Reprinted from the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Doctor’s orders: Don’t replace them with lawyer’s orders
ROCHESTER DOCTOR Terry Bennett told an obese patient she was fat and should lose weight, and for that the state board of medicine is trying to discipline him. Sounds like board members need to see a doctor themselves “” to have their heads examined.
Dr. Bennett said his patient was merely overweight when he first told her to drop some pounds. Because she didn’t listen to him, she eventually became obese and developed diabetes, gastroesophageal reflux and chest pains, he said. Then he really got stern with her.
“I told a fat woman she was obese,” he said. “I tried to get her attention. I told her you need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.”
Rather than thank the doctor for trying to save her life, the patient filed a complaint with the New Hampshire Board of Medicine. That in itself was absurd. But the real lunacy came when the board objected to a subcommittee’s recommendation simply to send the doctor a letter of concern and instead asked the Attorney General’s office to investigate.
Imagine. With all the real crime the Attorney General’s office has to handle, the board of medicine thought it would be a good use of a state attorney’s time to investigate whether a doctor was too harsh when he told a patient her obesity would kill her.
If the board succeeds in disciplining Dr. Bennett, then every physician in the state will think twice before giving unhealthy patients the advice they need. Some might even feel the need to run their advice by an attorney before giving it. Such a chilling effect would endanger people’s lives, and it cannot be allowed to happen. Doctors must be able to speak freely to their patients, even if it means hurting their feelings.
The board of medicine consists of eight members appointed by the governor to five-year terms. At the first opportunity, Gov. John Lynch should replace any member who voted to have Dr. Bennett investigated by the Attorney General’s office and officially wrist-slapped by the board. Anyone who thinks that sternly warning a patient to lose weight is a no-no for a doctor does not belong in a position of authority over the state’s physicians.
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Great, now you’re slinging mud about his personal past in front of us. Hope when I’m unlucky enough to get sued nobody will bring up that night in a New York Motel room when I was 18 on a national news site.
Anonymous – as long as you didn’t do anything illegal in that NY Hotel Room you should be fine.
Did Dr. Bennett do something illegal?
The implication by this article is that he set his house on fire to collect the insurance money, which I believe is mud-slinging that has nothing to do with his ability to practice primary care.
In May of this year I had my come to Jesus meeting with my MD. I had been dreading the event because I knew I had let myself go. In any event I was 300 pounds with high Triglycerides and out of control blood sugars.
I was told plainly that it was a matter of when terrible things would happen, not if. The language was plain, direct and extremely effective. I have lost substantial weight since then, and exercise daily.
The frank and forceful language used by my physician, while jarring, helped me immensely.
This is in response to an anonymous posting POSTED: 4:43 pm EDT August 26, 2005
Which includes an excerpt from an artical about a house fire he had.
In August 1993, Bennett’s home burned to the ground in a fire called suspicious by the fire marshal. Bennett’s insurance company refused to pay the $1 million claim on his house.
Let me give my name, Justin Allison, Dr Bennett is married to my sister. so I won’t be anonymous.
I was there At The Dr Bennet’s house when it caught on fire. The fire started in the Laundry room when the dryer I was using over heated and caught on fire. I know because I was there, the only one there. I tried unsuccesfully to put the fire out using extinguishers before I went to get help.
I drove to the court house, the only public building close by where I called the fire department.
A court bailiff gave me a ride back, however, he began to feel suspicious and handed me over to a nice policeman who made me sit in his car until my sister arrived and assured them I was a relative, at which point I explained what happened to the fire marshal.
He was satisfied by my story, however, the Insurance company pressed for a further investigation. I was given a lie detector test, which I passed.
The investigators did in fact, trace the fire to a faulty circuit in the dryer, it was a GE model which was known to have defects. In fact, there had been a special fund set up by GE to pay off damages caused by this defect, a result of a class action suit, I believe. curiously, the remains of the dryer have disappeared, which may be why the fire marshal considers the whole affair suspicious. To me, since I was the one who nearly died in the fire in the first place, there is no mystery to it at all.
Finally,
I feel I should mention a few things about Dr. Bennett.
Although he had only 3 years of college education, He does have two degrees and MD and an MPH, both of which were funded by and are from Harvard Medical School, located in Cambridge MA, an hour south of Rochester. 2 years before the fire, He donated almost all of his car collection to Harvard Medical school, Specifying that the money from the sale of these some 60+ cars, engines, aircraft, odd bits of mechanical things and what not be earmarked for scholarships. Dr. Bennett was the recipient of scholarships when he attended Harvard, although He had to sell blood and cars to pay for his living expenses while in Medical School.
After Medical School and residency in California, He joined the Peace Corps and went to Tunisia where he practiced medicine. He then had a medical practice and a garage where he repaired cars. In the 1970’s, He went to work in Saudi Arabia for Raytheon, and was the only western Dr. in the region of Jeddah. He worked in the Raytheon Facility (I am not sure if it was a refinery, chemical plant or what) . He treated anyone who came to the clinic, no questions asked. Raytheon fired him, and he sued and won. He remained in Saudia Arabia where he opened his own practice, accepting what ever payment could be rendered, including none. Sometimes payment was a material object, which he would either trade for something else, sell, or keep.
