• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 01 / 10 / 2011

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By MISTI CRANE, The Associated Press.2:28 PM Sunday,January 9, 2011. COLUMBUS, Ohio — Like many other American physicians, Dr. Adolph Lombardi Jr. makes time each year for medical missionary work. The orthopedic surgeon thinks of his trips to Cuba, Guatemala and Nicaragua as a way to give back.

But something started to bother him and Mount Carmel New Albany Surgical Hospital colleague Dr. Keith Berend. Sure, the recipients of free care in those countries were deserving. But what about those in Columbus who have no insurance and no hope of coming up with $30,000 for a new hip or knee?

"I went to the Mount Carmel Foundation and said 'I don't understand. There are people in our community who need this type of service, and we're not addressing this need,'" Lombardi said.

"The perfect example is the working poor, someone who has a job but no insurance, is putting food on the table for the family and doesn't qualify for Medicaid.

"What does that person do? Where do they turn?"

On Friday, the first recipients of a charity program called Operation Joint Implant had a knee and a hip replaced at the suburban Columbus hospital. Lombardi said he hopes to hold three or four free-implant days a year, with several surgeries being performed each time.

"We want to give those people a chance and give them a new lease on life and let them stay productive," Lombardi said.

Before her operation, Rosie Pennington was floored that someone would be willing to give her an artificial right knee for free.

"To me, this was kind of unbelievable," Pennington said. A doctor whom she saw in the Mount Carmel Outreach van recommended her for the operation, she said.

"I deal with a lot of people who are out just for them. I'm just thankful there's a lot of people out there as well that think about people other than themselves."

Pennington, 50, had to quit her job at a medical-supply company because of an arthritic knee that throbbed after long days on her feet. She's been doing temp work when she can, but her knee pain had gotten so severe that she and her husband were considering moving from their two-story West Side home to a mobile home so she wouldn't have to navigate stairs.

Pennington's husband has a job, but the couple cannot afford health insurance, she said.

"We just barely get by. It's very important to me to keep the bills paid. It's all you can do to keep the gas in the tank and food on the table. With just one of us working, it's just too much," she said.

Richard D'Enbeau, president and chief operating officer of the New Albany hospital, said Mount Carmel's leadership was excited about the proposal from the start.

"I've been in health care for many, many years, and never have we done anything like this. It is rare for a health-care system, including physicians, to seek out cases that we are going to receive no remuneration for."

The entire bill for a joint implant is $25,000 to $30,000 on the low end, Lombardi said.

Biomet, a medical-device-maker based in Indiana, is donating the implants, which run about $5,000. Among the other costs are the surgical team's time, X-rays and hospitalization.

Biomet has long had a program for indigent patients and recently donated more than $3 million in devices to victims of the earthquake in Haiti, spokesman Bill Kolter said.

To qualify for a free implant, patients must be uninsured legal residents of the Mount Carmel service area, have an income between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level and be ineligible for Medicaid.

Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

Source: www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-program-helps-needy-get-new-...