Westside Clinic :~ . Page 6 RAIN Summer 1996 Volume XV, Number 1 By Eric Bellfort A week after "La Migra" raided El Barrio for suspected illegal aliens, the streets were peaceful with the bruised, hollow quiet that follows a violent storm. This same uneasy calm pervaded the waiting room of Santa Cruz's Westside Community Health Center. The clinic was busy that afternoon, but mostly with routine problems: a few cases of flu, kids with ear infections, and an older man complaining of chest pains. The medical assistants and practitioners seemed guardedly relieved, knowing that this peace should be savored as long as possible. Guillermo Vasquez, the Mexican gentleman complaining of chest pains, was put through priority registration so as to get him monitored ASAP. Guillermo's practitioner, Morgan Stryker, states: "He knows he has diabetes, knows he has hypertension, but he quit taking his medication months ago because he couldn't afford it." As Morgan preps the EKG, the medical assistant takes the man's vital signs; his blood pressure reading is 210 over 180. The patient should have been rushed straight to the hospital. But in light of the recent INS raids, and the fact that the Vasquez family is illegal and uninsured, they not only came to the people they trust, but also to the only "not-forprofit" family practicehealth center in northern Santa Cruz County. Guillermo is accompanied by his daughter, Maria De La Cruz-Vasquez, another regular patient of ours whom w.e saw through nine months of pregnancy, and who still brings her children here for check-ups and sick care. A large, stout woman with a broad, sweet face, she was the emissary for a large crowd of relatives waiting outside. Her face is distressed as she takes her father's hand. He is lying flat on his back, an oxygen mask clasped over his nose and mouth, his face disgruntled in pain. With his tee-shirt hiked up above his shoulders, his chest looks shrunken, knotted and exposed. As the medical a.ssistant slips out the door to call for an ambulance, Morgan whispers reassuringly in Spanish to Maria as she turns her liquid eyes on him, smiling forcedly, her face attentive and hopeful. She didn't notice,or couldn't read the lurching lines of her father's EKG. Above and below, the clinic (now a Planned Parenthood project) provides low-income families with inexpensive preventative care, education and medical treatment.
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