Gift For Eye Doctor
Sat, 01 May 2010 13:45:43 +0100
LA clinic begins giving free care to thousands
LOS ANGELES — They began arriving before dawn on a cold, misty morning, people of all ages lining up by the hundreds, some in wheelchairs, others hobbling on crutches, many of them missing teeth, all of them seeking the same thing: free medical care.
It was a scene that could have been playing out in a Third World country or perhaps some place like post-hurricane New Orleans, except that it wasn’t. It was unfolding in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, and the hundreds who showed up weren’t refugees of a disaster or a civil war, just mainly working people without health insurance.
One of them, Kenny Gillett hadn’t seen a doctor in two years, not since the 47-year-old welder lost his job and insurance when his employer went broke.
Adriana Valenzuela, a self-employed and uninsured cosmetologist, brought an 8-year-old son with a mouthful of cavities. Frank Carodine, a friendly white-haired man of 57, who rolled up in his wheelchair, said he had lost parts of both legs to diabetes, which was now ravaging his right eye. He needed glasses.
“I’ve got coverage for my diabetes, I go to a clinic, but it doesn’t cover eye exams,” he said.
Outside in the cold, several hundred more people, some balancing toddlers on their hips, waited patiently for their turn to enter the Los Angeles Sports Arena, an aging building that once played host to basketball’s NBA champion Lakers and that rocker Bruce Springsteen affectionately dubbed “the dump that jumps” during a concert last year.
On Tuesday it was jumping with the energy of hundreds of smiling volunteer doctors, dentists, acupuncturists, chiropractors and other professionals, all of them brought together by the Tennessee-based nonprofit group Remote Area Medical. This being opening day for the seven-day clinic, California first lady Maria Shriver and other officials also paid a visit, Shriver saying she was humbled by the scope of the volunteer effort.
RAM, which was founded in 1985 to bring medical care to remote regions of the world, is focusing more these days on urban centers like Los Angeles. It put on a similar clinic in nearby Inglewood last year and has others scheduled for Oklahoma City and Chicago this summer.
“What you’re seeing is a lot of Middle America here,” said RAM’s flamboyant founder, Stan Brock, the adventurer and former co-host of television’s “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.”
“Health care in this country is a privilege of the well-to-do and the well insured,” said Brock, gesturing toward a crowd of more than 100 average people waiting to have decaying and sometimes infected teeth pulled or filled.
Some would need follow-up care, so before letting them out of the building RAM volunteers were writing referrals to free clinics around the area.
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, 1,157 patients had registered for the first day of the clinic — 64 were children 18 and younger, organizers said.
More than 6,000 people were treated at last year’s clinic. Brock said he hoped to beat that number this year, although he added nervously that would hinge on getting enough medical volunteers into the arena. About 20 of 94 dental chairs sat empty Tuesday because there weren’t enough volunteer dentists to go around.
As he spoke the whirring sound of dozens of dental drills all going at once reverberated through the air. Off in a corner, where the stage for a rock concert might normally be placed, tables were lined with hundreds of sterilized dental tools.
In another corner of the arena floor, on more tables, sat hundreds of pairs of donated eyeglass frames.
“We cleaned out a warehouse that had last year’s models,” said Lou Kratzer, in charge of handing out prescription eyeglasses for RAM.
As Gillett waited for his, Christian Gaiters settled into a dentist’s chair to have one of two broken teeth pulled. There wasn’t time to do both.
“Then we’ll go with this one, this one’s giving me the most pain,” he told Dr. Lallana Mekmanee.
In minutes she had it out and sent the 48-year-old library clerk on his way.
“I didn’t even feel that, that was great. Thank you for your time,” he said as he shook her hand.
Moments like that, Mekmanee said, are what make seeing “one patient after another patient after another patient” worthwhile.
Then she turned to work on 8-year-old Alejandro Pitsakis.
Image : http://www.flickr.com
I have a cataract, no big deal you might say, but it was a large concern to me, and worried me greatly.
