Tennessee
After getting help from health care charity RAM, Tennessee man says he
Dave Burge slept in his truck overnight in frigid weather for a dental appointment.
Burge needed dentures, but was unable to afford them. He was one of more than 1,200 patients, some of whom waited in line for days, to get a free appointment at a Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic in Knoxville, Tennessee. RAM provides medical, dental and vision care to uninsured and underinsured Americans around the country.
“When they hand you your life back, that’s life changing,” Burge said. “That’s what teeth mean to me. I could be a normal human again.”
The people who need help
Burge already spent around $140,000 on medical bills after an uninsured drunk driver ran a red light and nearly killed him in 2012, he said. Then, one day, a construction accident while at work wrecked his teeth again.
“By then I was pretty thin on money to do much about it. So I didn’t have a lot of choices. I just kept working.”
Sandra Tallent, who drove more than 200 miles from Alabama and spent two nights sleeping in her car for a dental appointment with RAM, said she would also be unable to afford dentures if not for the free clinic.
Health care is a major cost across the U.S., and one many cannot afford. About a third of Americans say they’ve skipped meals, borrowed money or cut back on utilities to pay for health care, according to a March Gallup poll.
And while the Trump administration has lowered prices on more than 50 drugs, it has also let premiums rise in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, and made the biggest cuts ever under Medicaid. Around 3 million people have lost insurance under the Trump administration, according to government data, and it’s estimated up to 10 million could lose insurance in the next three years.
About half of the patients at RAM clinics have no insurance. The rest have insurance they can’t afford to use because of co-pays and deductibles – or they can’t find a provider who will take their insurance.
According to RAM CEO Chris Hall, approximately 60% of patients need dental care. About 30% request eye exams and glasses, with around 5% asking for medical care. There’s also screenings for blood sugar, blood pressure, breast cancer, skin cancer and more.
The volunteers helping
RAM, which got its start decades ago parachuting doctors into South American jungles, today operates clinics nearly every weekend around the U.S.
“Nobody here that’s working or volunteering today is going to judge any person that comes through that door. We are here to help,” Brad Sands, a former paramedic who coordinates RAM clinics, said.
There were 887 volunteers at the Knoxville weekend. Medical professionals pay their own way to come and bring medical students with them.
“I’ve said it a million times, if you ever lose faith in humanity, go spend ten minutes at a RAM clinic. You’re going to see hundreds of people there that are donating their time,” Sands said. “They’re coming out and they’re donating large swaths of their own money, slash time, to help their neighbors.
Dr. Glen Goldstein, a New Jersey dentist, started volunteering with RAM after seeing a 60 Minutes report in 2008 on the organization.
“And as soon as your segment was over, about this organization, I immediately went online, looked it up and registered down here,” he said.
In the years since, volunteering with RAM has become a regular event in his family, with his wife, his children and his daughter-in-law volunteering as well.
Goldstein said he sees patients who’ve suffered without health care, and who have no hope for the future. He’s had young patients who’ve asked him to remove all their teeth, because they don’t have money to get them fixed.
“And it’s heartbreaking to take all the teeth out,” Golden said. “It’s terrible.”
RAM operations
Depending on the size of the clinic, RAM will spend between $100,000 and $500,000 over a weekend. The money comes from donations, Hall, the CEO, said.
“Over 81% of our supporters are individual donors, people that write $5, $10, $20 checks every month,” Hall said.
RAM also gets supplies and clinic space donated.
The charity got its start under the late Stan Brock, an eccentric Englishman, who was a cowboy in the Amazon, a pilot, and later one of the stars of TV’s “Wild Kingdom.” When 60 Minutes met Brock in 2008, he was 73, had no family, took no salary, lived in an office he donated to RAM, and showered with a garden hose.
At the time, he was staging 12 clinics a year. After the broadcast, $4 million in donations poured in, along with thousands more volunteers. RAM now runs 90 clinics a year.
RAM has now treated more than a million patients since its start, thanks to more than a quarter-million volunteers.
