Posted 4:04 pm Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Light The PATH: Nonprofit Helps Tyler Woman Ease The Pain
By PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor
When Karen Lozano, 43, hobbled back into her home lit with Christmas lights on Friday, her children were overjoyed. Using a walker, she painfully proceeded to a couch and sat.
Religion Editor
When Karen Lozano, 43, hobbled back into her home lit with Christmas lights on Friday, her children were overjoyed. Using a walker, she painfully proceeded to a couch and sat.
"I was pretty worried," confessed 16-year-old Israel while standing by the couch near the Christmas tree. Looking at his mother cuddling with his little brother Cody, 8, and sister Cherokee, 11, he let out a bit of a sigh and shook his head. "In fact," he confided quietly out of ear-shot of the children, "I thought she was gonna die. She was in a pretty bad way."
Looking up, a smile lit up Israel's face along with the nearby Christmas tree lights. "I'm glad she didn't!" he said. "This is my Christmas present. This is good enough."
CRIPPLED
Just days earlier, Karen was crippled with a spinal problem that shot excruciating pains down her legs and through her back. She was unable to walk consistently, shop, work, take care of the children, drive or sit comfortably. The pain had been with her for years and had been getting worse, she said.
"I just got to the point where I couldn't do anything anymore," she said.
The Lozano family (from left), Juan, Israel, Cherokee, Cody and Karen enjoy time together in the living room of their home.
But it was when she fell in November, while volunteering at the People Attempting To Help prescription assistance program, that Karen knew something had to be done.
"She just keeled right over and hit the floor," said Susan Roberts, director of the PATH program providing connections for its 2,800 clients to free medicines. "We'd seen she was in pain for quite awhile, but nothing like this."
It wasn't the first time she'd fallen, Karen said.
FESTIVE DECORATIONS: The Lozano family turns on the Christmas lights on their house on in Tyler.
"I fell at the supermarket shopping recently and someone had to help me up," Karen said. "It (the pain) was bad, but there was nothing I could do about it."
As the pain worsened, so did her problems.
"I couldn't work anymore," she said. "I had no insurance. I thought I'd be in a wheelchair soon for the rest of my life."
"I couldn't work anymore," she said. "I had no insurance. I thought I'd be in a wheelchair soon for the rest of my life."
VOLUNTEERS
After Karen's fall, Mrs. Roberts contacted PATH Executive Director Christina Fulsom. Mrs. Fulsom knew Karen because PATH has assisted the Lozano family in 2007 with affordable housing through PATH's Tyler Community Homes project. An older, but clean, 800-square-foot house was provided for $480 a month for the family of five. Juan Lozano works in construction -- when jobs are available.
Out of gratitude for the housing help, Karen turned around and volunteered at PATH. That's common, Mrs. Fulsom said.
"Many people get through their temporary problems and then come and volunteer to help others," she said. "We see that quite often here, actually. People love to help other people."
Karen's volunteer work was to file the applications for medicines with companies. "Some companies require updates and new physician approvals every six weeks and the paper load is tremendous," Mrs. Roberts said. She has a staff of three full-time workers and eight volunteers.
"We taught Karen typing and computer program skills to file all those required forms. We could use more help like Karen's," she said.
"We've found more than $4 million worth of free medicines since 2007," she said.
"And more people today have to cut their medicines to buy food. But if they don't get their medicines, some will die. What kind of a choice is that for people to make?"
Mrs. Roberts was talking about people like "Don," a truck driver in his 40s who'd had six heart attacks.
DON
"He couldn't drive trucks anymore, of course, so he lost his job and his insurance," Mrs. Roberts said. "He couldn't buy his medicines, so his health suffered. When he came in, he looked pretty bad."
Don required an expensive "infusion" each week that cost $1,000, she said.
"I worked a long time to find a drug company that had provided this medication for free," she said. "That was a tough one. But we did it! We got him his medicines."
Don returned to PATH just last week to say "Merry Christmas" and "Thank you," said Mrs. Roberts.
"He looked so different, some of the staff didn't recognize him," she laughed. Pausing for a moment, she said, "He's one who would have certainly died without his medications. We see a lot of that here."
Now PATH was faced with finding medical resources for Karen. She was referred to the Bethesda Health Clinic for low-income working people. Since all of Bethesda's clients requiring prescription assistance come to Mrs. Roberts' program, the relationship was well-established for a referral.
Bethesda requires clients to be working a minimum of 20 hours a week to qualify for help. Since Karen volunteered with PATH for the needed 20 hours, she was seen by Dr. John English, Bethesda's executive director."
"Dr. English was very kind," said Karen, "and he sent me to Dr. Rabbe who was so wonderful and set up the surgery for me."
"They said they could help me," Karen said.
The Tyler Paper was present when Karen came out of surgery at a local hospital. Christina Fulsom, PATH's executive director, had been with Karen the night before to encourage her that all would be well.
The Tyler Paper was present when Karen came out of surgery at a local hospital. Christina Fulsom, PATH's executive director, had been with Karen the night before to encourage her that all would be well.
Karen was in tears during her bedside interview.
"Words cannot express how grateful I am for this help," she said as tears streamed down her cheeks. "I could never pay them back. All these people did this out of the goodness of their hearts. The doctors - they're not in this business to give stuff away, but they did this for me. To me that's a real doctor."
And people should attempt to understand what PATH is really all about, she said.
"They're all about heart at PATH," she said with fresh tears. "I can't repay them either."
Dabbing at her eyes, she took a breath and said, "Sometimes people get upset because PATH has a hard time helping them with a particular problem, but they shouldn't. PATH may not have the funding to do all they are asked to do, but they want to. The people there, they're not in it for the money either. They do it because they truly want to help others."
