PHOTOS: In the Delta, ‘the system is broken’

From left, Dr. Aaron Shirley, Doug Sutherlin and James Miller visit the Patients’ Choice Medical Center of Humphreys County in Belzoni, Miss., where they hope to start a “health house,” modeled after Iran’s rural healthcare delivery system.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

At a Greenwood, Miss., clinic, nurse Marcie Montgomery, left, checks on Brandon, 7 months, who is held by his mother, Rashaunda Pilcher.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Erlene Smith, 80, lives in a shotgun house in Baptist Town, a neighborhood in Greenwood, Miss. She once picked cotton -- work that has led to arthritis in her hands and legs. She is unable to get out of the house much and puts blankets over the windows and doors to fight off the cold.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Sylvester Hoover, 52, runs the only store in Baptist Town, a one-room grocery, laundromat and barbecue grill. He remembers when a group of Iranian doctors visited last year. “We played black gospel and blues for those Iranians,” he said. “They loved it.”  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Nurse Deanne Brown starts a fluid drip on Ida Bell Linzey, 54, who ended up at a hospital in Belzoni after neglecting to take her medication for diabetes.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Lee “Cowboy” Quarles, 60, of Baptist Town, was a sanitation worker, which has resulted in back problems. He needs help getting his healthcare papers submitted, services a neighborhood “health house” could provide.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

At Greenwood Leflore Hospital, Fiderikka McNeal, 23, holds her newborn son, Terral Alonzo Prayer, who will be transferred to Jackson, Miss., for further medical attention. Like many Greenwood residents, McNeal does not have health insurance.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Most residents of Baptist Town live below the poverty line and have no health insurance.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)