His healing hands extend to Mexico’s suffering children
By BERN ZOVISTOSKI
The New Vision
Thirty-four years ago, when he was 15, Francisco Valencia worked as an interpreter at a budding clinic for disabled kids of impoverished Mexicans in Nogales, Ariz., his hometown.
Today he’s “Dr. V,” chief of staff of the orthopedics department at St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic, taking time from his Tucson practice to volunteer his skills in treating the many youngsters who visit the clinic with life-altering ailments.
On the first Thursday of every month, some 250 Mexican children, many using wheelchairs or walkers, make their way across the border for the free treatment provided by medical and lay volunteers from both countries.
In the beginning there were only three patients.
It was 1973, said Dr. Mark Frankel, founder and director-emeritus of the clinic, when a friend asked him to take time from his Tucson practice to attend to the needs of three patients in Nogales, Mexico.
It became apparent quickly that others there required treatment, Dr. Frankel said on Feb. 7 at the clinic, where he still helps out. And those needs, he said, extended beyond physical deformities to all types of health issues, including sight impairment, hearing loss and speech impediment, and nutrition deficiencies.
Dr. Frankel said the clinic began in Nogales, Mexico, but soon moved to the U.S. side of the border, where today it is located at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and stands as the longest-running cross-border clinic in the United States.
It is a non-denominational, non-profit clinic staffed by a blend of people representing many faiths with a common goal: A dedication to healing.
Dr. Valencia is a member of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Tucson. He practices with three partners at University Orthopedic Specialists at 1555 E. River Rd. in Tucson.
“I feel blessed that I’ve found a niche that I have a passion for, to give back to the community,” Dr. Valencia told The New Vision.
“I have to thank my partners who allow me to do this kind of work, to take the Thursdays and to do follow-ups here on a pro-bono basis,” Dr. Valencia said.
Among those who support the clinic’s efforts are members of Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Green Valley, who make quilts and donate money to buy strollers. Students at Sts. Peter and Paul School donated dozens of teddy bears for the kids at the “Christmas clinic” in December.
Other Catholics translate for the medical staff, cook food, collect clothing and drive vans to and from the border.
At the February clinic, patients accompanied by their parents, other relatives or care-givers lined up outside early in the morning to sign in, and a steady stream came and went throughout the day. Inside, every area of the church was set up as stations for the various services to be provided - including some hallways.
All day long, the place hummed with activity.
In the kitchen, food was prepared to feed everyone, patients, parents and the volunteers.
Dr. Valencia, tall and trim with a shock of dark hair and wearing glasses, often smiled brightly as he talked with children with congenital defects such as spina bifida and cerebral palsy.
While treating his patients, Dr. Valencia turned occasionally to offer instruction to two medical students at the University of Arizona, clinic volunteers, who listened intently.
The clinic, he said, “charges my batteries.”
Nogales, he said, “essentially was my community, my parents’ community,” and his involvement in the clinic “is just a way of giving back.”
As a high school sophomore, he said, he injured himself playing basketball, His mother, Carmen Valencia, was a volunteer at the clinic and she was told to take her son to the Tucson office of Dr. Frankel. Because he lived in Nogales and was bi-lingual, Dr. Valencia said, he was encouraged to visit the clinic, where he became a volunteer interpreter.
His decision to become an orthopedist specializing in children was “a gradual process,” he said.
“I just kept having this calling...felt the desire to go back...I really enjoyed the challenge that it posed,” he said. “Being an interpreter allowed me to work side-by-side with the physicians and working with a very humble population, a population of children with very limited means, this was a side of medicine that you didn’t see on TV.”
Dr. Valencia graduated from Stanford and the University of California in San Diego, did his residency in Tucson and returned to Children’s Hospital in San Diego before joining the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona in 1989 for a decade. He has been in private practice for nine years.
The clinic is privately funded and patients cross the border “of their own free will,” Dr. Valencia said.
“We try to have a collaborative effort with physicians in Mexico,” he said.
While he has performed many surgeries, Dr. Valencia said he takes satisfaction in improving the quality of life of many youngsters without resorting to the knife.
“There was a boy who many years ago was run over by a train and he ended up losing his legs, and he got fitted with bilateral artificial legs and that allowed him to get back on his feet and instead of him being relegated to a life of alms-asking he was able to go into the field of artificial limbs and become a productive member of society,” Dr. Valencia said.
In addition to treating specific conditions, Dr. Valencia said he and his associates at the clinic try to do more.
“We try to teach people how to take care of their kids, about nutrition and meeting medical needs,” he said. “I’m just a link in the chain.”