A tidal wave of suffering and human need has been on display this week at a free healthcare clinic inside a Los Angeles-area sports
arena. Just as the New Orleans Superdome, packed with refugees from Hurricane Katrina, shocked the world in 2005, the scene in Inglewood, California gives a glimpse of the social crisis devastating America. And it could be multiplied, a thousand times over, in every city, suburb and rural district of the United States, as deepening unemployment and spreading homelessness exacerbate what was already a vast unmet need for healthcare services. Thousands of uninsured workers and their families have flocked to the Forum at Inglewood since Tuesday, seeking free medical and dental care from a group of volunteer doctors, dentists and nurses. The Forum, formerly the suburban home of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, became for a week the site of the largest free medical clinic in American history. The organizers of the event, the Remote Area Medical Foundation, a Tennessee-based charity that relies on contributions of money and medical supplies and volunteer medical personnel, said that more than 8,000 people would receive help at the Forum before the event was finished. In the first three days alone, 706 teeth were extracted, 1,640 fillings put in, 141 mammograms administered and 550 sets of eyeglasses prepared. There were hundreds of pap smears and tuberculosis tests. Some patients were put directly into waiting ambulances and taken to local emergency rooms. Many of the patients waited for hours or slept overnight in their cars to make sure they did not lose their place in line. The demand has overwhelmed the supply of volunteers, with foundation leader Stan Brock saying the clinic had work for 100 dentists and 20 eye doctors, more than three times the number who were mobilized. Remote Area Medical has focused on impoverished third-world countries for more than 20 years, beginning with clinics in the Amazon jungle of Brazil. But in recent years it has begun to work inside the United States, including in New Orleans after Katrina, and earlier this year in the Appalachian foothills of Virginia, where volunteer dentists performed more than 4,300 tooth extractions in two days. The Los Angeles event was made possible by a group of film and record producers who learned of the charity’s activities from a “60 Minutes†profile and contacted Brock. The Forum, now owned by a local church, was chosen as a centrally located site, close to the densely populated south side Los Angeles. One volunteer dentist who spoke to the local media said that conditions in Los Angeles were worse than in Brazil, where he has done equivalent charity work. “They have a nice system of public hospitals and clinics,†he said, referring to Brazil. A volunteer doctor, when asked about the difference between Third World conditions and those in Los Angeles, responded, “Here the people speak English.â€
According to local press accounts, among those seeking help at the clinic were: