[Peace-discuss] Mississippi Wants To Punish 88 Year Old Doctor Who Treats Poor For Free

Mon Jan 19 08:01:05 EST 2015

Mississippi Wants To Punish 88 Year Old Doctor Who Treats Poor For Free

Description: Dr. Carrol Frazier Landrum, an 88-year-old doctor in Edwards,
Miss., drives to his patients and sees them out of his car. It's apparently
a controversial practice that has placed him under fire by the state's
medical board. Source WBTV.

 <https://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/> Educate!
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/healthcare/> Healthcare,
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/mutual-aid/> Mutual Aid 
By Peter Holley,
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/14/this-88-year-o
ld-doctor-treats-the-poor-out-of-his-toyota-camry-mississippi-wants-to-punis
h-him-for-it/> www.washingtonpost.com
January 18th, 2015

  Powered by  <https://translate.google.com> Description:
https://www.google.com/images/logos/google_logo_41.pngTranslate

<https://www.popularresistance.org/mississippi-wants-to-punish-88-year-old-d
octor-who-treats-poor-for-free/> 8

<http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.
org%2Fmississippi-wants-to-punish-88-year-old-doctor-who-treats-poor-for-fre
e%2F> Description: Print FriendlyPrint Friendly

Above: Dr. Carrol Frazier Landrum, an 88-year-old doctor in Edwards, Miss.,
drives to his patients and sees them out of his car. It's apparently a
controversial practice that has placed him under fire by the state's medical
board. Source WBZ TV.

Dr. Landrum treats the poor from his car, now they want to take away his
license

"I grew up poor, and when the doctor would come to us, and he was happy to
see us, I pictured myself doing that some day. I try not to ever turn people
away - money or no money - because that's where the need is."

In small-town Mississippi, where poverty is endemic, transportation is
limited and a trip to the emergency room can lead to financial ruin, an
alternative exists for those in the know.

His name is Dr. Landrum - Carrol Frazier Landrum - and, even if your pockets
are empty, the 88-year-old physician from Edwards, Miss., will schedule you
for an appointment.

For the last two years, Landrum has been working without an office, but he's
happy to meet his patients wherever they are. Sometimes, the meetings occur
in a home; sometimes they take place in a parking lot. Other patients meet
the doctor on the side of a quiet country road - or inside his 2007 Toyota
Camry.

<https://www.popularresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Carrol-Frazier
-Landrum-stands-beside-his-rolling-doctor%E2%80%99s-office-a-2007-Toyota-Cam
ry.-Courtesy-of-WLBT-Mississippi-News-Now-e1421609988953.jpg> Description:
Carrol Frazier Landrum stands beside his rolling doctor's office, a 2007
Toyota Camry. (Courtesy of WLBT-Mississippi News Now)

Carrol Frazier Landrum stands beside his rolling doctor's office, a 2007
Toyota Camry. (Courtesy of WLBT-Mississippi News Now)

The location doesn't matter because Landrum, a World War II veteran who has
been in private practice for more than 55 years, believes it's his duty to
help anyone who calls on him.

"I've always had a heart for the poor," Landrum told The Washington Post
this week, struggling to hold back tears. "I grew up poor, and when the
doctor would come to us, and he was happy to see us, I pictured myself doing
that some day. I try not to ever turn people away - money or no money -
because that's where the need is."

But his work may soon come to an end.

Landrum said he's being asked by the Mississippi State Board of Medical
Licensure to surrender his medical license, which he's carried in his pocket
with pride since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. The reason for the
request, according to Landrum, is that the board balked several months ago
upon learning that he was operating his practice out of a car.

At a recent hearing, Landrum said, he was labeled "incompetent" by the
board. He said the charge is a catchall, one designed to avoid citing a
specific occupational violation, and he maintains he's done nothing wrong.
He said he doesn't recruit patients and only responds to those who have
nowhere else to turn.

"If you're gong down a highway and somebody is hurt in a car accident, you
stop and attend to them," he told The Post. "And if you're in a shopping
center and somebody is having a heart attack, you stop and help. It's your
duty as a physician, and this is no different."

A Board of Medical Licensure investigation is now underway,
<http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/27832083/88-year-old-doctor-fights-to-keep-m
edical-license?clienttype=generic&mobilecgbypass&utm_content=buffer103a8&utm
_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer> according to NBC
affiliate WLBT. The board's executive director, H. Vann Craig, declined to
confirm to The Post that an investigation has begun. In a brief telephone
conversation this week, Craig said he could not publicly address
"complaints" until and unless "action is taken by the board."

