So Sacramento: Gems, Trends and the Unusual

By Gina Kim, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

May 20–An aura of benevolence and good will encompasses a spot along Sixth Street and Broadway every Saturday morning. There are those who need help, and there, at the Paul Hom Asian Clinic, they get it.

At 8 a.m., they start lining up, mainly elderly Chinese immigrants who speak through volunteer translators. At 9 a.m., volunteer doctors and medical students begin diagnosing everything from the flu to coronary artery disease and cancer.

“It’s the element of giving back to mankind,” says the clinic’s medical director, Dr. Ronald Jan, a vascular surgeon. “It’s serving those who don’t have, remembering you are so fortunate.”

A group of University of California, Davis, medical students including Paul Hom, who went on to become a Sacramento County health officer, opened the clinic in 1971. Since then, patients have come, having heard about the resource through word-of-mouth.

About 45 patients visit the clinic every Saturday morning, and all the care they receive is free with support from the UC Davis School of Medicine. But Jan, who has given up his Saturdays regularly for more than a dozen years, says there are always more people who need than volunteers to help them.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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