Clinic is taste of good ol' days.

Byline: Karen McCowan / The Register-Guard

SHE FOUND the lump months ago. But, like thousands of hard-working Oregonians, Thelma Gonzales has no medical benefits. And she makes too much money as a manager and seamstress at Siegmund's Cleaners to qualify for the Oregon Health Plan.

So she put off seeing a doctor. She told herself the grape-sized mass under her right jaw was simply a lingering swollen gland after pneumonia last winter.

Gonzales, 56, has reason to think positive. She has a life history marked by an early medical miracle.

"I was a `blue baby,' ' she told me as we sat at her kitchen table, rain pummeling the roof of her single-wide manufactured home. "I wasn't expected to live past 12. But at 9, I was one of six children who had experimental surgery to replace an aorta and close a hole in my heart. There were two survivors."

Gonzales began working as soon as she graduated from Willamette High School 38 years ago.

"I worked as a purchasing assistant at Sacred Heart back when the sisters still wore habits," she said. "I loved it. Sacred Heart still felt like a big family back then."

She left the growing hospital in the 1970s to manage the offices of several smaller companies, switching to the dry cleaning business 12 years ago.

In September, a Siegmund's customer told her about the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in West Eugene.

Last February, former PeaceHealth administrator Sister Monica Heeran led a group of medical professionals in launching the clinic to provide free care to uninsured area residents. The clinic's flexible hours even allowed Gonzales to see a doctor without missing work.

She saw Dr. John Haughom, PeaceHealth's senior vice president for information systems. A former internal medicine specialist, he volunteers at the clinic two days a month.

He was immediately alarmed by the size and hard consistency of her lump.

"Our antennae go way up when we see something like that," he said.

He referred Gonzales to ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. James Knackstedt. A biopsy confirmed everybody's worst fears.

NON-HODGKIN'S LYMPHOMA was the diagnosis. When Haughom delivered it to Gonzales, her distress was two-fold.

"She feared she wouldn't survive," he said. "But she also was very worried about what this was going to mean for her financially."

Volunteers in Medicine aims to address both concerns. Not only are clinic visits and most prescriptions free, but VIM arranges pro bono care from specialists.

"What we do is find out if they're eligible - we take patients earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines," said Deleesa Meashintubby, VIM's front office coordinator. She's one of a handful of paid employees working with 40 volunteer physicians, 100 volunteer nurses and dozens of other health care volunteers. "If they qualify for free care from us, they're eligible for free referral care."

Because of federal Medicare guidelines, Sacred Heart Medical Center can't automatically grant VIM patients free care. But their accounts are typically written off as charitable losses if they can't afford to pay.

For Gonzales, the free care has included doctor visits, surgery and radiation treatments. She's yet to hear about her hospital bill.

"I came out of surgery all bandaged up like Quasimodo," she said. "But my bone scan and my CAT scan were clear. Dr. Haughom came by my shop afterwards to see how I was. I ran around the counter and said, `Hug me tight - I'm cancer-free!' '

Her treatments leave her tired and she's had to cut back her work schedule, but Gonzales has much to be thankful for this weekend.

Her free diagnosis, free surgery and free radiation offer her a good shot at remaining cancer-free in the future.

"If that clinic hadn't been there, I wouldn't have had a chance in hell," she said. "I think it's God's own doing that they are there."

In its first six months, clinic volunteers spent 16,000 hours handling 2,662 patient visits. More than 100 of those patients have also received free care from local specialists, and PeaceHealth has provided them $178,000 in hospital care.

But there are an estimated 28,000 uninsured Lane County residents, most of them in working families. Gonzales wants to spread the word about VIM (685-1800).

"Who knows how many other people are out there, waiting, who don't even know they're there?" she asked.

And she urged area businesses - particularly those too small to offer health insurance - to support the clinic financially.

"The Volunteers in Medicine clinic feels like Sacred Heart back in the 1960s," she said. "It's the feeling of a hug, without being hugged."