"The mission of the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure," he said,
"is to protect the public."

Landrum's many supporters - who can be found throughout Edwards and "for 50
miles in every direction," according to the doctor - say that's exactly what
he's doing. Last week, supporters - some of whom are third-generation
patients - began
<http://www.thepetitionsite.com/113/603/550/please-petition-88-year-old-dr-c
arrol-frazier-landrum-to-keep-his-mississippi-medical-license/> circulating
a petition calling on the state board to allow Landrum to keep his medical
license.

Karen Holt, an Edwards resident,
<http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/27832083/88-year-old-doctor-fights-to-keep-m
edical-license?clienttype=generic&mobilecgbypass&utm_content=buffer103a8&utm
_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer> told WLBT that
she loves knowing the doctor is available.

"There's a lot of poverty in Edwards," she said. "There are many, many
people here who do not have transportation to Vicksburg, Clinton, Jackson,
and he truly serves a purpose. And there are people who come to him who
would not get medical treatment otherwise."

Cornelius Moriley agreed, telling the station: "He's saved a lot of people,
you know what I'm saying? I think he should be left alone and steadily serve
the people."

Responding to the WLBT story, Margie Williams Divinity, a former registered
nurse who said she has worked alongside Landrum in the past, wrote:

I beg the state board of medicine to allow Dr Landrum to continue practicing
medicine. He is one of the smartest physicians still practicing. His
knowledge base is vast. His diagnosis are always on point and he refers
patients and always follow up with his patients. He cares about people,
about treating them. He doesn't care about all of the billing insurances and
Medicare and all of the politics associated with medicine. He just wants to
help people. He is still very sharp mentally at 88 probably because he did
not let all of this political monopoly on healthcare stress him out by not
continuing to partake. He is 88 y/o. Let him do what he enjoys and at the
same time continue to serve his community.

Before moving his office to his car two years ago, Landrum operated his
practice out of an apartment in a low-income housing complex, where he found
himself surrounded by patients,
<http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/27832083/88-year-old-doctor-fights-to-keep-m
edical-license?clienttype=generic&mobilecgbypass&utm_content=buffer103a8&utm
_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer> according to
WLBT. Increasing gang violence, including two shootings that occurred just
outside his clinic door, led him to fear for his safety and eventually
convinced him to close shop, he said.

"My patients kept saying, 'Don't leave, don't leave,' and I started working
out of my automobile,"
<http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/27832083/88-year-old-doctor-fights-to-keep-m
edical-license?clienttype=generic&mobilecgbypass&utm_content=buffer103a8&utm
_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer> he told WLBT.

Landrum said he planned to find a new office but never secured one. Still,
the phone calls kept coming in. These days, he estimates, he sees three or
four patients each week, many of them old friends he's been treating for
years.

A visitation starts with a phone call in which Landrum tries to get as much
information about the patient's condition and medical history as possible.
Next, a meeting is arranged, with the doctor driving as far as 50 miles to
reach patients who can't come to him. Appointments might occur while he
leans his head inside the cab of a pickup truck as it idles in a vacant
parking lot.

"We're not in an office, so we're dealing with just the immediate problem,"
he said, noting that many of his patients are on Medicaid. "It's not a
general physical examination, but things like sore throats, flu symptoms or
skin rashes. I always told them, 'If you're not better from day to day, call
me,'  and then I give them my phone number."

Asked why he doesn't just retire, Landrum, who doesn't have children, isn't
married and considers his patients the closest thing he has to family,
offered his life story as an explanation.

He grew up on a rural farm picking cotton during the Great Depression. After
high school, he said, he was drafted into the Navy, where he worked as a
sonar operator on a destroyer in the South Pacific. A stint in the Air Force
during the Korean War followed, and then medical school at Tulane University
came next. By the mid-1950s, he'd launched a private practice that has
lasted for decades.

"After all these years, I still want to be like the small-town doctor who
cared for us growing up - Dr. Coursey," Landrum said. "He was good and
always happy. There was never a time when he treated anyone like they were
not someone."

Peter Holley is a general assignment reporter at The Washington Post. He can
be reached at peter.holley at washpost.com.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150119/9f443046/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 26944 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150119/9f443046/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2357 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150119/9f443046/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1145 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150119/9f443046/attachment-0001.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 68512 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150119/9f443046/attachment-0003.jpg>