It was during this time that He met the BinLadins, and had a comon interest in cars with 2 or three of the brothers.
They had acted generously towards him, and helped him considerably when he was in need. If I may digress, I feel that WMUR’s linking of the two parties is intended to smear Dr bennet by virtue of Osama binLadin’s relationship. This along with all the other attempts to denigrate this family smacks of xenophobia. Remeber, Timothy McVeigh, has a sister, and a father, Charles Manson a son. All of which are law abiding and good people, The binLaddins shouldn’t be regarded in any other way.
Dr. Bennett is a contraversial figure. He is very generous with those in need. Indeed, after the fire, I had lost most of what I owned, including my car, my clothes. He gave me a car, it wasn’t much, but it was something I could get back and forth a few times to Maine. At one point, I felt that if He or my sister wanted nothing to do with me I would feel that was perfectly fine. However, that Chistmas, He and my sister gave me badly needed clothes. nuff said on that.
As a person, Terry can sometimes comeoff sounding arrogant and belittling. I have snapped at him more than a time or two. However, usually it is when he honestly wants to help, and having a wealth of experience, knowledge and intelligence, he speaks to freely. If others would simply let him, and those of similar background speak, and listen to the message, not neccesarily the words used, they will learn something.
There is much to this case that doesn’t meet the eye, the dragging of this silly frivolous complaint out over the course of almost a year, the use of WMUR to rehash old news… Suffice it to say that If those who are bent on attacking Dr. Bennett would let this issue die, and appreciate his philanthropy, his policy of helping those regardless of ability to pay, and his unconventional lifestyle (He also has an antique store, and buys and sells used cars) They would come to the conclusion that on the balance, He is doing good and should be left alone.
I think it’s pathetic that this guy even has to defend his reputation (or his family does). He’s a doctor advising a patient. Even doctors who HAVE committed real malpractice (which he didn’t) don’t deserve to have personal issues smeared across a public forum. He should have just sent this patient to a Gastric Bypass surgeon, where she’d be someone elses problem.
Now presenting: the SPIN DOCTOR.
Suprise! Just when you thought you heard it all. It turns out that the good doc is actually under investigation not only for telling this woman that she needs to lose weight to be attractive to men after her obese husband dies (and we KNOW a woman needs a man to be complete), but also because he advised her that only the WRONG men are attracted to obese women – BLACK MEN! Yes folks, this doc pulled a fast one on the media. He knew he was in big trouble for being investigated for racist comments, and decided to take pre-emptive action, and spin the story in his favor, to look like the poor innocent country doc who “just tells it like it is”. Persecuted for being honest! Brilliant! Looks like the spin is working pretty well.
I’ll just bet the board members were chomping on their tongues, dying to tell their side of the story! Apparently there will be a public hearing in Dec – but the info about the racist nature of the comments “sneaked out” today, finally. The doc actually initiated the media coverage himself, creating the story hoping to get public opinion on his side before the full story came out…
I’m not defending anything, but the same people who claim that a jury can make good decisions about what a doctor thought and did, are now also able to read his mind. Why do we need a jury at all?
Related Articles and Media
Article: State investigates doctor accused of racial remark to obese woman
ROCHESTER —The Board of Medicine is not investigating Dr. Terry Bennett solely because he told a female patient that she was obese and faced a dismal life if she didn’t change, but because of an alleged racial comment the woman said he made to her during the visit, according to documents released Tuesday.
The woman — dubbed “Patient A” by the state and referred to as Helena (Susan) P. in documents Bennett previously provided to Foster’s — alleges that on June 28, 2004, Bennett told her: “You need to lose weight. Let’s fact it if your husband were to die tomorrow who would want you. Well, men might want you but not the types that you want to want you. Might even be a black guy.”
Senior Assistant Attorney General Richard Head confirmed the complaint “very specifically is not about a patient who is only concerned about being told she is obese. … Whether or not Dr. Bennett agrees that that was what was said, that was the complaint that was sent to the board and that was what triggered the request for the investigation.”
In making public that a hearing will be held Dec. 7 at 1:30 p.m. in Concord, the state also disclosed the contents of an earlier complaint against Bennett in 2001 which he has said was found to be “without merit” and made by a “demented” patient.
The documents paraphrased what Bennett, 67, allegedly told the patient, dubbed “Patient S,” who was suffering from the effects of brain surgery. “(Bennett) spoke to Patient S in an unprofessional manner suggesting that she purchase a pistol with which to commit suicide as a means of putting an end to her life,” according to the state’s documents.
This morning Bennett said he normally tells his female obese patients that in addition to them facing the prospect of dying before their husbands he also tells them he has read polls that indicate black men prefer being with overweight women. But Bennett says he never said exactly what the complaint alleges.
