A Genius Among Us

Bayou La Batre Regina Benjamin Bayou La Batre's Dr. Regina Benjamin is the winner of the "Genius Award." She gets bragging rights and a whole lot of cash!

by Tiffany Craig

Published: Tue, September 23, 2008 - 5:58 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, September 23, 2008 - 6:10 pm CST

There's a genius among us and she works in Bayou La Batre!

Family doctor Regina Benjamin is a recipient of what's known as the "Genius Award" from the MacArthur Foundation.

Dr. Benjamin helps those in need everyday. She made house calls to patients that didn't even have homes after Hurricane Katrina. Her own clinic was damaged in the storm and she lost the replacement clinic in a fire.

Benjamin has no idea who nominated her and is modest about the win! "Some of the other people are really gifted and talented. They have all these special God given talents. I'm just here. I'm just doing things that everybody else would do."

Known as the "Hurricane Doctor," Benjamin plans to use some of the money to continue construction on a new 8-thousand square foot clinic. The facility is being built on donations and the money is running out. She also plans to give her employees a pay raise and offer a scholarship to a high school student interested in rural medicine.

25 people in the United States got the "Genius" honor and will receive 500-thousand dollars over the next 5 years. Each person must be nominated and the win money comes with no strings attached.

WKRG.com » News Stream » Alabama

Video
Photo

Embed:

WKRG.com Related

News –› Alabama

News –› Bayou La Batre

Discuss this in the forum

Email to a Friend

Printer Friendly

Download Video

sweetnsour Says:

Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 11:52 pm

Dr. Regina Benjamin is the greatest person I ever met. She has never turned anyone away that needed help. When she was roughing it after Katrina she opened a make-shift office so she could take care of her patients. My niece was really sick. We thought for sure Dr. Regina would not be open. No, she had more patients than I have ever seen. I didn’t even know where her office was all I knew is my niece was sick and that was her doctor. My brother gave me directions to take his daughter to the doctor. Her clinic was open and she was taking new patients and old patients as soon as she got electricity. She was featured in a major medical magazine. She is the greatest and I am so proud that she finally got her recognition. That is God’s work. Her office burned down but is she goes down all these people that need her help don’t have a chance.