numbers will be issued to patients beginning at 3:30 a.m. daily, today through Monday. The parking lot opens at midnight.
How to volunteer: Register online at www.ramcaliforniavolunteers.org.
A former legal assistant from Visalia disabled by nerve damage, Jones was one of 1,050 people who camped out or waited for hours to receive free medical, dental and vision care at a massive, four-day clinic at Cal Expo.
The event, by a medical volunteer corps led by a former Amazon bush pilot who hosted television's "Wild Kingdom" program, revealed the mass of people lacking health insurance and routine care.
It was the 639th free health clinic for Stan Brock, an outdoorsman-activist whose Tennessee-based Remote Area Medical Volunteers Corps has traversed the United States and the world since 1985.
More than 450 Northern California medical professionals and hundreds of other volunteers joined Brock in helping people receive minor dental surgery, eye care, glasses and medical checkups, often for long-neglected conditions.
Jones, who moved to Sacramento to care for a father injured in a car accident, frequently loses feeling in one hand and suffers shooting pains to her shoulders from job-related injuries and a failed wrist surgery.
She didn't mind waiting for a doctor and medication to soothe her symptoms and restore sensation to her hand. "This is wonderful," she said.
The California Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Tzu Chi Foundation invited Brock's group to Sacramento and served as hosts of the event.
They encountered people such as Sacramento resident Debba Brown, 53, a former construction worker disabled by a back injury and challenged by ovarian cancer and hepatitis.
Brown showed up at midnight, three hours before volunteers began issuing admission slips for the 5:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. clinic. Uninsured for 10 years, Brown was looking for a dentist, an eye doctor and a physician whom she could talk to about whether she needs a liver transplant.
She made her way into the vast scene of dental chairs, vision testing equipment and doctors' tents and gushed over what she saw.
"There are a lot of people, but there is no bickering," she said. "We're just thankful that this project has come to California to help us out."
Jennifer Smith, 20, an Oregon native who has been living in a camper with her fiancé while she looks for work, got a session with Red Bluff cardiologist Dr. Dean Scofield to see if he could diagnose searing pain on her side that makes her nauseous and dizzy. "I've been wanting to know what is wrong," she said.
Scofield, seeing patients with everything from "eye problems to foot problems," said the event shows "there are a lot of unmet needs.
"It is sort of sad in the United States that there is such a lapse in medical care that people have to sit out here for five or six hours" to be seen, he said.
Dressed in his safari-style RAM corps uniform, Brock said the volunteer staff members at his clinics often discover medical conditions such as diabetes or hypertension – "sometimes to the level where people have to go to the emergency room."
The Sacramento event was packed with people seeking dental or vision care, services for which they are least likely to have insurance, Brock said. By midday Friday, sponsors put out an urgent call for more volunteer eye doctors.
Many turning out for the Cal Expo clinic, which continues through Monday, lost jobs and health insurance in the recession. But Brock said people struggling without health care is a constant in good times and bad.
Naval veteran Ed Stofer, 42, of Sacramento cradled his crying daughter, Courtney, 3, after she had two teeth extracted so that her permanent teeth could grow in properly. A dentist had earlier recommended the procedure, but Stofer couldn't afford it.
Comforting the girl, he hailed the volunteers who helped her. "These guys are just wonderful, wonderful people," he said. "I've been thanking everybody I can."
IF YOU GOWhat: Remote Area Medical Free Clinic
Where: Cal Expo, Parking Lot D
When: Numbers will be issued to patients beginning at 3:30 a.m. daily, today through Monday. The parking lot opens at midnight.
How to volunteer: Register online at www.ramcaliforniavolunteers.org.
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