Across the Knoxville weekend, RAM provided over a million dollars in medical care, at no cost to the patients. RAM volunteers treated 1,224 patients, made 588 pairs of glasses, pulled 1,467 teeth, filled 283 cavities, did 342 dental cleanings and conducted 247 medical exams.
And then there were the denture patients, including Dave Burge and Sandra Tallent.
At the Knoxville clinic, there was a trailer where 3D printers were used to make and print dentures. Connor Gibson, the 22-year-old engineer who helped build it, has slept in the trailer to keep the printers running nonstop. He’s inspired by something he calls the mirror moment: when a patient with a new set of dentures sees themselves in the mirror.
“You just see all that stress melt away. And no matter if they’re 18 or 80, we see grown men cry sitting in the chair,” Gibson said.
Burge and Tallent, with their new sets of dentures, both smiled when they had their mirror moments.
“I don’t know what I’d do [without RAM,]” Tallent said. “You know, the Lord would make a way. But I feel like he has made a way through RAM.”
The Tennessee Lady Vols are now off to the College World Series after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs in the second game of what could have been a three-game series. The Lady Vols won the first game off the back of a gutsy performance by Karlyn Pickens, and many of their batters had a great outing.
In game two, the score was 2-0, as the Lady Vols scored off a two-run shot from Sophia Knight. Knight is one of the better players on the team for the Lady Vols, as she hit a home run in game one and had a home run in game two. This game was won without the Lady Vols best pitcher even coming to the mound, as the Lady Vols didn’t even use Karlyn Pickens in this contest.
Even though the Lady Vols are the team playing in their home stadium, they didn’t have the advantage in their game against the Lady Bulldogs, which means the Lady Vols had to pitch to a solid batting squad in the bottom of the ninth, who are also notorious for having a rally. The Bulldogs started the inning with a triple, and the batter later reached home after a wild pitch from Sage Mardjetko.
There would be one out with none on, and the Lady Vols’ star pitcher gained her swagger back with a nasty strikeout that completely fooled the batter on, although, had she gotten a hold of the ball, it likely would have been one to go over. Goodwin would come to the plate with the Lady Vols having a chance to punch their ticket to the college world series, which is exactly what happened off the back of a 1-2 count and a hit to the second baseman, who sat her down for the rest of the season.
The Lady Vols will now await the bracket.
Follow Our Social Media Accounts
• Follow Vols on SI on X (Click HERE)
• Follow Vols on SI on Facebook (Click HERE)
• Follow Vols on SI on Instagram (Click HERE)
• Subscribe to Vols on SI on YouTube (Click HERE)
Follow Our Staff on X
• Follow Caleb Sisk on X (Click HERE)
• Follow Dale Dowden on X (Click HERE)
Follow Our Staff on Instagram
• Follow Caleb Sisk on Instagram (Click HERE)
• Follow Dale Dowden on Instagram (Click HERE)
Follow Our Staff on Facebook
• Follow Caleb Sisk on Facebook (Click HERE)
• Follow Dale Dowden on Facebook (Click HERE)
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
• You can join our newsletter (HERE)
Follow
An east Tennessee school board member who told a teenage girl, “God – you’re hot,” on video at a public meeting in April has been charged with assault.
State prosecutors on 18 May charged 59-year-old Keith Ervin under a Tennessee statute that outlaws “intentionally or knowingly [causing] physical contact with another [that] a reasonable person would regard … as extremely offensive or provocative”.
Tennessee considers that offense a class B misdemeanor, which upon conviction can carry up to six months in jail and a maximum $500 fine.
Ervin’s charge came after his participation in a 2 April meeting of the Washington county school board to which he was first elected in 2006. At that gathering, in plain view of a camera capturing video for the public board’s YouTube channel, Ervin gazed at a female student seated next to him, placed his left hand on her right shoulder, and said, “God – you’re hot. Did you know that? Damn.”
