Nebraska

Age: 46
Hometown: Lincoln
Cause: Free health care

On a week-long mission trip with his church to Reynosa, Mexico in 2002, Dr. Rob Rhodes provided free health care to the poor. He tended to 200 patients per day, in extreme heat, using car headlights to work late into the night in a makeshift clinic with no electricity. After returning home, the family physician learned that more than 15% of Lancaster County residents — the majority living in his hometown of Lincoln — lacked the financial resources to pay for routine medical appointments and important medications. In May 2003 he started a monthly clinic with 30 volunteers to help uninsured and underinsured patients — including the homeless — borrowing doctor’s offices to perform basic medical assessments and saving people potentially costly visits to the ER. Today, his Clinic with a Heart holds twice-weekly clinics with over 650 volunteers and sees approximately 3,000 patients per year.

Says Rhodes:

Doctors here — myself included — didn’t realize there was such a high need for free health care in our backyard.”