Thursday, August 25, 2005
Rochester doctor's advice to patient on obesity lands him in hot water

By JOHN QUINN
Democrat Staff Writer
jquinn@fosters.com

:ROCHESTER -- Dr. Terry Bennett believes the direct approach works best when confronting his 10,000 patients on such dangerous or life-threatening conditions as obesity, anorexia, excessive drinking and smoking.

Practicing for 41 years and now working out the Clinic on the Common along South Main Street, Bennett said he is not adverse to giving stern and sometimes not always pleasing to the ear advice on adopting a healthier lifestyle.

This tendency has now received nationwide attention after the 67-year-old general practitioner offered stern and blunt weight loss guidance to an overweight woman who subsequently filed a formal complaint with the state Board of Medicine on the matter.

The board has asked for assistance from the N.H. Attorney General's Administrative Prosecution Unit, which eventually proposed that Bennett take a medical evaluation course and acknowledge he made a mistake.

Bennett refused and has taken his case to the press.

“I told a fat woman she was obese,” Bennett 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.' “

Bennett said he informed the woman that obesity -- both hers and her husband -- would lead to a costly medical problems and a difficult end. He also stressed to her that obese women outlive obese men, often by wide margins, probably leaving her alone to cope with her medical problems.

“This is an obese woman who heard the truth,” Bennett said, adding he told her she was obese, which was causing her to suffer other problems, which would be amplified by each other, and drastically reduce the quality of her life.

“This wasn't the first time (she visited) -- this was the last time,” Bennett said, adding the woman never let him weigh her any of the times.

Although he admits he is not always successful in convincing patients to change their behavior or lifestyles, Bennett defended his method of advising people, one which is not always kind.

Bennett, who attended medical school and earned a master's in public health from Harvard University, said this is only the second complaint filed against him during his 41 years as a physician, noting the previous case was dismissed without merit after the patient who filed it was “deemed incompetent” following a stroke.

Bennett said doctors and health-care providers are under a great deal of pressure to cope with the ongoing obesity issue, but about 70 percent of doctors ignore or skirt the issue of their patients being overweight or obese.

“There's so much talk about it, but there's no action,” Bennett said. “I'm into the action part.”

In a letter he wrote to state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte on June 17, Bennett said his “'obesity lecture for women' is a stark litany designed to get the attention of an obese female patient, raise their awareness, get them to think or rethink, achieve a useful change in their lifestyle.”

The letter said this woman, like many other of his overweight patients, was in denial.

“Not every obese person is ready to change, even if obesity is in (the) process of killing them (or) is going to kill them soon. They eat on, in denial,” Bennett wrote in the letter.

Bennett said the woman had visited his office seven times and despite his efforts continued to gain weight and becoming diabetic with gastroesophageal reflux and chest pains -- all obesity-related symptoms.

Bennett said he advised her to lose weight in a blunt manner, but he did not mean to be offensive.

“I'm devoutly sorry I offended her,” Bennett said. Upon learning he had upset her, Bennett said he wrote a letter of apology to her.

A medical review subcommittee formed to investigate the complaint recommended sending Bennett a confidential letter of concern, but the Board of Medicine rejected the notion during their Dec. 2, 2004 meeting.

The board has asked for assistance from the N.H. Attorney General's Administrative Prosecution Unit, which eventually proposed that Bennett take a medical evaluation course and acknowledge he made a mistake.
“It's unusual for a physician to speak out,” Bennett said, adding it's even more unusual for a state to investigate bedside manners of doctors.
“There's an agenda there's a subcurrent here I'm not aware of,” Bennett said.

Bennett said the state has continued a “floundering investigation” because it wants him to admit he's “a disrup]tive physician.”

He said the investigation should have been completed in five minutes. He added she was his patient, she is obese, he told her that, he apologized after learning his comments offended her and she is now seeing another doctor.

“I want this investigation to stop,” Bennett said, adding he is not disruptive nor will he admit to being so.

“That's not going to happen -- not in their lifetime, nor in mine,” Bennett said.
Bennett said he hopes the board schedules a public hearing.

“It's resonating across the country and it's making New Hampshire look ridiculous and it's Kelly Ayotte's fault,” Bennett said. Ayotte can call an end the investigation at any time, he said.

Assistant Attorney General Catherine L. Bernhard, of the Administrative Prosecution Unit, is leading the investigation against him, according to Bennett.
Berhard could not be reached for comment.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Richard Head said the N.H. Attorney General's office could not confirm or deny that an investigation was occurring and cannot comment or respond to specific cases.

“The fact that someone makes comments in public doesn't affect an investigation,” Head said.

Head said the Board of Medicine can request the AG's assistance in various cases which require additional investigation. He referred inquiries to the Board of Medicine, who deferred questions back to the Administrative Prosecution Unit.

Under state law, the board of medicine investigates and takes disciplinary action against physicians who provide false information, practice while impaired by drugs or alcohol, engage in dishonest or unprofessional conduct, are grossly negligent in rendering care, allow an unlicensed person to practice in the physician's office, fail to provide adequate aseptic safeguards, make dishonest statements, willfully violate rules or are convicted of a felony in the U.S.

Although investigations are kept confidential, the licensee are able to be represented and present evidence in their own defense during a public hearing.
The decision of the board can be appealed, according to state law.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.

“I'm devoutly sorry I offended her,” Bennett said. Upon learning he had upset her, Bennett said he wrote a letter of apology to her.

fat bitch

i could see you making a great doctor, Club.

shut the fuck up! next!

If he called her a whale, that would be one thing. What the fuck is wrong with everyone?

If he called her a whale, that would be one thing. What the fuck is wrong with everyone?

Senior Assistant Attorney General Richard Head said the N.H. Attorney General's office could not confirm or deny that an investigation was occurring and cannot comment or respond to specific cases.

Even then ... he's apologized IN WRITING for offending her. Apparently the medical board wants him to admit that he made a mistake.

Even then ... he's apologized IN WRITING for offending her. Apparently the medical board wants him to admit that he made a mistake.

what!!??

is this serious!!