“That sentence was never raised from my lips,” Bennett said. “I didn’t say, ‘Honey, the only person that’s going to like you is a black guy.” He said the first time he learned that the state was investigating the racial comment was by reading it on a TV station’s website Tuesday night.
In letters Bennett sent to Attorney General Kelly Ayotte on June 17, among 67 points Bennett laid out refuting the state’s claims he said that, according to news outlets, black men are the only group of people “not completely negative about obese women.” He also writes that “facts are just facts, and are NOT inherently ‘racist.’ ”
Bennett also denied having ever told any of his patients to kill themselves. He said the state was going on fourth-degree hearsay.”
Here ya’ll go – no mind reading necessary – the good doc quite nicely condemns himself.
Facts ARE indeed just facts – its how you use them that is racist! In this case the doc was using the “fact” that only black men like obese women to “help” her lose weight- since the very thought of being attractive to only black men should spur her toward losing weight. Clearly he was not telling the woman this fact because he wanted her to remain obese in order to attract black men! No, he himself says that he uses frightening facts and statistics in order to spur obese women to change their ways. Therefore he is insinuating that being attractive to a black man is a negative thing – so negative, it might work better than the threat of disease to encourage her to lose weight. If thats not racist, what is?
“Therefore he is insinuating that being attractive to a black man is a negative thing – so negative, it might work better than the threat of disease to encourage her to lose weight. If thats not racist, what is?”
Or is that just your interpretation? And what exactly is wrong with being attractive to black men? Who exactly is being racist here, the doctor, the patient, or both (or neither)? If the doctor did say this, was he simply making an observation, neutrally as it were, or did he think his patient had racist inclinations, and would react constructively to this statement? I don’t know, so how do you know? Funny that this comment comes to light so late after the story hits the press; it looks like someone–the patient maybe, or the NH board, maybe–is feeling unexpected heat and is trying to re-spin the story. I am inclined not to believe it.
And what is this brand of political correctness that makes observations about interracial relationships somehow a forbidden subject? People can talk abouth these things without being tarred as racist. Kindly keep your PC thought policing to yourself.
The doctor himself HAS admitted to citing “an NPR poll” regarding black men as being the only men attracted to obese women, so that point is not in question. The fact that he cited this “fact” as part of his preplanned, usual reasons for obese women to lose weight, quite clearly demonstrates his racial prejudice. The depth of his prejudice is such that he assumes the patient would be just as prejudiced, and would therefore be motivated to lose weight. This is logic 101, in case you never studied philosophy or logic.
Well said. Why would a doctor include such a “fact” along with a list of other negative consequences of obesity, unless he also personally considered that “fact” to be part of that list. That just doesn’t make sense, does it? None of his other reasons to lose weight are “neutral facts” – they are all illnesses to be avoided!
“This is logic 101, in case you never studied philosophy or logic.”
This is nothing of the kind; it is merely your conjecture and assumptions, shot through with your preconceptions and biases. Your “argument is nothing more than an assertion.
You have offered no proof whatsoever that the statement was made–if in fact it was made–with any invidious prejudice.
I bought a car from the physician in new hampshire, he’s a good guy.
I think your analysis is flawed for the following reasons, which may be seen with hot links at:
http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2005/10/youre-so-obese-only-black-men-will.html
Let’s get a grip, here folks. Dr. Terry Bennett’s comments, in lilly-white New Hampshire, are not the same as a doctor telling a skinny black woman, “you’re so skinny only white boys will like you,” and if you can’t see that, or comprehend why it’s different in a context like this, you may be cursed with another physical ailment beyond the Good Doctor’s bailiwick: Myopia.
Having dated leggy blondes to short brunettes and women of many body compositions between 4′10″ to 6′2″ and in between, I appreciate all sorts of women. But apparently some white professionals in the “Live Free or Die” state don’t appreciate black men appreciating white women in that way because he used it as a scare tactic. Well that’s pretty scary to me, folks, so I’m gonna file a complaint with the Seacoast Branch of the NAACP later today. Peace.
PS: His speech is not entirely protected by the First Amendment, as mine was and is in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. He relinquished a degree of his First Amendment Rights by agreeing to be subject to a regulatory board — and he may even be governed by commercial, rather than general, Free Speech doctrines. I, on the other hand, was exercising a Fundamental right as a free negro (or caucasian) citizen to seek redress for a man who faced three (3) drawn guns, arrest and a body cavity search from undercover police who rousted him and eventually charged him with “loitering,” which he beat. See my 16 Oct. blawg, “Open Complaint to NAACP Legal Defense Fund,” which still has not been answered substantively.
What this article doesn’t say is that the “Doctor” didn’t just say you need to lose weight, he told her that no one would find you attractive and that only black men would be interested in her, because of her size.
It is not the fact that he was blunt with her, but elaborate in such a way was not called for and rude.
This doctor should have some bedside manner and say what the medical affects are of obesity not comment that she won’t be attractive…
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