Thousands Respond to CHEC Program

              Monday, May 13, 1974
Thousands Respond
To CHEC Program
By Lynn Stewart
Of The Times Staff
Local residents turned out
In force for the Community
(Hypertension Evaluation
Clinic (CHEC) over the
weekend and officials termed
the clinic a tremendous suc-cess
after all the tabulations
were in yesterday.
"We think this has been the
most successful project of this
type in the state and probably
in the country," said Dr.
Stephen Glasser, CHEC
project director.
Figures showed that a total
of 12,224 persons received free
blood pressure tests during
the two - day clinics at
Shreveport and Bossier City
high schools. Of that number,
3,539 persons, or 29 per cent,
were referred to their
physicians for having high
blood pressure. Most were
unaware of any blood pres-sure-
related problem, of-ficials
said.
In addition, Dr. Glasser
said, at least four or five per-sons
were diagnosed as
having dangerously high
blood pressure and were
referred for emergency care.
"These are probably directly
.saved lives," he said.
Glasser estimated that
about four to five per cent of
the Shreveport - Bossier area
population took advantage of
the free tests.
Although some persons had
predicted that the Mother's
Day weekend might be a bad
time for the clinic, Glasser
said it may have been helpful
since concerned children may
have brought their mothers to
the clinics Sunday. He said
about as many persons took
part in the clinics from noon
to 5 p.m. Sunday as par-ticipated
in the Saturday
clinics offered from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m.
The clinic was cosponsored
by Shreveport Medical
Society, Louisiana Heart As-sociation
and the Louisiana
State University School of
Medicine in Shreveport.
The next step, Glasser said,
will be to send letters to those
3,539 persons referred to their
physicians "to be sure they
have seen a doctor or to en-courage
them to see a doc-tor."
Mandel Selber Jr.,
president of the Northwest
Unit of the Louisiana Heart
Association, praised the ef-forts
of the community in
providing volunteer work.
"The success of the CHEC
program is due to the tremen-dous
effort of more than 800
volunteers, both professional
and clerical," he said. "Their
hard work throughout the two
- day program has resulted in
a very meaningful and impor-tant
contribution for the
health and well - being of our
community," he said.
Among services volunteers
performed, in addition to the
actual blood pressure
measurement by profes-sionals,
were clerical duties,
operation of ham radios un-der
the direction of Dr. Norm
Zaffater and supervision by
law enforcement officers.
A valuable service was
provided, officials said, by
the McDonald Corp. which
contributed to the effort one
of its 14 "Bic Mac" coaches
used for civic and charitable
purposes. The coach was
operated by Bob Spence of
Dallas, a member of Mc-
Donald's public relations
department, and acted as a
liason for the project direc-tors
by taking them and their
equipment to all 12 high
schools whenever they were
needed. McDonald's also
provided free food for the
volunteer workers and orange
drink for each person
screened.
Dr. Albert Hand, president
of the Shreveport Medical
Society, commented, 'It is so
gratifying that our com-munity
has been made more
aware of the need for health
check - ups, not only in the
blood pressure area but in
other areas as well."