Top headlines of the week, March 21 2025
Here are some stories you may have missed on Dispatch.com and in the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.
- Jim Blocher, a 67-year-old uninsured man, discovered he has precancerous polyps after receiving a free colonoscopy at the Columbus Free Clinic.
- The clinic’s No Cost Colonoscopy program has performed over 130 colonoscopies, many which result in finding precancerous polyps.
- The program aims to break down barriers to colon cancer screenings, such as transportation and supplies, for uninsured and in-need patients.
When Jim Blocher got a colonoscopy at the Columbus Free Clinic, his doctor found a polyp the size of a lime.
Blocher, at age 67, was uninsured and decades overdue for a colonoscopy. Despite his age and a family history of cancer, he didn’t think about the procedure. He’d only come into the clinic, which partners with the Ohio State University as part of the Charitable Healthcare Network, to continue some medication. Once there, a provider asked whether he’d received a colonoscopy yet.
“Well, if it’s free, you know, it can’t hurt,” Blocher said.
When he agreed to one in 2022, at no cost to himself, they found the polyps in his system, including the lime-sized one, were precancerous.
Without that provider and the clinic’s No Cost Colonoscopy program, where uninsured and other in-need patients pay nothing for the expensive but necessary procedure, Blocher could have fallen to the same fate as many of his family members and died of cancer.
Breaking down barriers to too-common cancer screenings
Colon cancer is the third leading cancer in both men and women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.
“That, in and of itself, is a call to action for us to educate our patients as to why this is important to do, because it’s not something that is readily apparent until it’s too late,” said Matthew Yoder, one of the many OSU medical students that help run Columbus Free Clinic.
The clinic has performed 134 colonoscopies since its inception in 2022, and removed nearly 250 polyps. Roughly 70% of the patients who have received colonoscopies through the program had polyps of some kind. Once removed, the clinic found that approximately 50% of those polyps were precancerous.
“We stopped cancer in 50% of those patients, which is wild,” Yoder said. “It just continues to show us the importance of why we need to tell our patients you need to get screened in one way or another.”
But there are many barriers, especially for the population the free clinic primarily serves, including transportation and supplies for the bowel cleanse prior to a colonoscopy. The clinic does their best to take care of that, providing transportation to appointments, reminder calls and drinking water for the bowel preparation before the colonoscopy.
How to get in on this week’s clinic
If patients are interested in getting a colonoscopy this Saturday, March 29, you’ll need a referral from the Columbus Free Clinic or another clinic within the Charitable Healthcare Network to the colonoscopy program.
A volunteer will reach out to you if you’ve been referred, and if you’re eligible, you’ll be set up with an appointment on the Thursday before the colonoscopy, where you’ll receive bowel preparation medications. You can speak directly with a gastroenterologist about the bowel prep process before your Saturday procedure.
You can call 614-259-7707 for more information on the colonoscopy clinic.
“It’s a program that can really benefit people,” said Blocher, who is a staunch advocate for the clinic more than two years later. “Better safe than sorry.”
If you’re interested in donating to Columbus Free Clinic, you can find more information here.
Medical business and health care reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at [email protected] and @samanthajhendr on X, formerly known as twitter.
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