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Amazing Mom: Lorna Stuart
Filed under: Medical Conditions, Resources, Amazing Parents
Lorna Stuart, flanked by her supportive sons, Sam, left, and Nate, is all about making uninsured people healthy. Credit: Courtesy of Lorna Stuart
Amazing Mom: Lorna Stuart, who founded The Clinic, a nonprofit medical facility for the uninsured in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Lorna's Family: Kids: Sam, 30, Nate, 27
Lorna Lives In: Valley Forge Mountain, Pennsylvania
Why Lorna Is Amazing: In 1980, Dr. Lorna Stuart opened her private medical practice and built it up over the next 22 years to include three doctors and one nurse practitioner. Over time, however, she noticed a disturbing trend: More and more patients would put off coming to see her because they had no insurance or no way to pay for it.
"We would see incredibly sick people," she says. "Maybe a child who should have been seen on a Monday or Tuesday and finally the parents bring him in on a Friday and he's much sicker."
Unlike most people, Lorna decided that enough was really enough and she took action. "I was at the point where my older son was graduating from college and I could afford to start a clinic and get out of medicine as it's become ... wooed by insurance companies and taking away physicians' independent thinking and decision making."
She, along with the help of her priest, Reverend Marie Z, Swayze, started "a clinic where we could see people freely who had no insurance and without them having to worry if they could pay for their care or not," she says. The Clinic, as it is known, opened its doors in 2002 in a former church rectory of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. She and Mother Marie raised $400,000 to restore the dilapidated Victorian building and in exchange, the church leases it to them for $1 a year. Since it opened, Lorna and her colleagues have treated about 60,000 patients from 105 different countries. Ten percent are children and all are younger than 65, as they do not accept Medicare or Medicaid patients. The Clinic is funded entirely by grants and individual contributions.
"We are kind of ambassadors for 'good' in that our Albanian and our Uzbekistan and our Peruvian visitors get hands-on, quality health care with the meds they require," she says. A huge world map hangs on the wall and Lorna's patients get a kick out of placing a pin on their homeland.
Last year, for the first time, they had to institute geographical boundaries because of the sheer number of patients. "Before the boundaries, people were traveling from New Jersey, Delaware and all over Eastern Pennsylvania to get to us," says Lorna. "We need to have way more clinics such as this."
Lorna's Son Sam Says: "I suppose it's hard to separate her top qualities from her professional life, I mean how many kids can fall off their bike and actually have their mom make it all better? That's pretty great stuff, having an in-house doctor growing up. The flip side was that I still hold the record for the fewest sick days ever at my elementary school, 20 years later! I remember watching how Elliot faked being sick in ET and thinking, 'That would never work on Mom.'"
Recognition: Huggins Heroes Award in 2006; GlaxoSmithKline Impact Award, which included a $50,000 grant, in 2007; CNN "Medical Marvel" Hero in 2008; People Magazine "Hero Among Us" in 2009
Lorna's Guilty Pleasures: Baking cookies and muffins; embroidering; reading; and Sudoku: "I'm really, really good at Sudoku puzzles. I do the really, really hard ones."
Lorna's Best Advice: "It feels so good to be able to help somebody in a tight spot. Whether it be medial care or nothing to eat or whatever that tight spot is, to be able to help somebody is a wonderful, wonderful feeling."
Related: Amazing Mom: Leslie Nordin
Want to see who else made the list? Click here for the rest of AOL's 2010 Amazing Moms!
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-09-2010 @ 1:06AM
Khin said...When I read the story tears welled in my eyes.
God bless Lorna and her family and the people who work with her.
The world needs so many people like her.
Reply
5-09-2010 @ 1:06AM
lg727 said...This is a great story of a very special mom, kudos to her and her sons! To read a funny story about a mother with a great sense of humor, go to www.lgreport.blogspot.com. If you don't laugh at that one you are in a seriously bad mood.... Happy Mother's Day to all you deserving moms out there!
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5-09-2010 @ 1:18AM
skikttn said...FINALLY an article that is decently written in a clear voice about something truly inspiring. See AOL you don't need stupid controversy or horrible story points to get us too read...
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5-09-2010 @ 1:19AM
skikttn said...Oh and Thank you Dr. Stuart! Happy Mother's Day! It seems you have done an amazing job in life!
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5-09-2010 @ 1:40AM
babs said...What a wonderful human being. She sees the health care problem and does her best to do what we all should do...be kind, show compassion and try to fix a terrible problem. God Bless You.
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5-09-2010 @ 2:53AM
Brenda said...Thank you Lorna! You make the world a better place. I have medical insurance and I put off going to the doc because my insurance doesn't pay very well, and being a low income worker it's difficult to pay doc and hospital cost myself . The hospital and labs want full payment or more $ a month than I can manage. I had a CT scan done the week of Christmas and a rep told me they were going to turn me over to a collection agency if I didn't pay them $25 a month. I was sending them $10 a month....they ought to be thankful for that. They have accepted my payment of $10. Thank you for small favors!
