Sandy Brekke: A Difference Maker for Poor in Need of Health Care

By Terry Rindfleisch, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.

May 19–Sandy Brekke sees what happens when people can’t afford health care and don’t get it.

Brekke, director of the St. Clare Health Mission, has sat with people who lost their jobs and have no one and no place to turn to in a time of need and desperation. Not long ago, a woman with uncontrolled high blood pressure came to the La Crosse free clinic for the working poor and uninsured. Brekke said the woman could not afford health care or the medications she needed, and now her kidneys were failing.

Her first six weeks of dialysis would have paid for 20 years of health care, she said.

“I see that all the time,” Brekke said. “Many people we see had insurance all their life, but lost their insurance and their jobs. They were doing well and then something happened in their lives. It could happen to anyone.”

Brekke said her worst day at the clinic was when she saw a woman with advanced breast cancer who could not afford a mammogram, which could have detected her cancer early.

“It was too late for the woman who lived four blocks from a hospital and couldn’t afford something that could have saved her life,” she said. “I don’t understand in this country why this had to happen.”

Another woman broke a leg on a Friday and went to a walk-in clinic where she was quoted a price for care. She couldn’t afford it, so she left. She waited until four days later to go to the St. Clare Health Mission.

“I think we can do better in this country,” Brekke said.

The 41-year-old La Crosse native has made it her medical mission to make sure needy people get her help and the clinic continues to thrive.

“One of our goals is to close our doors some day when we get universal health care,” Brekke said. “Then we won’t be needed, and we’re going to throw the biggest party. It was not intended for this clinic to be here forever.

“Health care should be a right, not a privilege, and until it is, we will be here,” she said.

After graduating from La Crosse Central High School, Brekke studied nursing at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. With her nursing degree, she worked at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison in the intensive care unit for two years.

She and her husband, Eric, a physician, moved to England for a year before coming to La Crosse. Brekke joined Franciscan Skemp as a part-time ICU nurse, while her husband worked at Gundersen Lutheran as a surgeon.

Soon after Sister Leclare Beres opened St. Clare Health Mission in 1993, Brekke started volunteering at the clinic. Her mother, Sue Eber, now a retired Gundersen Lutheran nurse, had been a volunteer at the clinic.

Brekke also helped Beres set up follow-up appointments for three to four hours a week. She also filled in for Beres when she was gone or on vacation.

“It was an incredible experience to sit down, listen and talk to patients about their life struggles,” Brekke said. “I had no idea what they had been through. You see a whole different side of people.

“My first night, I felt like the volunteers were making such a difference in people’s lives,” she said. “You can see the relief on people’s faces. It was really striking.”

Brekke took over as director of St. Clare Health Mission in 2004 when Sister Dawn Kutt stepped down after a year at the job. Beres had been director for 10 years.

Now, Brekke is often called “Sister Sandy.”

“I was so impressed with Sandy her first day that I knew I was going to keep her,” Beres said. “She was a caring, loving, compassionate woman and nurse, and she was efficient.”

Beres said Brekke really listens to patients and appreciates what she learns from them.

“I was thrilled to death when she was named director,” Beres said. “The mission is in good hands.”

The clinic, a partnership of the two La Crosse medical centers, is staffed by more than 250 volunteers, including Dr. Steve Manson, a Gundersen Lutheran physician who has been the clinic’s medical director for several years.

“Sandy does an incredible job,” Manson said. “She’s energetic, dedicated and her caring is remarkable. She’s wonderful with patients, and she does her best to see they get what they need from what we’re able to offer.”

Dr. Kathryn Howells, a family physician at Franciscan Skemp’s Center for Women’s Health, said Brekke is kind and gentle with patients.

“No matter how they come in, she welcomes them,” Howells said. “She’s very sensitive, and people feel comfortable there.

“She also takes her experience there and uses it to try to make bigger changes in the community,” she said.

Brekke does it all — works as a nurse and in the lab, and even acts as a social worker. Her husband and three children — Andrew, 15, Hannah, 12 and Sara, 9, have helped out at the clinic.

St. Clare Health Mission volunteers see up to 35 patients a night on Tuesdays and Thursdays and about 30 at a follow-up clinic on Wednesdays. They see about 4,500 patients a year and have seen 13,100 patients over the years.

“The beauty of this mission is it’s truly volunteer driven,” Brekke said. “New ideas are sparked by volunteers. There is a spirit in the clinic. It’s energizing.”

Last Christmas, a couple, both with college degrees, ended up at the Salvation Army and the St. Clare Heath Mission because the woman was pregnant and her husband had mental health issues — and they had no money.

Volunteers brought in baby clothes and other items to help the couple.

“We are surrounded by a whole different world of needy people, and volunteers are committed to help them because they see a need, and they get together to solve a problem,” Brekke said. “The best part of my job is working with these volunteers.

“Before I started volunteering, I didn’t really get it when it comes to the needy and the many hoops people have to jump through,” she said.

She said the St. Clare Health Mission functions like an urgent care clinic, with the bulk of the clinic budget spent on medications, about $275,000 a year.

“There are a lot of success stories, and we get letters from people who say we saved their lives,” Brekke said. “You have no idea the impact on someone’s life. Simple things make a big impact.”

Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com, or (608) 791-8227.

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