A nonprofit clinic offering free surgeries and other medical procedures to homeless or uninsured residents and those who are illegal immigrants is opening in Orange County, California, next spring.

The Lestonnac Free Clinic in the City of Orange will be renovating a space for a free surgery center, the first of its kind in Orange County, according to clinic officials.

Instead of a groundbreaking, the clinic hosted June 21 what it called a “wall-breaking” ceremony with sledgehammers tearing down a wall with text on it that read “Barriers to Healthcare.”

“Today has been an amazing day. First start of a free surgery. Something that has not occurred in the United States to this day,” Lestonnac Free Clinic Executive Director Edward Gerber said during the ceremony. “This is amazing to have the opportunity to be able to finish a project that helps people get to the end of a disease.”

Lestonnac Free Clinic's volunteers provide medical services to a patient in 2021. (Courtesy of Lestonnac Free Clinic)

First opened in 1979, the clinic now offers free primary health care services, dental and vision care, and more in more than a dozen locations across southern California.

For the last five years, it began offering free surgeries for uninsured patients through its partnership with the Beverly Hills Surgery Center in Los Angeles County. According to the nonprofit, 112 low-income and uninsured patients received free surgeries at the Beverly Hills location last year alone.

According to the nonprofit, the new clinic was made possible through a $3 million donation from the Thompson Family Foundation, a Missouri-based nonprofit aimed at helping children with special needs.

“I can’t imagine anything worse than an accident or an illness of a [family member] and not [being] able to find care, [or], if you do [find care], are unable to pay for it because you don’t have insurance,” foundation member Bill Thompson said in a recent interview with ABC 7 News. “We are just trying to help a bit. All of the work is done by the doctors.”

The 4,000-square-foot surgical center will be equipped for about 70 vital procedures accessible to Californians, regardless of residency documentation or status. Surgeons will be volunteers.

A Lestonnac Free Clinic volunteer helps a local resident in 2021. (Courtesy of Lestonnac Free Clinic)

Lestonnac was founded by Sister Marie Therese, a nun who dedicated the majority of her life to mission work in Brazil and Africa. After retiring at the age of 70, she discovered the lack of healthcare access to low-income residents in the area, including many families who were forced to either spend exorbitant amounts of money, or forgo care altogether, according to the nonprofit.

After visiting women who had given birth in garages to keep from paying hospital bills they could not afford, Therese founded Lestonnac Free Clinic, named after the foundress of her nun’s order—the Sisters of the Company of Mary—who worked to ensure that the underserved they encountered were provided with the resources they needed.

Lestonnac Free Clinic's volunteers pose for a photo in 2021. (Courtesy of Lestonnac Free Clinic)