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5-09-2010 @ 1:47AM
melanie lancaster said...you are a true angel put here on this old earth. continued good luck to you dr stuart. there aren't many like you in the world now. bless you.
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5-09-2010 @ 1:48AM
BIG C said...if u dont have insurance you should not have the same treatment as someone who does... lorna is the reason we have so many illeegal immigrants that can come here and thrive. it is detrimental to america
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5-09-2010 @ 2:28AM
Jenni said...You are the type of person that makes life hard for all of us. Healthcare should be available to all people regardless of any differences, especially innocent children. I can tell you don't have any kids, what a shame...
5-09-2010 @ 2:29AM
Melissa Mills said...I just want to address the comments left by BIG C. How do you know they are illegal immigrants? I am certain that many of them have come to this country legally and some may even been American citizens. Many American citizens do not have insurance due to the high cost. They are gambling that they will not need it. But even if she winds up treating illegal immigrants there is a higher cause than America and it called being human. As human beings we have a moral obilagation to help our fellowman when we see he is in trouble. In addition, people walking around with unchecked illnesses are a danger to public health. Viruses and bacteria do not care if you are a citizen or not. Treating one person with an illness may prevent the infection of hundreds of others.
It is attitudes like yours that are the real threat to America. They close themselves off to new ideas and people and then insult those whose who tried to help others. America is nation of immigrants. Yes, we do need to overhaul immigration but we also need to remember that our ancestors once came here to find a new life. People have been complaining about immigrants since America began. If you would like an eye-opening experience visit Ellis Island. You will see many of the same points that you make being made about your ancestors during the great immigration.
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5-09-2010 @ 2:34AM
Alan8 said...It's incredibly pathetic that this is necessary. In every other industrialized country, free health care is there when you need it; just like the fire department.
The Democrats and Republicans stand united against free medical care in the US because it would hurt the profits of the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations, that contribute to their campaign funds.
Both the Democrats and Republicans receive the majority of their funding from corporate sources, which is why they put corporate profits ahead of the health of the American people.
It's time for a change: The Green Party doesn't accept ANY corporate money, and represents CITIZENS' interests instead of corporate interests. They've been calling for single-payer health care for years.
A mere 5% of the vote for the Green Party will get them matching Federal funds, and will be a warning shot to the corporate parties that continuing their business-first agenda will lose them votes.
We need a non-corporate alternative: Vote Green!
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5-09-2010 @ 2:49AM
Sylvan339 said...Alan....Wish you had included a link, but that's ok, I'm going to look it up myself. Maybe it IS time for a grass-roots change.
5-13-2010 @ 9:50PM
JD said...hey Alan8,
1. we have emergency rooms that cannot turn down anyone with an immediate problem. Have you noticed that every other countries' quality of life is much worse than ours. The poorest of the poor in America can be treated for illnesses immediately in an E.R. They wait for weeks to be seen in your socialist utoipias.
2. The fire department and healthcare aren't free. If healthcare and the fire dept. are "free" as you put it, then wouldnt the employees be completely voluntary with no taxpayer subsidies awarded to them?
3. health care is not free because businesses exist to earn a profit. When the government makes decisions regarding rationing of care, the sick end up being denied treatments like, expensive medications for breast cancer in England.
4. If it wasnt for corporations, there would not be medical advances and looking for cures to diseases like cancer would not be possible. When you stifle profits, you stifle investment and research. You arent against people inflicted with cancer and "incurable" diseases are you alan?
(Dont answer my last question, I dont need to hear your eggheaded marxism)
5-09-2010 @ 3:01AM
IGOR von WURTTEMBURG said...TRUE ACTS OF KINDNESS TOWARD OTHERS ARE PROPELLED BY THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS AND THEREFORE , HEALTHFUL & EMOTIONALLY REWARDING
All the Best to All
Igor von Wurttemburg
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5-09-2010 @ 3:13AM
Barbara said...God Bless this woman,,,,, now if only there would be a clinic such as this that accepted Medicare patients. I am under the age if 65; but due to a tragic injury, I am disabled, It's now been over a decade since I've had a physical, pap smear, mammogram, even basic treatment for residual of my injury. My doctor at the time of the injury has since quit her practice; and I have yet to be able to find a doctor who will take me on because of Medicare or the chronic symptoms of the injury. I have to go to an ER for treatment for illnesses such as strep throat or bronchitis. It's a sad comment about our state of health in this country; and if they doctors won't take this form of Government run healthcare; imagine what it's going to be like when the average Joe has government run health care. Good luck getting medical treatment, because the government doesn't pay their bills, and when they do, it's such a pittance that doctors won't accept their forms of insurance; they would go broke if they did. At least they get tax breaks for doing the charitable work vs. getting the pittance that the government pays for healthcare.
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