I live in the country and one of the things I enjoy is taking my dog for a walk in the early evening, the air is cool, the sky is washed with color and life is good, at least it used to be. Each day as I’d walk near a particular area and glance to my left, I noticed that there seemed to be a fog in front of me. No nothing out of a Stephen King novel, just a bit of cloudy vision. At first I tried cleaning my glasses, but that didn’t solve the problem; so I decided (after procrastinating for a bit) to go and see my eye doctor.
“June,” he said with a warm down home accent, “you’ve got a cataract girl.” I didn’t know whether to shout with joy or hang my head, see my grandfather had gone nearly blind from cataracts and I worried if the same would happen to me.
“Not to worry”, he smiled confidently, “cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries in America, we’ll have you in and out in a day.”
Okay, good enough and I was prepared to move forward with the (relatively) minor operation, I certainly did not want to lose my vision and those cool evening walks with my pup. Initially I was worried about being saddled with thick “coke bottle” glasses like my granddad had to wear, but I was told that those glasses were a thing of the past and that I should soon being seeing better than I had before.
What I learned from all of this (I’ve had the surgery by the way) is the importance of taking good care of your eyes and I thought it my duty to pass on what I’ve learned.
Years ago I had a friend who loved the sun, every day the sun shined; she was laying out getting a tan. When I saw her ten years later not only was she tired looking and wrinkled, she needed cataract surgery in both eyes. Thanks to modern medicine she was able to keep her sight but it made me realize how important it is to protect our eyes from the harmful ultra violent radiation of the sun. Most of know to wear sunscreen for our skin, but we should also wear a good pair of sunglasses that block the harmful rays of the sun. I am not for a moment suggesting you stay indoors (I don’t) but protect yourself, the sun is a life giving force, however it can also be deadly. Just use some good common sense.
With all the good information there is about becoming and remaining a non-smoker, there are still those who continue to “puff, puff” the day away. I’m not here to be your judge, rather to advise you that not only can smoking harm your lungs, it can also speed the development of cataracts and in some cases macular degeneration.
FACTOID: Macular degeneration is a condition where there is loss of vision in the center (the macula) of your vision.
If you are currently a smoker, seek ways to stop, there are multiple stop-smoking web sites easily found. If you don’t smoke then please, don’t start. It might look like just the thing to do, but believe me it’s not.
I enjoy a bit of wine with dinner, so I’m not one to preach against drinking, but all things in moderation. We’re not discussing alcoholism in this article, simply the fact that consuming alcohol can dehydrate your system resulting in “dry eye“. Certainly you can use eye drops, and many times I’ll squeeze a drop or two during the long hot summer days, however when your own body is in good physical health, no eye drops are necessary.
Eat healthy and with an eye to proper nutrition and your blood sugar will most probably remain in proper balance. However if your days are filled with coffee and fast food, (as mine sometimes are, I’m not perfect) your blood sugar may become elevated. When this happens with some people you might be flirting with diabetes, and diabetes can cause blindness. I’m not attempting to be over dramatic, just advising you to eat healthy and err on the side of caution, hey even McDonalds has a healthy menu nowadays.
I spoke of being over dramatic above, but the following is worthy of a trumpet blast and that is high blood pressure and cholesterol. I’m going to be honest and say, “Yes I can stand to lose a few pounds”, okay, there I said it, I’m no different than you and I’m concerned that being overweight can certainly lead to high blood pressure and that can accelerate a very serious eye problem called glaucoma.
FACTOID: Glaucoma, if left untreated, can lead to blindness. Different people will react to increased intraocular pressure in different ways, check with your doctor or health care professional to be certain.
I’m certainly not a doctor, simply someone who enjoys living life to the fullest, and I’m hope you do too. My suggestion (stated as a lay person) is to live healthy and if you’re having any health related problems, see your doctor or health care professional ASAP.
Right now, as I write this, I’m glancing at a photograph of my granddad. He’s smiling at me and I hope that somewhere in someway he knows that the journey he walked had an influence on my life. The gift of sight is priceless, take care of your eyes.
Recommend : smile health Accordant Health Services True Care Eye Clinic
