Benjamin: Leaving patients ‘bittersweet’
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Regina M. Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., to be surgeon general, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.
Benjamin, a doctor who has been practicing in rural Alabama, made news after Hurricane Katrina by rebuilding her rural clinic - and having to rebuild it again after it burned down.
As we noted when Benjamin was nominated, the Associated Press says Benjamin “was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and last fall received a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant.’” And “A decade ago, the New York Times called her ‘angel in a white coat,’ a country doctor who made house calls along the impoverished Gulf Coast, paid whatever her patients could scrounge.”
WKRG-Mobile/Pensacola has the news, comments from Sen. Jeff Sessions and reaction from Benjamin:
See President Obama’s announcement in July of Benjamin’s nomination:
Obama picks rural Ala. doctor for surgeon general
The Associated Press reports that Obama has chosen a family physician from Alabama to be the next surgeon general. The announcement will be made today in the Rose Garden.
According to the AP, Regina Benjamin “was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and last fall received a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant.’”
Following Hurricane Katrina, she made news by rebuilding her rural clinic - and having to rebuild it again after it burned down. And “A decade ago, the New York Times called her ‘angel in a white coat,’ a country doctor who made house calls along the impoverished Gulf Coast, paid whatever her patients could scrounge.”
ABC News’ Jake Tapper has more about Benjamin.
On the Patient Empowerment Blog, Trisha Torry discusses what the surgeon general’s role is.
Read more about Benjamin as developments unfold today.
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