NORTH TEXAS – Prescription drugs can be expensive, and most pharmacies don’t care if you’re rich or poor; the medicine costs the same whether you can afford it or not.

The St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy in Dallas looks like any other pharmacy on the outside – filling bottles, scanning prescriptions, packing up medicine and shipping it out to patients.

“Last year we helped over 4,000 patients,” said pharmacy manager Carlos Irula.

And if you look a little closer, you’ll see things are a little different here.

“Too good to be true, or something like that, but in this case it really is true,” said Irula.

That’s because the pharmacists here, like Irula, are filling and shipping life-saving medications all for free.

“This service is 100% free to patients,” he said.

Patients like Ana Orenalla don’t pay a dime for medication.

“My husband is diabetic. I think we would have spent a lot. At least $300 a month. It’s just a lot of money,” she said.

Orenalla cleans houses. Her husband is unable to work because of his health but used to do landscaping and construction.

They qualify for the free prescription drugs at the pharmacy because they have no health insurance and have an income 300% below the poverty line. According to the pharmacy, one out of six Texans fall in this category.

“We wouldn’t be able to pay for his medicine, and he would have to go back to a medication that really didn’t help him,” said Orenalla.

That’s a choice this pharmacy is helping thousands of patients avoid. Since 2018, they’ve delivered $100 million in free medications to patients like Orenalla and her husband.

“The situations that most of our patients come through, they get the doors closed a lot. Many times, we’re the safety net, we’re the last line of defense when it comes to, you either have your medication or you end up in the hospital,” said Irula.

The pharmacy relies mostly on donations to deliver the service. Find out how to donate by clicking here. 

Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Stars played back-to-back games at home against the Chicago Blackhawks, with 11 days and a trip to Finland between them.

Now the Stars will be logging plenty of ice time, with 21 games in 44 days through the week before Christmas.

“You get through training camp, you try and settle in and then we go to Finland and it kind of shuffles things for a second,” forward Sam Steel said. “Now we’re past that. We can just focus on this next stretch coming up and grind it out and try and get to our our A-game.”

After losing two games to the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers last weekend in Finland, and then the 11-hour direct flight back to Texas, the Stars (8-4) were back in their home arena Thursday night for a 3-1 win.

Dallas next plays Saturday at Winnipeg, which has an NHL-best 13-1 record. The game in Canada will be the third country in three games over an eight-day span for the Stars.

“Just like we were waited a long time to play (in Finland). … So now we can just get in a routine,” goalie Jake Oettinger said. “It’s just hockey now and we’re going to be playing a lot, so it’ll be fun and hopefully we can just get on a roll and start winning a lot.”

Chicago was playing its sixth game since its previous trip to Dallas on Oct. 26.

The Stars, who have made it to the Western Conference final in each of coach Pete DeBoer’s first two seasons, never trailed after Steel scored 11 minutes into their first game back home. Steel also assisted on Tyler Seguin’s goal while Oettinger stopped 25 shots, including five in a 10-second span less than a minute after they took a 2-0 lead.

“Going into this game, we just said find a way,” Seguin said.

“I thought we played a good game,” DeBoer said. “I liked a lot of things we did considering the situation coming back from overseas. I thought we controlled that game for the most part.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl