Patient Profiles
Isa B.
Isa B., a 29-year-old Bay Area native, suffered from mysterious and excruciating finger pain for over five years. She saw several doctors, but none could give her a correct diagnosis.
The pain eventually became so intense that it kept her from working, and she lost her job and health insurance.
Frustrated and desperate, she made an appointment at Samaritan House Free Clinic of San Mateo, where she requested they amputate her finger. “If I’d had the nerve, I would have chopped it off myself,” she sighed. “That finally got my point across to the clinic, and they referred me to Operation Access.”
Daniela M.
When Daniela M., 36, started feeling stomach pain, she didn’t know what was wrong or where to turn for help. She did not qualify for Medi-Cal or CMSP and could not afford her own health insurance.
“The pain was so bad, I was unable to work,” Daniela said. “Sometimes I had to spend all day in bed, making it very difficult to take care of my children.”
A friend told her about RotaCare, a free health clinic in San Rafael. From there, Site Administrator Blanche Donaldson referred her to Operation Access.
Al H.
Al H., a 47-year-old Native American resident of Oakland, California, was diagnosed with a severe hernia in 1990. Doctors told him he needed surgery, but Al is uninsured, and there was no way he could afford to pay for surgery out of pocket on the $650 her earns per month from the printing business he's had for 26 years.
Al couldn't get treatment, and as the years went on, he suffered greater pain as the hernia worsened. Doctors told Al to avoid heavy lifting, but “there is no way to avoid it in this business,” he says. “You have to pick up 55-pound cases of paper, throw them on your shoulder, load them on and off the print press and deliver to customers.”
