KENTUCKY MOUNTAIN HEALTH ALLIANCE

Mission Statement

Improve the health and well-being of Southeastern Kentucky citizens who are underserved or at risk for homelessness in a respectful manner through a coordination of holistic services.

When Margaret first arrived at the Little Flower Clinic in June of 2008, she had not seen a doctor or taken any medications since the previous autumn although she had a serious history of heart disease. Margaret had suffered a heart attack in 2005. Her hypertension was uncontrolled and she had chronic lung disease from fifty years of smoking.
As disturbing as Margaret’s situation was, it is typical for our patients. At 63, she was too young for the federal Medicare program. The state of Kentucky denied her assistance through Medicaid because she was considered an “able bodied adult without children”. In spite of her health problems, Margaret still worked part time at Big Lots, but her employer didn’t offer health insurance.
Its not hard to understand why 22,000 Americans die each year simply because they lack health insurance. Like Margaret, the uninsured delay seeking medical care, even though they may suffer ominous symptoms, for fear a stay in the emergency room or the hospital will mean financial ruin.
Others die from undetected illnesses such as hypertension which could have been easily found and inexpensively treated by a family physician or nurse practitioner.
But that’s not how Margaret’s story ends. On her first visit she was started on medications to lower her blood pressure and nitrites to improve the circulation to her heart. Most of these medications were inexpensive and found on the “four dollar list” at local pharmacies.

For more expensive medicines, she was given assistance in accessing the manufacturer’s IDP programs which supply free medications for the uninsured. Margaret was then scheduled to see Dr.Rao, a cardiologist, who volunteers at Little Flower Clinic each month. And she was encouraged to join the smoking cessation class which meets every Tuesday at the clinic.
Margaret’s blood pressure returned to normal and her shortness of breath improved with a steroid inhaler. In February, she came for a routine follow up visit and complained of “heart burn”. An EKG was done and faxed to Dr. Rao who advised she be further evaluated in the emergency room. She was sent to Hazard ARH by ambulance and there she was found to have a life-threatening dissection of a coronary artery. This was repaired with a coronary artery bypass graft by Dr. Suarez.

As you might guess from this story and her video, Margaret is a feisty woman. Although she developed pneumonia after the surgery, she made it back home and then back to the clinic, where she greeted the staff with her big cheerful smile and lots of “thank you’s”. She’s recovering well from the surgery and breathing easier now that she’s smoke-free with some help from the smoking cessation class.