She laughed uncomfortably as he leaned in and wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, continuing, “Where do you go to school at?” She provided the name of her school, and he rejoined, “All right.”
Other people in the room could be heard laughing at the end of the exchange. And the Washington school district’s superintendent, Jerry Boyd, visibly smiled while on the other side of the student.
Local media reports describe the girl as a high school senior and a student representative on the board. Her father later went on social media and criticized Ervin’s behavior as “disturbing and inappropriate”.
In that statement, reported by Tennessee news outlet WJHL, the girl’s father said neither he nor her mother believed Ervin “should be anywhere near students” – and he expressed incredulity that the moment passed “without immediate accountability”.
Ervin provided his own statement to WJHL in which he contended he was not “always good with words”. He also maintained that he would not purposefully offend anyone, though he acknowledged the video of him and the girl looked bad.
A Change.org petition almost immediately calling for the dismissals of Boyd and Ervin from their roles has since gathered more than 7,400 signatures. Ervin’s fellow school board members voted to censure him during a special meeting called on 8 April as outrage surrounding his filmed remarks spread beyond Washington county.
The female student at the center of the assault case addressed the county school board directly at a 7 May meeting – and she let its members know she was unimpressed with their handling of the matter, Tennessee’s Knoxville News Sentinel reported. She accused board members of cowardice while rejecting apologies from them, saying: “I do not forgive you.”
She added, “Thank you for teaching me that no one will stand up for me besides myself. Thank you for showing this community what you believe it means to protect our children.”
After he was charged in Washington county circuit court, Ervin was served with a criminal summons ordering him to appear at a hearing tentatively scheduled for 7 August.
Ervin did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
His Washington school district biography says he is a self-employed dairy farmer by trade. The biography also notes that Ervin has two daughters who previously graduated from the school attended by the student listed as the victim in his pending assault case.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The attempted murder case against Tennessee livestreamer Dalton Eatherly, known online as “Chud the Builder,” has now been bound over to the grand jury following a court hearing on Wednesday in Montgomery County.
According to court officials, Eatherly’s case was moved out of General Sessions Court and will now proceed in Circuit Court. His previously scheduled May 26 hearing has been canceled.
Eatherly’s bond was also lowered from $1.25 million to $1 million, according to updated court information on Wednesday.
WATCH: Here’s all we know so far about the controversial, arrested streamer known as “Chud the Builder”
The 28-year-old faces multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, after investigators said he shot another man during a confrontation outside the Montgomery County Courthouse on May 13.
Authorities previously said the shooting happened in broad daylight outside the courthouse complex after an altercation between two men escalated into gunfire. Both Eatherly and the other man suffered gunshot wounds.
The case has drawn widespread attention due to Eatherly’s controversial online presence. Known online as “Chud the Builder,” Eatherly built a following through confrontational livestreams filmed across Tennessee, including in Nashville and Clarksville.
Before the courthouse shooting, Eatherly had also recently been arrested in Nashville after police said he refused to pay a more than $370 bill at a steakhouse following a disturbance inside the restaurant.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (1)
Eatherly remains jailed in Montgomery County as the criminal case moves forward in Circuit Court.
-
Delaware2 minutes agoMan facing rape charges after being found in park after hours with underage girl
-
Florida8 minutes agoDonald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson get married in Florida
-
Georgia14 minutes agoGeorgia softball coach wants the outcomes, it’s just not why he does this
-
Hawaii20 minutes agoTanaka Ramen opens 7th Hawaii spot at Windward Mall
-
Idaho26 minutes agoUnknown man stole dead teen’s identity 25 years ago to obtain $300K in government aid, Idaho jury finds
-
Illinois32 minutes agoPritzker is hopeful lawmakers will pass bill that could keep Bears in Illinois as deadline nears
-
Indiana38 minutes agoOfficer shot multiple times inside Indiana hospital ER
-
Iowa44 minutes agoSuper Bowl Winning Quarterback, Iowa Native Set Adds More To Resume
