Zeng may not have to worry about translating for her parents much longer. The California Medical Association is expanding interpretation services throughout Santa Clara County to help physicians communicate with their patients who have limited English skills.

A recent study shows that 15 percent of Sunnyvale residents are Hispanic and 32 percent of residents are Asian. With these numbers growing larger as more immigrants move into the city, health care officials need medical interpreters to help doctors and patients communicate more effectively.

Translating is a lot of pressure, Zeng, 17, told the California Senate Judiciary Committee last year in a plea to the state to provide more translation services for immigrants.

Roman Porter, spokesperson for the California Medical Association, said that when a doctor and a patient cannot understand each other, there are several options. "The doctors can use their own staff to interpret or sometimes they call professional interpreters," Porter said. Professional interpreters can cost anywhere from one dollar per minute to a flat rate of $50 per session. Doctors also rely on staff in their office, Porter said.

Sometimes doctors ask the patients' children to interpret, which is a huge risk, said Porter. "There can often be situations where physicians will rely on family members, which can lead to medical errors," Porter said.

Grace Zeng said it is very difficult to translate because she doesn't know certain medical words in Chinese or English. "I'm afraid I will translate something wrong and that my mistakes will hurt my family," said Zeng, a San Francisco resident.

The situation is worse, she said, when she's not available to help her parents. This happened once when Zeng was knocked unconscious from a vase that fell on her head; her mother wasn't able to communicate with doctors in the emergency room. "I remember my mother running around, crying, and going from one person to another asking them to help me, but no one could speak to her. It was only after the doctor treated me that I was able to explain to her that I would be OK," Zeng said.

In order to help prevent these kinds of situations, the California Medical Association is putting out the call for volunteer interpreters. Volunteers must go through a one-day training seminar to learn basic medical terminology. The association is looking for volunteers who speak any language.

According to Jan Liu, policy analyst for the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, based in San Francisco, 50 percent of Medi-Cal patients in California do not speak English as their primary language. "This brings forth a host of problems because it's very difficult for those patients to access the health care system," Liu said. The need for medical interpreters is high, he said.

For more information, call the California Medical Association at 866.241.4CMA.