Although his mouth was stuffed with blood-soaked wads of cotton, Gilbert Ortega called Tuesday his lucky day.

He'd had five decayed teeth pulled and was being tested for new eyeglasses to replace those that were so old, it was difficult for him to read or drive.

"It's all been good ... so many people have come to help me," mumbled Ortega, 53, of Culver City. "I should have done all this when I had health insurance."

The phrase "when I had health insurance" seemed as common as cotton swabs at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, where the first day of a week-long mega-clinic drew 1,500 people for free vision, medical, and dental care.

It was the second year that organizers with Remote Area Medical brought their operation to Los Angeles. And while hundreds of dentists, family practitioners, internists, acupuncturists, opthamologists, nurses and aides volunteered their time, there were still not enough to treat all those deemed "medically indigent."

"The finest healthcare technology and finest practitioners are here in the United States, but unfortunately that technology and those practitioners are not reaching many people," said RAM founder Stan Brock, best known as the burly animal wrestler on TV's "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" in the 1960s.

In Los Angeles, where the unemployment rate hovers at 12 percent, at least 2.2 million list themselves as underinsured or lacking any coverage at all.

Tennessee-based RAM is

Brock, dressed in his trademark khakis, escorted California's First Lady Maria Shriver around the Sports Arena, where she saw women waiting for their first-ever pap smears and mammograms, and rows of senior citizens holding prescriptions for eyeglasses.

By far, the greatest need was for dental care among those who scored a wristband on Sunday that guaranteed entry into the clinic on Tuesday.

"I just saw a lady with several broken, cracked teeth," said Dr. Orest Bauer, a Navy dentist based in Oxnard.

"We're seeing that, along with wide cavities."

Shriver deflected any irony in her presence even though last summer Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made cuts to the state funded Denti-Cal as a result of the budget crises.

Instead, she called the collision of the healthcare and economic crises a national issue and praised volunteers with her organization, We Connect, as well as the agencies, universities, and non-profit agencies that donated time and talent to care for the needy.

"It's a great day for L.A., but also a sobering, humbling moment in L.A. and the state," Shriver said. "I'm sorry we have this need in the state and in the country."

Outside the arena, hundreds of people with orange wristbands waited in the chilly, overcast morning to hear their numbers called to go inside.

Woodworker Joe Sanchez, 59, of San Dimas, said he lost his job - and his health insurance - in December. As luck would have it, two lower teeth began to ache just after he was let go.

"I think we're lucky to have this," he said of the clinic. "I wasn't around during the Depression, but I can only imagine how much those people then suffered."

Marcie Flores lives rent-free as a result of her job as an apartment manager, but still can't afford the cost of dental insurance.

"It's strange to come here, but it's a comfort," the 34-year-old Hollywood resident said. "When I got my wristband on Sunday, I felt relieved, even better."

Don Manelli, who produced the clinic at the Forum last year and again this year, said the Los Angeles event was made possible because of volunteers and in-kind cash to support the effort. He hopes nearly 8,000 will be served this time.

"This is the L.A. community helping its own," he said.

Brock and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, meanwhile, say they are urging Congress to allow physicians to be able to volunteer their time across state lines.

He said more volunteers would be needed as the clinic continues through next week.

"We hope to come again, perhaps go to the beach and not treat people because (by then) the (healthcare) problem will have been solved," Brock said.