CHICAGO: The 43rd Health Fair was successfully organized at Midwest Swaminarayan Temple in Itasca, a northwest suburb of Chicago on Sunday, September 30. It was sponsored by the Midwest Swaminarayan Temple, Lohana Association of Greater Chicago (LAGC), Gujarati Samaj of Chicago (GSC) Kadva Patidar Samaj (KPS) and Sadhu Vaswani Center, Chicago.
The goal was to provide medical check up to all those who may not be able to afford medical services due to insurance and medical coverage problems. The Health Fair provided free medical checkup for more than 450 participants.
More than 29 doctors and 110 healthcare professionals provided their volunteer services on this day. Registration and front desk services were by also a group of volunteers.
Vital data such as height, weight, blood pressure, pulse, were checked for each participant. These services were provided by Dr. Samir Patel, Beena Shah, Dakshaben Thakkar and Palak Patel. The blood sugar testing and consultation were provided by Kishore Chugh, Dr. Namrata Patel, Aarti Thakkar, Tejas Patel, Bharat Acharya and Giri Dassani.
Volunteers were seen very busy at the blood draw tables. Blood samples of 426 patients were collected and sent to the UIC laboratory for testing. The report will be reviewed by doctors and blood report will be mailed to each patient within three weeks. Urine analysis was performed by Dimple Thakkar, Kajal Patel, Soniya Gupta and Aroma Desai
There were six EKG machines to provide EKG for males and females over age 55 and were continually operated by many volunteers. The EKG results were interpreted to the patient by Cardiologists Dr. Samir Shah and Dr. Hetal Gandhi.
Physical examination and physical consultation were also provided by a group of professional physicians. Dental examination and consultation were provided by Dr. Brijesh Patel and Dr. Amit Patel.
Nutritional, diet and diabetes education was also provided. Sadden Cardiac Awareness Research Foundation provided demonstration and information on how you can save a life in critical condition.
Bone density test was performed for women over age of 45. Oby/Gyn services and bone density consultation was provided by Dr. R. Gardi and Dr. Kishore Lakhani.
Eye screening and consultation were provided by doctors and optometry students from Midwestern University of optometry. Joint and pain management consultation was given by Dr. Narayan (Bob) Tata.
This year, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) consultation and pediatric Consultation were also available. Hearing test and consultation was provided by Dr. Chandra Dachepalli. Over 250 Flu shots were given to patients.
The Health Fair was well organized and went very smoothly. Many happy faces were seen that they received the medical services they needed at one place without any cost to them.
This is the 29th year that Jayantibhai Thakkar is coordinating Health Fair in various temples in Chicago land area (1989-2018). This is his 43rd Health Fair, reflecting his continued services to the Indian community.
The Itasca Swaminarayan temple team did a great job providing all support and time for a good cause of the community. The temple provided tea, coffee, gotta and light snack to all patients and lunch for volunteers. Jayantibhai Thakkar thanked all volunteers for their valuable time to provide free volunteer services and their continued support and service.
