A Troubled Community.(South Central Los Angeles/Lynwood, California)

Perspective: Latino/Hispanic Health

Series Editors: Jose Spiwak, MD, and Jose Montano, MD

In South Central Los Angeles and nearby Lynwood, where we both are surgeons associated with St. Francis Medical Center, the busiest private trauma center in the Los Angeles area outside of the county system, the Mexican community is quite large. It's impossible not to notice that in this community, certain diseases and other conditions affecting health are more prevalent than in the general population.

For example, the incidence of diabetes mellitus, both type I and type II, is very high and is associated with myriad complications including high-risk pregnancies …