OXNARD : Barbecue to Help Russian Student

When Vladimir Kalugin slashed his foot on broken glass in his native Moscow, it might have seemed fortunate that his medical treatment at the hands of Soviet doctors was free.

But the job was botched, and when he became a student at Oxnard College last year, he needed more surgery. Now he is struggling to pay $4,000 in medical bills his student insurance won’t cover because the injury was pre-existing.

Kalugin’s plight has touched the college’s students, faculty and staff, who are holding a barbecue today to benefit the 28-year-old philosophy student.

They are serving up a barbecued beef spread from 1 to 4 p.m. on the Oxnard College cafeteria lawn. Tickets are $7. Music and a raffle also are planned.

“This is really wonderful,” Kalugin said Friday in a campus interview. “I’m so grateful to the college.”

He was working as a computer technician in Moscow when he stepped on the glass in July, 1989. The doctor in the Moscow emergency room sewed up his slashed Achilles’ tendon but apparently didn’t check for glass in his foot, Kalugin said. “It doesn’t seem they did a good job,” he said. He went back a month later and doctors removed a 2-inch shard.

When he arrived in Oxnard in June, 1990, his foot was still bothering him. Finally, wracked by swelling and infection, he underwent more surgery at Ventura County Medical Center last December, when doctors removed eight more pieces of glass.

He is paying for the surgery in monthly $200 installments--half his salary as a clerk in the college’s international student office. His foot is still swollen and requires more surgery. Local podiatrist John B. Collet said he has volunteered to assist Kalugin free of charge.

The ordeal has made Kalugin cynical about Soviet medical care. During his treatment in Moscow, he said, one Soviet doctor said: “You get what you are not paying for.” He is pleased with the medical care he has received in this country, but he doesn’t think the American system is the best either.

“It’s a shame if people can’t afford to pay for medical treatment and they die on the street,” he said. “There should be something in between, like they have in England and Sweden.”