Email |

RAM Health Exposition smashes previous record of patient encounters

Published July 31st, 2006 | 0 Comments

Toma Short of Wise opens wide for Dr. Robert Findley and his assistant as Findley prepares to pull two wisdom teeth at the Wise Fairgrounds Friday during the RAM event. Erica Yoon photo.

------------------------

WISE - The Remote Area Medical (RAM) Health Expedition's seventh foray into Wise County this past weekend smashed all previous records in free health services provided to all-comers at the county fairgrounds.

The RAM Health Expedition has been staged in the county since 1999, and every year the previous year's records have been topped. The seventh RAM over the weekend set another record, with 7,917 patient encounters recorded during the three-day event that ended Sunday, compared to just over 6,380 last year. Early estimates of the value of medical, dental and eye services provided were at more than $1.26 million, nearly equal to last year's $1.3 million estimate.

"I heard comments from several people that this was the best organized they'd ever seen it," said local RAM coordinator Teresa Gardner, executive director of St. Mary's Health Wagon.

"I just credit that to a lot of committed volunteers who work year after year together, and I guess we're getting pretty good now at what we do. The reason we're so successful is people return every year (as volunteers). We try to learn each year to continue to expand on the knowledge we gained. Every year I think we just become more efficient to handle these types of numbers. If you told me last year that we could handle so many this year, I would have told you we reached our limit last year. But so very, very many wonderful people work so very hard to bring it about, and I'm so appreciative of each and every one."

That's a lot of appreciation, considering there are close to 1,000 volunteers who provide a medical marathon miracle at the Wise County RAM.

Digital mammography and chest X-rays were new to this year's RAM.

"This was our first time doing chest X-rays. We just add to what we do. If you ask me when we first started that we could even give people hearing aids, I never would have thought that was possible," Gardner said. "And the digital mammography unit, I don't even know if we have one of those in the area. I heard (RAM founder Stan Brock) tell somebody this RAM doesn't compare to the other RAMs he does. He said this one is �in the stratosphere' compared to others where they might see and treat 500 to 600 patients. Ours is by far their largest, worldwide."

And the annual event does save lives.

Gardner said Kingsport-based Dr. Joe Smiddy indicated the detection of some possible early lung cancer cases during this year's RAM.

Gardner said last year a man was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer and attributed the services he received at RAM for saving his life.

In a congratulatory e-mail to all fellow volunteers on Monday, Dr. Claudette Dalton with the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville wrote that the medical sector saw 1,122 patients.

"Wow! Let me add both my personal thanks and the thanks of the medical team to Teresa's," Dalton wrote in response to Gardner's own en masse e-mail of appreciation to volunteers. "If it takes a village to raise a child, we just moved the world. Each person added their part to a wonderful tapestry of love and caring, and each of you feel like family when I see you each year. I do not know which means more to me ... the patients or the volunteers. ... They all have a special spot in my heart!"

Dalton signed off with "take care and mark your calendars now!"

Yes, Gardner said Monday, a weekend for the 2007 RAM Health Expedition at the Wise County Fairgrounds has been selected. It will be July 20-22, 2007.

But there's still work to be done stemming from this year's expedition.

"The most important thing right now is to focus on the follow-up and aftercare for our patients. We just don't say, �Hey, you've got this or that medical condition, and good luck.' Now we've got to coordinate follow-up care for those who need it, to the best of our ability and with our limited resources."

Discuss This Story

Be the first to comment: Sign In or Create Profile .

To comment, you must register.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the registered user participating in online discussions. You agree not to post comments off topic, abusive, obscene, defamatory, vulgar, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned.

Click here to review our complete user agreement.

Times-News Online on Facebook

Featured Blogger

Sullivan Co. posts residential building permit increase for Q4

By Don Fenley - 1-21-2010

While residential building permits in most of the Tri-Cities region declined during the 4th quarter of 2009 they were up 14.3 percent in Sullivan Coun...

Read Post | Comments (0)