Stan Freidberg, MD

Volunteering since 1993

I began volunteering at the Free Clinic of Southwest Washington (FCSW) in 1993 when it became apparent that many uninsured patients in Clark County did not have access to even basic health care. Since then the number of patients served at the FCSW has increased significantly. It has been personally gratifying to be able to work with such motivated staff and volunteers to meet this challenge. The addition of dental

services especially for children was a response to a major need that many of us recognized while doing sports physical at the FCSW. Recently, I have been excited about Project Access which, under the auspices of the FCSW, arranges for critical specialty care for our patients.

I have many memories of patients I have seen at Free Clinic of Southwest Washington. In my own specialty cardiology, for example, I have seen a woman who experienced heart palpitations and was found to have a serious cardiac arrhythmia on a genetic basis and was referred for further treatment. Or the teen-aged soccer player who had been held out of sports because of a heart murmur whom we were able to reassure and return to competition. He and his family were very grateful. I think most satisfying is being able to intervene early in an illness which otherwise might result in hospitalization and hardship.