Meet our next Surgeon General nominee, Dr. Regina Benjamin, MD. Well, after I saw this doctor introduced what do you think came to my mind? Yep, I noticed that she is fat. I didn't think about her qualifications, experience, or what she has to offer the country but rather I thought about her being overweight. Why should this overweight woman represent our nation even in such a nominal, symbolic position as Surgeon General? Thank goodness I am a news junkie and began learning more about her and began to appreciate how fortunate we are to have physicians like Dr. Benjamin.First, her personal history. Born to a poor family in Mobile, Alabama, her brother died of HIV, dad died of diabetes, and mom died of lung cancer. She went to Xavier for undergrad and then medical school at Alabama and topped it off with an MBA from Tulane. Rather than pursuing a career in the more lucrative areas of medicine she went into family practice opening her own rural clinic in a small shrimping village called Bayou La Batre, Alabama. She moonlighted in ERs and at nursing homes to keep her practice going.
Her beloved clinic was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina but she had it rebuilt. The day before the reopening it burned down. So she rebuilt it again and it is in operation today. But check out her list of awards and honors:
- 1998 received the "Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights"
- Time Magazine's "Nation's 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under"
- Featured in New York Time as "Angel in a White Coat"
- ABC's "Person of the Week"
- CBS This Morning's and People Magazine's "Woman of the Year"
- 1999 Clarity Magazine gave her the Mother Teresa inspired "National Caring Award"
- 2006 she was awarded the papal cross, Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by Pope Benedict XVI
- 2008 she was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by US News & World Report
- 2008 given a "Genius Award" by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
I would rather have a Surgeon General that is an overweight altruistic doctor who has practiced family medicine and given her life to her field for very little financial gain only because she wants to help the poor than a strikingly handsome TV surgeon anyday. Gupta should be ashamed seeing this kind, capable woman eagerly accepting this calling only because maybe, just maybe, she might be able to help more people by taking the job and that the position is not about money, it is about helping others.
However, it would be nice if she leads by example and takes this time to get in better shape demonstrating to the world that if a 52 year old woman can lose weight anyone can. Overweight or not, this woman gives me hope for our nation's health care system. I'm a cynic and forget at times that there are some doctors out there that are not in medicine for money or prestige but to help people.
On the other hand obesity in America is an epidemic and do we really want the symbolic head of our health services corp an overweight person even if she is a highly qualified physician? What do you think?
4 comments:
What did you think of me when we first met?
I'm glad you took the time to find out her qualifications. That's more than a lot of us would do. I do think you are putting too much emphasis in being overweight. Yes, she probably does have a weight management problem. But that obviously does not interfere with her qualifications. She is a Dr, and she is human. She sounds like an amazing woman! And are you Daniel or Heidi?
Daniel, it's always Daniel.
I think if she really is a highly qualified, sincere doctor, her weight is secondary. Of course she should lead by example, but that isn't really her job, to be an example.
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