President Picks Rural AL Family Physician for Surgeon General

Dr. Regina Benjamin is a family physician from a southern Alabama fishing community known as Bayou La Batre. 

A decade ago, the New York Times described her as an "angel in a white coat," a country doctor who made house calls along the impoverished Gulf Coast and was paid only what her patients could scrounge. 

Benjamin's nonprofit clinic was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, then rebuilt by volunteers only to burn down months later.  On receiving a half-million "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation last fall, she spoke of accepting a $7 donation from a woman desperate for the clinic to be rebuilt again. Benjamin said, "If she can find $7, I can figure out the rest." She dedicated the grant money to finishing the job.

President Obama said Benjamin understands the needs of the poor and uninsured, making her uniquely qualified to be America's doctor as his administration tries to revamp the health care system.

After the announcement Monday at the White House Rose Garden, Benjamin took the microphone and named the preventable diseases that have claimed nearly all her relatives — diabetes, high blood pressure, lung cancer.

She pledged to fight so that, in her words, "no one falls through the cracks as we improve our health care system."

Her nomination for surgeon general requires Senate confirmation.

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