Medical prayers answered in Bradenton

Like any other parent, Bradenton’s Jessica Moreno wants her children to be happy and to receive adequate medical care.

That has been difficult.

Five months ago, she had surgery and hadn’t found work until landing a roofing job last week.

She knew both her sons, 5-year-old Jovani Rojas and 4-year-old Joseph Rojas, needed dental care, but it has been tough to get them what they needed. She required new glasses herself too, but she wasn’t worried about that because some days they didn’t have enough food for their family of five, which includes her fiance, Hector Lopez, and her mother, Georgina Rojas.

“Every day, [Joseph] would wake up because his teeth were hurting,” Moreno said as she coaxed him to clamp down on a cotton swab.

Joseph had a tooth extracted, and his brother received a filling during the Remote Area Medical event Oct. 12 at Manatee Technical College. RAM, an international organization, is a nonprofit mobile medical clinic delivering free dental, vision and medical care to underserved and uninsured individuals. Local health professionals volunteer to provide care.

Moreno and her children were three of more than 900 people who turned out Oct. 12-13 for the event. While Moreno’s boys received dental care, Moreno got the glasses she needed.

“This helps me a lot,” she said.

Those who sought RAM’s services each day could choose between dental or vision care and also receive medical evaluations, such as wellness exams and blood sugar and blood pressure checks.

East County’s Kellie Bollettieri came for a dental visit. She stopped working as a certified nursing assistant in 2012 and now is doing odd jobs, such as babysitting, as she attends MTC to earn her GED diploma. She said the all-volunteer RAM force made her feel confident in the services she would receive.

“I’m here because I can’t afford the dentist,” Bollettieri said. “I feel safe here because they’re people who are striving to do good. Their motive isn’t to make money. I hate going to the dentist. This isn’t as intimidating.”

Eighty-six-year-old Bernita Franzel, of Bradenton, had an eye exam and picked out new glasses, which an optician prepared on-site. Franzel said her insurance covered her macular degeneration but not the new glasses she needed.

“This is such a wonderful offering,” Franzel said.

Manatee County hosted its first RAM event in 2015 after local physician Dr. Richard Conard visited a RAM clinic in Tennessee in 2014.

“I’ve been a physician 52 years,” Conard said. “I knew we had poverty, and I did a lot of pro-bono health care. Until I witnessed RAM, I just wasn’t sensitized to the number of people in our country who are outside the health care delivery system.”

The local organizing committee for the event, which Conard leads, is responsible for raising up to $80,000 needed for the two-day event. Those costs cover expenses including supplies, T-shirts, food and hotel accommodations for RAM staff and professionals traveling more than 100 miles to participate. Conard said Walmart Inc. donated $51,000 and provided supplies and volunteers from stores from Naples to Tampa Bay.

RAM itself spends an average of $26,500 per day per event.

Conard said he hopes to expand RAM’s presence in Florida and is lobbying the Legislature to allow medical professionals across the Southeast to volunteer at RAM events in the state. Doing so would allow them to travel to Florida at their own cost to participate in RAM clinics throughout the state, even though they are not licensed here.

Conard said such a change would allow RAM to have clinics possibly monthly throughout the state, rather than just once a year.