Free surgeries give more than health back to recipients
It is a terrible thing, not having control of your life.
To be unable to work. Unable to do what's best for you. Unable even to lift your toddler and hug him tightly to your chest.
Time simply passes like this. Life happens to you, not the other way around.
Jeffery Silverman knows this. Mariana Flores knows, too.
They were among eight people without health insurance who received free surgery on Tuesday, compliments of a group of people they hardly knew.
"I expect to have my life back," Silverman said moments before he went under the knife. "I expect to be in a lot less pain."
Dr. Kevin Petersen, who performed Silverman's hernia surgery and founded the charity Helping Hands Surgical Care, said the condition can be fatal if it's not treated. It's also a terrible thing to have to suffer through when it's not that hard to fix.
"The pain can be completely debilitating," he said. "Keeping patients from working."
Petersen said the surgery costs about $5,000.
A little more than a year ago, he decided too many people suffering from hernias and other medical conditions were unable to do anything about it. Most were uninsured. They weren't poor enough to qualify for social services but not well-off enough to pay for it out of pocket.
Who has $5,000 lying around, anyway?
He decided to volunteer his time and expertise, got some other doctors to join him and recruited a surgical center and donors.
Ronald Lawrence, a board member of the charity, is also the executive director of the Community Counseling Center.
He said the Helping Hands effort often goes hand-in-hand with other problems. It is difficult to help someone fix one aspect of their life when another is so messed up.
And so the charity was founded. It pays for what does not get donated through financial contributions. But much of the cost is absorbed through donated time and facilities.
Before the eight the doctors did at Valley View Surgery Center on Tuesday, they had performed about 30 free surgeries.
Silverman said it was a godsend.
He had first suffered the hernia about a decade ago, he said. It was painful, but not debilitating. He kept working as a blackjack dealer, but in 2009, everything changed.
All of a sudden, it began to hurt so bad he couldn't do anything at all. He had to stop working.
"I got home one day, and it all of a sudden got worse," he said. "I got home, and I knew I was in trouble."
He was able to get surgery at University Medical Center through social services, but he said it only made things worse.
"I woke up in so much pain I panicked," he said. "I thought something had gone wrong."
He said he couldn't persuade UMC to fix things, so he was stuck. He started a support group on Facebook for people who had similar surgeries, and that helped. But it didn't fix his problem.
"I'm in more pain now than I was before I had the surgery," he said.
Through Google, he found Petersen. One thing led to another, and he wound up on the list of people offered free surgery.
As soon as he recovers, he said he will go looking for work again. He is eager to get back to living his life.
Flores, 26, has a similar story.
She said she works at a Subway sandwich shop.
She thinks she got her hernia before her youngest child, Joshua, 2, was born.
But soon after his birth, it got worse. Much worse. Doctors kept telling her she was fine, she said, until finally one diagnosed her correctly.
The problem was, she and her husband both work and make too much to qualify for social services, though they're uninsured.
She got lucky and found Helping Hands on a television news program. She called and went through the application process.
Now, when Joshua lifts his arms to her because he wants to be held, she can do it.
She will not have to hesitate. She won't have to feel guilty if she turns him down, nor suffer pain if she does what she's supposed to do.
She can be a mom.
All because a group of strangers offered to help.
Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.
