At 17 months old, Marissa Martinez couldn't tell her mother why she felt sick.
But it took volunteer nurse practitioner Valerie Cook only minutes to determine the little girl was suffering from a double ear-infection.
Cook gave Martinez's mother, Nicky
Martinez, a prescription for free antibiotics and weighed
Marissa at a free health clinic at San Marcos Elementary School
before sending both out the door and apologizing for the crowded
and chilly exam room.
"We would have stripped her (Marissa) down and put her on the
baby scale but it's impossible in here," Cook said.
The Chandler Care Center is squished into two classrooms that total 1,300 square feet. Boxes of soup, corn and pasta are stacked high in a corner of the room, putting the baby scale out of Cook's reach.
The Chandler Unified School District is hoping to change that by raising more than $1 million to build a new, 8,800-square-foot clinic at another school, Galveston Elementary, a few miles away.
"We love you guys," said Nicky Martinez, a Chandler mother of two who can't afford health insurance. "I really do hope they finance a bigger clinic; it will help the families that have nowhere to turn."
The need for a new clinic is growing, said Susan Horan, who is spearheading a clinic fundraising project as the district's resource development project director.
"The need is going up because of the economy," she said. "Parents are losing their jobs and hence their health insurance."
The district has raised about $2.4 million in donations for the $3.7 million facility so far. Among the donors are the Chandler Unified School District itself, Chandler Regional Medical Center, the Chandler Service Club and a foundation established by grocer Eddie Basha.
The new clinic is designed to "green building standards" that make it more energy efficient and allow the district to sell back extra electricity to the grid as a way of generating additional income.
"We're claiming to the community that we're taking care of the environment as much as we're taking care of the children," Horan said. "We want it to be safe and free of allergens."
The new facility would include a dental clinic, three sick-patient exam rooms, areas for immunizations, hearing and vision exam rooms and two large adult education classrooms. Among the biggest improvements would be isolating children with infectious diseases, such as pink eye and rashes such as chicken pox and scabies, from other children.
In the current setup, children suspected of having infectious ailments must wait outside in a cold or hot courtyard, depending on the time of year.
A young boy who came to the facility with his mother Thursday morning fell into that category and was forced to wait outside on a picnic bench until the nurse practitioner could see him.
"One of the needs for more space is that we need to isolate children with something potentially contagious like that," said Horan, gesturing to the boy.
In many cases, parents have no place to take their sick children short of a hospital emergency room.
That was the case for Jennifer Moon, whose 4-year-old daughter Cheyenne has been battling a cough and runny nose for several days.
"I just want to rule out an ear infection," said Jennifer, adding that her husband makes too much money to qualify for free or reduced health insurance from the state.
Cook examined Cheyenne by checking her throat and ears and lungs.
"Sorry my hands are cold," Cook said to the child. "We have a lot of cold water here. We're hoping that we're going to get a new clinic."
Cook determined that the girl had a head cold and that over-the-counter saline nose drops would improve her sinuses. She cautioned her mother against using cold medicine, which can be harmful to young children.
In the first several hours of the clinic, which is open two and a half days a week, Cook treated 17 patients with a wide range of ailments, from pneumonia to skin rashes.
The clinic takes walk-ins and appointments and sees about 40 patients each week. It also gives free immunizations to about 70 patients a week and offers free physicals to students who want to play sports. In addition, it gives free food and clothes to low-income families. The only requirement: They must be Chandler residents.
The new facility will have more room to continue those services and to treat more patients.
"Absolutely it will help us treat more patients because we'll have three exam rooms so we can have three doctors at one time," Horan said.