Farmworkers Self-Help, Inc.

Amelia Cardenas, our free farmworker clinic coordinator and outstanding community outreach worker, stays quite busy checking on housebound residents of our community and scheduling free mammograms for our farmworker women but when received a phone call last week from one of the women in our community, she was concerned. Carmen Diaz was not feeling well and asked Millie to come by.

Clinic Coordinator Amelia Cardenas checks on Carmen Diaz now that she is home from the hospital.Millie checked Carmen’s vital signs and when she was not able to get a good blood pressure on her, she called an ambulance. Doctors ran several tests on Carmen and eventually moved her to a hospital in Tampa where they discovered that she had a blood clot. Doctors were able to dissolve the clot. Because of the great work of our local hospitals and Millie’s quick thinking, Carmen is now home with her husband and two children. Sadly, many people in our community are often hesitant to seek out medical care as most are under insured but through or free farmworker clinic we are able to care for the farmworkers and their families. Just last year, Dr. Reed, our clinic physician, discovered a case of Hansen ’s disease (leprosy) in one of our farmworker men. She and Millie took the man to Tampa General Hospital. Doctors there had never seen this illness as it is rare in modern America. Later this month, doctors from Salem Lutheran Church in Orlando will be coming to give back-to-school physicals to our farmworker children.