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Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/853426
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 8.17 71 Dr. Michael Imburgia grabs a mop and gets to work, shining up the floors at the Have a Heart Clinic in downtown Louisville. San- dy Imburgia, his wife of 31 years, who vacuums the carpeted lobby, will later joke: "I've never seen him do the floors at home. Never!" Right now, though, it's just before 8 on a Saturday morning and soon patients will file in to the free cardiovascular clinic for uninsured, low-income patients. Everyone who works here — from the cardiologists and echocardio- gram tech to the security guard and schedulers — are volunteers. So occasionally doctors deal with dust. But here's the thing about Imburgia: No one asked the 59-year-old to mop. ere's no sign-up sheet or chore rotation schedule. In Imburgia's perfect world, the quality of care, look and atmosphere of Have a Heart should match that of his private cardiovascular practice in St. Matthews. Here's another thing about Imburgia: When he reads this, his brown eyes will probably wince from behind his glasses, his forehead crinkling beneath his short salt-and-pepper hair. He may even get a touch steamed, his lips stiffening above the dimple in his chin. Imburgia really doesn't want this story to be about him. When I ask him where he's from, he replies, "It's really not about me." (His wife will later share that he spent most of his childhood in a small town south of Chicago.) But without Imburgia, Have a Heart would not exist. Sandy, who is a nurse, and Sue Dillon, an echo tech who has been working with Imburgia since the '80s, also belong at the center of Have a Heart's origin story. In 2008, after years of meeting patients who delayed care because of cost or got ignored by providers due to a lack of insurance, the trio decided to start seeing indigent patients for free on the weekends out of Imburgia's St. Matthews office. Heart disease is the number-one killer for all men and women. It disproportionally hits low-income in- dividuals. Eighty percent of people with uncontrolled hypertension and cholesterol are uninsured. About half of patients seen in free and charitable clinics have hypertension; a little less than half have high cholesterol. And 40 percent of all indigent care clinic visits are related to cardiovascular disease. For years, Imburgia and his team committed a couple Saturdays a month to indigent care in his clinic that's affiliated with Baptist Health Louisville. Imburgia and his wife often paid (and continue to pay) for medicine patients couldn't afford, gas cards, bus passes, take-home blood-pressure cuffs. en in 2014, Imburgia read the "Louisville Metro Health By Anne Marshall Illustration by Rachael Sinclair Photo by Mickie Winters Little money, no insurance and chest pains. One clinic will gladly see you, for free. HEART FROM THE