Nurse who founded free Peachtree City health clinic honored

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. - A free medical clinic in Peachtree City is honoring the nurse who started it back in 2009.

Ruth McCommon, who is now 85 years old, returned to the Healing Bridge Clinic in Peachtree City. It is a medical facility she started in 2009 with the help of a Sunday school class at Peachtree City’s First Baptist Church.

"Some said to me, it will never happen," McCommon said.

McCommon retired to Texas and returned to see how her dream had flourished. She had been a missionary nurse in Africa and was living in Peachtree City in 2008 when she felt the calling to establish a clinic that provided free medical care to Fayette County’s uninsured.

"If we were not doing a medical ministry, we were not doing what Jesus did," she said. "Deacons can be difficult. Pastors can be difficult. Committees can be against you. But if God wants it, it will still happen."

Healing Bridge saw 17 patients on its first night in 2009. Now open with weekly clinics serving Fayette and surrounding counties, the clinic sees 1,200 patients a year and has provided $1.7 million in 2021 in free medical care through its team of volunteer doctors and nurses. The specialty areas include prenatal care, cardiology, orthopedics, and behavioral health just to name a few. 

"What she saw as a need in 2008-2009, has just morphed into this tremendous need today," said Mike Conaway, Executive Director of the Healing Bridge Clinic

Reporter: "Is there any satisfaction in being right?"

McCommon: "Well, I said I would answer your questions (Laughs). Satisfaction comes in knowing that you’ve done what God called you to do."

There are eligibility requirements that can found on their website: healingbridgeclinic.org.