A Healing Force (page 3 of 3)

Ready for Renewal

Back at the clinic these days, conditions have begun to improve. Workers from a Mobile construction company tore up the old wood floor of the original 2,000-square-foot structure, ripped out wiring and insulation, and bleached the walls. Volunteers from Clark Construction in Bethesda, Maryland, are rebuilding the interior.

Benjamin, meanwhile, collected $73,000 from her insurance company. She doesn't worry so much anymore about paying the bills. "I figure I'll find a way," she says, adding that she's currently bringing in some extra money giving speeches to health care groups.

Unlike many New Orleans residents, most townspeople of Bayou La Batre plan to stay put, despite their losses. Benjamin has applied for grants to get a part-time psychiatrist to help patients handle the hardship. At press time, she hoped the clinic would reopen shortly after the first of the year.

"There's a lot of anxiety and depression now," she says. "People who worked all their lives and never asked for anything are having to ask for everything."

The seafood industry in the gulf region is not expected to recover. Prices in the past year -- before the hurricane -- were among the lowest in history, with cheaper farm-raised foreign imports accounting for 90 percent of U.S. shrimp consumption. Many of the shrimp processing plants wiped out by Katrina won't be rebuilt. Most shrimpers who lost their boats had neither insurance nor money in the bank. Many will have to find other livelihoods.

As for the town, a real estate developer plans to build an upscale tourist resort, complete with high-rise condominiums and a marina. The project may eventually create hundreds of jobs for local residents.

For the short term, though, Bayou La Batre remains a melancholy place. Pine trees, usually green all year, are windburned and brown. Mounds of refuse still line the streets, and blue tarps cover damaged roofs. But every evening, as daylight wanes, there are two reminders that life holds hope. One is the glorious, orange-hued sky as the sun slips silently into the Gulf of Mexico. The other beacon is the light blue pickup with the white-coated doctor at the wheel, rumbling across piny back roads toward the lonely lights of another distant trailer.

************* UPDATE:

After months of work, rebuilding with donations and the help of volunteers, Dr. Regina Benjamin was set to reopen her nonprofit medical clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, on January 2, 2006. But at 5 a.m. New Year's day, police called to say that the building was on fire. By the time Benjamin arrived, it was gutted. The cause of the blaze, the state fire marshal says, is "undetermined but not suspicious."

It was the third time in eight years that the rural clinic has been destroyed, but Benjamin will rebuild again. "The patients keep me going," she says. One disabled woman, with little money to spare, brought Benjamin a card with nearly $200 tucked inside. "Maybe I can help," an elderly man offered. "I got a hammer."


If you would like to make contributions to support the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic, please send donations to the following address:

Regina Benjamin, M.D.
Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic
13833 Tapia Lane
Bayou La Batre, AL 36509

From Reader's Digest - February 2006

 

• • National Health Care
• Better America
• • Children's Health
• Hurricane Katrina Stories

• Stop Diabetes: Want to Lower Your Blood Sugar? Relax
• 
• Promising New Cancer Drugs
• Revolutionary drugs bring new hope to cancer patients.
• 
• Tips on Choosing Your Health Insurance Plan
• It pays to do your research before selecting a health plan.
• 

• Be Inspired
• 10 Celebrities Who Give Back
• 7 Amazing Stories, $700,000 to Charity
• Virginia Cervasio: Making It Matter
• PLUS:
• Quiz: What's Your Celebrity Cause IQ?