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Seeing a Need : Optometrist Provides No-Cost Eye Care for the Poor

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Albert Forbes once considered retirement. He even tried it for a while.

After all, he is 75. And he had spent nearly 20 years doctoring eyes in East Los Angeles. So he sold his optometry practice 10 years ago, bought a home on the beach in Oxnard and started taking it easy.

But the easy life didn’t last long. Everywhere he looked--in schools and hospitals and health clinics--there were people who couldn’t afford eye care.

And Forbes, a Polish immigrant who never could stumble across a problem without trying to fix it, said he just couldn’t sit around when the need in Ventura County was so great.

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About three years ago, he volunteered to provide free vision care for children and senior citizens in Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood through health programs at St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

A short time later, he established an eye-care clinic for the poor at the county hospital in Ventura. Eventually, he recruited other optometrists so the clinic could be open once a week.

Last month, Forbes opened a second clinic, this one at the Public Health Department in south Oxnard.

No longer do county residents need money or medical insurance to receive eye exams and glasses.

By knocking on doors and making phone calls, by begging favors and refusing to take no for an answer, Forbes has patched together a system of no-cost eye care for those who can least afford it.

“I just can’t walk away from things when they need to be taken care of,” Forbes explained. “You’ve got to do something with your life. Otherwise you’re just taking up space.”

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Of course, Forbes hasn’t done it alone. Optometrists in Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura abandon private practices once a month to work for free in the eye-care clinics. The county has donated rent-free space for the endeavor. And a number of optical companies and eyeglass manufacturers also provide lenses and frames for free.

Still, those who know Forbes best agree it was his persistence that brought life to the idea of eye care for all.

“It’s really a great program,” said Lisa Knapp, an Oxnard optometrist who volunteers at the Ventura County Medical Center eye clinic. “He saw there was a need, and he committed to it. He has really made it happen, pretty much by himself.”

And no one is surprised that Forbes, once retired, didn’t stay retired.

“He’s not the retiring type,” said Evelyn Burge, a public health nurse who rounds up clients for the free clinics. “We’re fortunate to have people like that.”

On that point, Maria Rodriguez couldn’t agree more.

Last week, she brought her 6-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, into the clinic at the county medical center. After an eye exam at school, a nurse had told the girl she needed glasses.

“We don’t have the money. We barely have enough to give our children something to eat,” said Rodriguez, a farm worker from Santa Paula. “It’s a big help for us.”

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On this day, Camarillo optometrist Dean Amundsen was running the clinic. He has had a private practice for 10 years, and has volunteered at the clinic for about a year.

He would staff the clinic for more than three hours, long enough to see half a dozen patients.

“I think I’m at the point in my practice where I’m busy enough that I can donate some time,” said Amundsen, president of the Tri-County Optometric Society. “It’s a pretty big effort when it comes down to it. And Dr. Forbes to a large degree is responsible for setting this up. “

Forbes was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States when he was 18 months old. His parents made their way to California in 1921, where they established a chain of grocery stores.

He attended Virgil Junior High School, Los Angeles’ oldest junior high. He went to Fairfax High, Santa Monica City College, USC and the Southern California College of Optometry.

Then World War II broke out, and Forbes served in the Pacific with the Navy. He was discharged in 1945 and established a private practice in East Los Angeles.

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In Los Angeles, he raised three children. And it was there that his dedication to community service was born. He sat on the board of directors of the Eastside Boys Club and served on a variety of other community groups.

“He’s just got this urge to do,” said Cecelia, his wife of 53 years. “He’s always been that way. I’m sort of used to it by now.”

Even after her husband retired and they moved to Ventura County, Cecelia said she had little faith that he would stay out of circulation for long.

She was right. Forbes got to know the nurses at St. John’s Hospital a few years ago, when he went in for back surgery. About three years ago, Gloria Chinea, a hospital health education worker, asked if Forbes would volunteer to help out at a children’s health fair in La Colonia.

“He has the energy,” Chinea said. “I just saw the talent.”

Most recently, Forbes has been directing his talent toward battling diabetes-related eye disease.

Through his efforts, more than 30 optometrists from Thousand Oaks to Port Hueneme have volunteered to provide free eye exams in November--National Diabetes Month--to diabetics and others at risk of developing diabetic eye disease.

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Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in people between 20 and 74. More than 50,000 diabetics live in Ventura County, and many of them have never had their eyes examined.

The disease hits minorities hard, striking one in three Native Americans and one in seven Latinos.

“If there is no early intervention, you can almost predict there will be diabetic eye disease eventually, which could lead to blindness,” Forbes said.

Noelia Chavez, of the Latino advocacy group El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, said of Forbes: “We realize the seriousness of diabetes in the Latino community. And he has certainly taken a leadership role in helping address this issue.”

Forbes said he hasn’t done anything that anyone else, with a little bit of knowledge and time on his hands, wouldn’t have done.

And he says it is others who deserve the credit. Optometrists like Michael Boggs in Ventura and Thomas Wolf in Oxnard also staff the clinics. And he salutes businesses as well, like Ventura Optical, which provides the lenses, and JAV Optical in Oxnard, which puts them into frames.

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“You just make things happen because it isn’t that difficult,” Forbes said. “I’m sure a lot of people are no different than I am.”

Besides, Forbes said, helping out makes him feel useful. And it makes him feel young.

“When you get in your 70s, people think you’re an old geezer,” he said. “I wasn’t about to let myself be classified that way. I feel like they’re doing me a favor at times.”

FYI

November is National Diabetes Month and more than 30 Ventura County optometrists have volunteered to provide free exams to screen for diabetes-related eye disease. More than 50,000 diabetics live in Ventura County, and many have never had eye exams. For more information, call 1-800-DIABETES.

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