A 40-year-old father of five had a stroke that a $10 pill could have prevented.

In our emergency room: a preventable stroke in a 40-year-old father

His wife sat in the waiting room with their five children. Behind the curtain, her 40-year-old husband could not move the left side of his body. His scan showed a stroke caused by years of untreated high blood pressure. When he could finally speak, his first question was whether he would still be able to work, because his family lived on his paycheck.

Years of high blood pressure that went unnoticed

High blood pressure has no symptoms. You feel fine while it quietly damages your blood vessels. He had no insurance, so he never had a checkup, never got a diagnosis and never took a single pill.

Four barriers that kept him away from the community health center in his own town

His town had a community health center, often called an FQHC (a federally funded clinic that must see everyone, insured or not, and charges based on income).

• He feared the bill. He thought a visit would cost hundreds of dollars. Nobody told him the health center charges by income, often $20 to $30 a visit.
• The hours clashed with his job. The health center was open only during his shifts, and a missed shift meant a missed day of pay.
• The phone line was a dead end. He called the health center once to ask for a new-patient appointment. An automated recording made him press one number after another to choose a department. When he finally reached the front desk, they told him the next opening for new patients was weeks away and put him on a waiting list. Nobody called him back.
• Nobody helped him apply for Medicaid. He never learned whether he qualified, because the forms were confusing and he had no one to guide him.

What would have prevented it: a $10 pill and one person to guide him

A common blood pressure pill costs about $10 a month. One affordable visit, one prescription and one person to help him through the system could have kept him walking and working.

He didn't fall through the cracks because care didn't exist. He fell through because nobody helped him find it.

Why a hospital doctor started this Foundation

I am a hospital physician. I have cared for hundreds of patients like him. I started the Foundation to give the next person a price they can see, a clinic they can reach and help getting in the door, before they end up in my emergency room.

Harsha Moole, MD, Founder

Names and details are changed to protect privacy.