Free medical care this weekend! Wise County VA

Total Patient Visits: 7917

Percentage of Children: 3.5%

Total Value of Care: $1,260,037.00

Total Volunteers: 1205

General Medical: 5379
-- Mammograms: 157

Dental: 1411

Vision: 970
--Glasses: 766
Here is some history of RAM:

The vision for Remote Area Medical-« developed in the Amazon rain forest where founder Stan Brock spent 15 years with the Wapishana Indians. He lived with the pain and suffering created by isolation from medical care. He witnessed the near devastation of whole tribes by what would have been simple or minor illnesses to more advanced cultures. When he left South America to co-star in the television series, "Wild Kingdom, " he vowed to find a way to deliver basic medical aid to people in the world's inaccessible regions.  
The organization was founded in 1985 and years of research and planning yielded a vast, carefully developed network of men and women who have come together to make RAM a highly mobile, remarkably efficient relief force. Volunteers are doctors, nurses, technicians, and veterinarians who go on expeditions at their own expense and treat hundreds of patients a day under some of the worst conditions.

Volunteers have provided general medical, surgical, eye, dental, and veterinary care to tens of thousands of people and animals, with 60% of the expeditions serving rural America. There are plans for expansion of US expeditions, an airborne medical treatment center, a permanent clinic site in Guyana, and a program start-up in Africa.

And...there are dreams. Dreams for a comprehensive center of operations.Dreams for learning the medicinal secrets of the rain  
forest while teaching a continent how -- and why -- to save it. Dreams for a flying hospital. Dreams of a world where people help each other just because they can.  
On March 3 2004, the Senate at the state capitol in Nashville Tennessee passed a resolution honoring Remote Area Medical-« for "Compassion and Dedication to providing medical care." Founder Stan Brock recieved the award from  Governor Phil Bredesen.

I just wrote a diary about health care in this country that received over 700 recs:  America you have been had:  The BBC shames us again!  There is no need to go over what I said there.  There are also fine comments about our health care system from 474 people.

It is great to be a Lion and to serve people who need help!  However I also am deeply pained when I see these beautiful people who our country has let fall through the cracks. For some, this is the only health care they will get all year!  Many get all their teeth pulled out for that reason.  They know there would be no possible follow up for normal dental care.  Here is the mission of RAM:

Mission
The Remote Area Medical-« (RAM) Volunteer Corps is a non-profit, volunteer, airborne relief corps dedicated to serving mankind by providing free health care, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world.  
Founded in 1985, Remote Area Medical-« is a publicly supported all-volunteer charitable organization. Volunteer doctors, nurses, pilots, veterinarians and support workers participate in expeditions (at their own expense) in some of the world's most exciting places. Medical supplies, medicines, facilities and vehicles are donated.  

The key statements there have to do with the places in the world that RAM goes to.  Why is it that people in this country have been put in the same position as these remote areas of the world?  America it is time to wake up.  I'll happily travel to another country to do this kind of service if we can get our government to function for its people again!  Enough is enough!  We need change so badly!

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