HEALTH-FITNESS

Dr. Terry Bennett ready to pass the baton

Karen Dandurant news@seacoastonline.com
This portrait of Dr. Terry Bennett of Rollinsford was taken last year on July 6 at his 79th birthday celebration. [Deb Cram/Fosters.com]

ROCHESTER – Dr. Terry Bennett has been a fixture in the Seacoast area for a very long time and now he is hoping to find the right person to continue his legacy of caring for all people no matter their circumstances.

He wants this because while he stubbornly works on, he is dying of cancer.

Bennett might be the last true independent physician in the area and his legacy of caring for people who have no insurance, who maybe can’t always pay in a practice that never made him rich is well known. He says he doesn’t care about the money. He cares about the people he treats.

Now 80 years old, Bennett has had a long battle with lung cancer, a bout with brain cancer and he should be retired. He keeps regular office hours when he can, because he is not willing to abandon his patients. His Rochester office is eclectic, full of memorabilia and a roll top desk that is always overflowing with paperwork and he can lay his hands on what he needs without thought.

“I am thinking of finding a way to turn the place into a non-profit, so my patients can be taken of,” said Bennett. “What I need to find is a like-minded doctor, one who is willing to take on the work, knowing they are not going to make a lot of money here. I am looking for a whack job like me – someone who wants to do good without sometimes getting paid.”

The Quick Care Clinic, at 151 South Main St., is partly a clinic, and partly a substance abuse practice. Bennett knows his dream of a non-profit will need good sources of funding and he hopes there are people out there willing to help.

For Bennett, health care is a true calling. He was doing house calls with his father, Dr. Terrance Canfield Bennett since he was 3 years old. At 80, he is working on his memoir.

“My father drank,” says Bennett in a matter of fact manner. “So, when I went out with him, it was either a miserable day, or if he wasn’t drinking, very enlightening. He was brilliant, and I never had any other thoughts in mind than to be a good doctor. My father also didn’t care about the money and those values became my values. You become what you learn.”

His childhood was not always easy. He said his grandfather spent some time in prison after being convicted of embezzling money from a school.

Bennett said he eventually moved east to escape family dynamics.

“I knew I wanted to be a doctor, so I applied and took the MCAT as a college junior,” said Bennett. “My pre-med school counselor called me in and told me I could get into any school I wanted. I wanted Harvard. I was accepted there and at John Hopkins. I had a full scholarship and knew I had to work hard.”

To help him reach his goal, Bennett said he sold blood, semen and cars.

“I did my residency in LA during the Watts riots,” said Bennett. “I was at one hospital sewing up a guy when I got a call to go to L.A. County General. I took the freeway and there was no traffic. When I arrived, I discovered that was because people had been shooting cars on the freeway.”

Bennett decided to take a gap of two years because he wanted to serve in Peace Corps, to help people in Morocco with his medical skills.

“I was supposed to just be a doctor, but the place had no administration, so I took on that role as well,” said Bennett. “I was a doctor with 130 volunteers to supervise, who would have had no direction otherwise.”

From 1974-1981, he served as a physician in Saudi Arabia, to many of the most influential families, including the Bin Laden family. While in Jeddah he was also chief physician for Alitalia Airlines.

When he returned to the US, Bennett returned to Harvard. He holds a Master’s in public health and a Doctorate in Medicine. He speaks English, French, German and he says, some Arabic.

Bennett eventually opened a practice in Hampton Falls in 1981, after several stints in Massachusetts, including as emergency room director in Webster.

Bennett proudly says that he has never had a malpractice case filed against him. Still the cost of malpractice insurance was getting so high he took on work at a walk-in clinic and opened an antiques store to help pay for malpractice insurance.

“I worked for a bit as a prison doctor when I was approached by a PA named Rick Renner,” said Bennett. “He owned a medical practice and wanted to hire me as the doctor. He had just fired two docs who didn’t work out. That’s how I ended up in this area. Another man, Jeff White asked if I would be interested in working as the doctor in a clinic for poor people. It was not a lot of money, but I wanted to do the work. I came to Rochester and have been here for over 20 years.”

“I believe I have done what I set out to do. I have done it to the best of my abilities. I don’t need a lot of money. For me this is a personal choice, made for my patients. I am in it for the grace of it, for what I can bring to the people who come to me. That is how I am rewarded. I never know when something really interesting will happen, (or) is sitting in my waiting room.”

Bennett said he has been doing his job for so long, he often knows what a person’s diagnosis will be before they even speak to him. He said his dad could do the same thing.

“Now, many doctors do not really look at the patients,” said Bennett. "They look at money. They look at meeting corporate requirements, at codes. I am looking for someone who wants to go back in time, to when the patient was everything. I want to find someone who loves medicine and the opportunity to do good. I think that is magical and those opportunities are still there."

If there is a doctor like that out there, Bennett said to email him at ocidem123@yahoo.com.