A man played “Oh Holy Night,” on his bassoon on Christmas morning. His audience was a long line of people waiting outside the Phoenix Convention Center for a chance to get free health care.
Organizers expect to see 8,000 patients and provide them with $30 million in medical services at a massive pop-up hospital, which lets people get specialized treatment in areas like podiatry, or just have their eyes examined.
Inside the convention center, cardiologist Thomas Makowski had just seen a patient who’s lived decades with a fast heart rate.
“These things unfortunately are chronic diseases that could easily be taken care of with quite inexpensive medications,” Makowski said. “But if they don’t have access to somebody seeing them, then they can’t be helped.”
Dr. Makowski was one of thousands of volunteers at the event organized by a service of the Seventh-day Adventist Church called “Your Best Pathway to Health.”
Kandi Makuakane was one of the people seeking help. She woke up at 4 a.m. to make the trip from north Phoenix to downtown.
“There are so many people out here, like myself, that can’t afford medical, dental, eye,” Makuakane said. “And I feel so blessed for this.”
Dr. Lela Lewis practices obstetrics and gynecology in Scottsdale. She’s also the CEO and founder of the massive pop-up hospital. A news story about a free dental clinic inspired her to start the effort.
“I just felt very impressed that this was something that needed to be done on a mass scale,” Lewis said. “And not just for dentistry, but for all of medicine and for surgery, even.”
"Your Best Pathway to Health" will take patients on a first come, first served basis from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, and 7 a.m. to noon Wednesday.
