FP Inspires National Conference Audience With Tales of Katrina

Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., provided a shot of inspiration to attendees at the 2006 National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students here, when she took the stage Aug. 2 to talk about her work providing health care to the underserved.

Benjamin founded Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic on Alabama's Gulf Coast in 1990. She's spoken to many audiences during the past few years and probably touched more than a few physicians with stories about the patients she serves in her clinic. But Benjamin's words on this occasion packed an emotional punch because she recounted tales of her community's battering by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

"The community came together to do what needed to be done," said Benjamin. "Patients needed primary care … that was so important at that moment in time."

A ripple of laughter ran through the audience when pictures of patient records -- spread out in long rows on a sidewalk to dry in the sun -- flashed up on a screen behind the stage. But the stories behind the photos told of the devasation delivered when a 25-foot wall of water left nearly 2,000 homes in the community uninhabitable and Benjamin's medical clinic in ruins. Benjamin recalled shrimp boats suspended in pine trees and a community whose economy was destroyed.

Even worse, her patients were desperate for medications lost in the storm.

Patients didn't have any money, Benjamin said, so she told the pharmacy to just bill her. "I didn't know how I would ever pay for it, but I knew they (patients) needed their medicine," she said. Thankfully, a grant paid off the prescription bill a few months later, she added.

Benjamin said fate dealt her yet another blow just before her rebuilt clinic reopened. The move-in day was scheduled for Jan. 2, 2006. "On New Year's Eve, the building burned to the ground," said Benjamin. Patients still needed medical care, so she and her staff continued to treat patients in a trailer they'd been using as a clinic since the hurricane.

"We'll be moving out in two weeks for a permanent building," she told the audience.

Family physicians are "truly blessed" by the trust that patients give them, said Benjamin, calling on residents and students to become leaders in their communities. Patients tell FPs their deepest, darkest secrets and allow them to hold their babies, she said. But with that gift of trust comes the responsibility to lead, she added.

"Kids look up to you, and as you continue to rise in your positions of leadership, you always have to reach back and pull someone else up with you," Benjamin said. A good leader will push those rising stars out in front and support them from behind, she added.

As she neared the end of her presentation, Benjamin encouraged her audience with these words: "It costs money to keep our doors open, but money isn't everything. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. The most valuable thing you can give is yourself."