Story Archive

Doctor on Wheels

When Carroll Frazier Landrum, 88, gave up his medical office in Edwards, Miss., because of crime in the area, he didn’t give up his practice. “I had my car, and I realized I could do most everything out of it that I needed to be doing.” Patients meet him in a parking lot; sometimes he drives out in their direction. The only doctor practicing in a town where the 2010 census found an annual income of $12,308, he charges $45 a visit and sometimes waives even that. But Landrum says the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure is after him for writing prescriptions at multiple businesses. He says the board warned him that if he didn’t hand over his license, he’d face a public hearing. “They told me it would harm my reputation” to have such a hearing, he said. “I plan to fight this.” Nine thousand people, nearly nine times as many as live in Edwards, have now heard about his case — and have signed an online petition backing him. (AC/Jackson Clarion-Ledger) ...Maybe the licensing board should worry about its own reputation.