BRADENTON -- No one will make a television show about We Care Manatee’s health care clinic. There are no gunshot wounds, no cardiac arrests. People walk slowly and speak calmly.

But on the third Saturday of each month, its medical team heads off a medical crisis or two, saving patients from expensive surgeries or long and painful courses of treatment.

Over three hours, a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a medical student and two doctors -- all volunteers -- will see a dozen patients. Two of them illustrate the flaws in health care, and one charity’s way of solving them.

Most patients are a lot like Mike Murphy, a strapping guy who used to run a roofing company. As the construction market boomed, he took a job with a Gainesville distributor and made $70,000 a year. Then the bubble burst, and in 2007, he lost his job.

Two years later, his diabetes had caused nerve damage in his legs, the pain so bad it made it hard to walk and kept him awake at night. Meanwhile, he and his wife tried to get by on her $1,400 a month income. And with no insurance, he was in and out of emergency rooms, racking up bills and never solving the problem.

But Saturday is a good day. Petryniec pricks Murphy’s finger, dabs it with a test strip and feeds the droplet into a device that measures blood sugar. He’s doing better.

She hands him off to Upali Ranasinghe, a medical student entering his second year at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Lakewood Ranch. He reads the results of lab tests that mirror Petryniec’s finding. “That’s excellent. Congratulations on that,” he says.

Murphy is on medication for high cholesterol, another for high blood pressure and one more for the nerve pain. Ranasinghe updates the medical history with more questions, then summons Dr. George Gallati, a retired general surgeon and one of 63 local physicians who volunteer their services.

The clinic’s other public service -- a training ground for students -- becomes apparent. Ranasinghe recites Murphy’s medical history, and Gallati reviews the test results and medications. Gallati checks the pulse in Murphy’s feet to estimate his circulation, then asks Ranasinghe to do the same.

The improved blood sugar is from a combination of a better diet -- mostly beans, salad, chicken, Murphy says. The only caution is a stubborn cholesterol level, and Gallati adjusts the dosages.

As they take notes, Murphy recounts his history. “When I came in here, I could hardly walk,” he said. “Without them I don’t know what I’d do.”

How it all started

Manatee County doctors founded the charity in 1999. We Care Manatee is providing specialty care, from cardiology consultations to neurosurgery, to the area’s poor. The charity is now trying to raise money -- a meager $900 -- to buy post-operative supplies for its patients.

The Saturday morning primary clinic developed as a way to avoid some of those cases, by managing small problems before they turn into big ones. It uses the One Stop Center’s clinic space on 17th Street, but has no connection to that center’s programs.

We Care Manatee patients must live in Manatee, with incomes of two times the poverty level or less, have no insurance and be between 18 and 64. (Younger patients can qualify for children’s health programs, and older ones are eligible for Medicare.)

‘Meet Miss Rosa’

At around 10:15 a.m., in walks one of the staff’s favorite patients, Rosa Tsougas -- “Miss Rosa!” someone calls out.

She starts at the nurses’ station, where Petryniec checks her blood sugar. It’s “not good,” the nurse tells her.

Miss Rosa says she always feels stressed. She cares for her husband, a dialysis patient, and admits she neglects herself. “I wish you luck,” Anna says, softly, “but you have to take care of yourself.”

She next sits with Dr. Jennifer McCullen, an obstetrician and gynecologist, and former board member of We Care Manatee. It’s 11:35 a.m., and McCullen technically is on call, but she takes her time. And over 35 minutes, as she plays comedian, then police interrogator, then clergywoman, the history emerges.

Miss Rosa was diagnosed with diabetes 10 years ago, while living in Texas, but didn’t see a doctor again for six years, and couldn’t afford the medication they prescribed. Along the way, she had surgery for two detached retinas, commonly caused by diabetes. And, like Murphy, she may be developing nerve damage.

McCullen reorders the medication, and now cost is not an issue: We Care Manatee patients can get free medications, via a voucher program with Walmart. She and McCullen discuss plans to get a neurology consultation and schedule another appointment.

It’s well past noon when Miss Rosa leaves, and just McCullen and director Jill Gass are left.

Miss Rosa’s case is typical, McCullen says: People with chronic conditions that aren’t getting the regular care they need. Diabetes, for example, is treatable. But without treatment, she said, it can be vicious: your kidneys can fail, you can go blind, you can die.

“These people come in here with the blood sugar levels over 300, they’re going to have the bad outcomes, and you and I are going to pay for it, she said.

“We can save lives. We can help the people who never knew they had a problem because they couldn’t afford medical care.”

David Gulliver, Herald reporter, can be reached at 745-7080, ext. 2630.