Today we remember Dr. Phil Ortiz. Dr. Phil founded I Care International in 1989, along with Dr. Chuck Cools. I Care International continues to honor Dr. Phil by continuing his work. This year we will be traveling to the San Lucas Toliman area, in Guatemala, with a team of 38 volunteers departing on March 1st. We will be sending out a newsletter soon with the details.
We recently came upon two interesting newspaper articles from 1990 that we wanted to share with you. Dr. Phil was committed to helping people throughout his life with the gift of better vision. He was not able to deliver the gift of better vision to Juanita Mondragon, a young woman he met at a clinic in Mexico, but he did the very best he could to improve her quality of life. Dave McClure, longtime I Care member, was with Dr. Phil during this clinic in 1989 and has shared his memory of that day.
Thank you, Dr. Phil, for all that you did to help others along the way.
From Dave McClure
I was being taught to adjust glasses by optician Tony Ortiz, also my brother-in-law, and trying to be useful when Juanita Mondragon walked slowly into the I Care clinic. She wore large sunglasses and was arm and arm between her elderly mother and her oldest brother. The clinic was in Amealco, a small village in the state of Queretaro north of Mexico City. It was cold. We were up in the mountains.
It was February 1989. Dr. Phil Ortiz, Tony’s brother, organized the clinic by working directly with the Mexican government. To make it happen Phil’s Mexican contacts created a community committee of local volunteers, which included the mayor of the village. They arranged for our stay in a modest hotel, selected the clinic site, and took care of our needs.
Interpreters were recruited, including persons fluent in both Spanish and the pre-Columbian language of the Otomi people, an indigenous tribe that lived apart from the village but in the area.
When we arrived that first day there was a line out the door, down the street, and around the corner. Juanita Mondragon was allowed to jump the line. Our clinic hosts were pleased she had made it. They worked hard to persuade her family to bring her for an exam. They had doubts, as did Juanita.
The three Mondragons walked up to Tony and I. Tony’s Spanish was much better than mine. They traded a few sentences before Tony removed Juanita’s sunglasses. He looked at me with alarm.
“Go get Phil.”
That was the beginning of a new life for Juanita Mondragon.
Juanita, 34 at that time, had been blind from birth. Because of her appearance, she was ridiculed in public. Her parents protected her to a fault. She had never attended school, rarely left the house, and was very dependent on her mother.
Later that night, over drinks in a crowded hotel room, I asked Phil about Juanita.
“That girl was born without eyes, or eyelids. She has very shallow eye sockets. It’s called microphthalmia. I studied it but have never seen it.”
“What is it?”
“Birth defect. She has tiny, crystallized eyeballs behind the skin that covers her eye sockets. Thankfully, her bone structure seems normal. They can create eye sockets which will accept prosthetic eyes. They do it in Chicago. It’ll take several operations, and we’ll have to care for her in Illinois. It will be a long and expensive process. Lots of plastic surgery. The best thing is she’s intelligent and has a strong family. She’s the ninth of ten children. Her oldest brother understands she needs to live independently. He promised they would do whatever we needed to make it happen.”
Phil took a drink. Normally, he would be more excited.
“Something wrong?”
“She thought I could make her see. I had to tell her I couldn’t. She has no optic nerve. You can’t recreate eyes. I told her we could make her look normal, and she accepted that. Can’t decide what eye color she wants. It’s between blue and green.”
Phil pitched Juanita’s surgery to the Lions of Illinois Foundation in River Forest. Dr. Allen Putterman agreed to do the surgeries. Within months, Juanita was flown to Chicago and brought to Ottawa to stay with Phil’s mother, Jennie. Between surgeries, the University of Illinois Eye Center taught her to read braille. In total, $30,000 was raised to transform Juanita’s life. The money was important of course, but it was Dr. Phil Ortiz that made it happen. He and the organization he helped create, I Care International.
