By TOM KISKEN, Scripps Howard News Service

A person suffering an apparent stroke is rushed to a hospital in Ventura County, Calif. sometime after 7 p.m. Almost instantly, e-mailed images of the patient's brain emerge on Dr. James Brull's computer in Hays, Kan.

Dr. Catherine Kim of Simi Valley, Calif. can't do it. Her practice as an obstetrician-gynecologist is based on medical science. But her convictions as a born-again Christian sculpt every aspect of her life, from the Bible stories she reads to her kids before bedtime to the prayers she offers people who visit her office.

It's not the uninsured. It's not illegal immigrants.

The Californians most likely to crowd hospital emergency rooms -- often with fevers or infections that could be treated elsewhere -- are insured by the government and born in the United States, according to a new statewide study.

The brain tumor that threatened to kill Lupe Carrillo is now being used to help him survive.

The 61-year-old Oxnard, Calif., man, diagnosed with a cancer that carries a 98 percent fatality rate, is being treated with an experimental vaccine made of his own white blood cells and amino acids from the tumor.

Pain patients understand why California's attorney general says he needs to raise $3.5 million to stop addicts and drug dealers who use doctors to stockpile Vicodin and OxyContin.

Maria and Rick Kent want to do all they can to save their 23-month-old daughter from leukemia.

That desire is propelling the Simi Valley, Calif., couple down an intricate and controversial path. They plan on having another child to increase the chances that Hailey Joy will be able to find a match if she needs a second stem cell transplant.

VENTURA, Calif. -- There are many reasons H. Gene Hansmeier wants to retire. He has worked since he was 10 and delivered the Waterloo Courier newspaper in Iowa. He wants to restore antique Fords, build his own furniture and travel to Ireland with his wife.

He was a war veteran, a business owner and a man who always took care of himself. But in the last months of his life, he lost control of his bladder.

His family didn't talk about it, instead protecting his mattress with padding because he refused to wear Depends. They didn't talk about a lot of things, like the time he fell in the shower and needed help.