|
|||||
|
|
|||||
Sister Roseanne Cook, M.D. of Pine Apple
Rural Health Provider Exceptional Achievement Award Recipient
Click on the picture below to enlarge the image.
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
Dr. Cook is known locally as "Good Doctor Cook" and has been referred to as "Alabama's Mother Teresa." She answered a call to serve the needs of society at age 40 by entering the University of Missouri at Columbia School of Medicine and is the only doctor within 25 miles of her clinic, the Grace Busse Clinic in Pine Apple. This clinic is named after a Florida woman whose husband sent mail donations to Dr. Cook after reading about her work in McCall's Magazine. She also practices at the John Paul Jones Hospital in Camden.
Dr. Cook sees about 30 patients each day in her clinic. House calls are a common occurrence since many of her patients have no transportation or are too ill to make it to the clinic. However, another 20 or so patients get daily checkups without leaving their homes through a biomonitoring program which is attracting national attention for its marriage of technology and affordability. By combining one of the market's cheaper biomonitoring boxes with a common digital scale and blood pressure machine, Dr. Cook can monitor patient's vital signs from their homes using only a standard phone line.
Wilcox County is one of the nation's poorest counties. According to Dr. Cook, she has received fish, venison, corn, sweet potatoes and "most everything else" from many of her patients who proudly want to pay for her services. Since many patients cannot afford to buy medicine, she keeps a large supply of free medication which she gets from charitable sources and drug companies. More affluent physicians and hospitals also send her medical supplies.
A few years ago the God who sent Dr. Cook to help her patients in Wilcox County was there to save her in a personal crisis. While driving back to her clinic from the hospital in Camden, she stopped to help two men who appeared to be having car trouble. She was forced into the trunk of her car and driven to a remote area where shots were fired into the trunk in a murder attempt. Dr. Cook was slightly injured and managed to get out and walk a considerable distance to get help.
