While practicing medicine on a Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, Dr. Jeff Benson of the Dudley Coe Health Center witnessed a miracle of alternative medicine that altered his view of the medical field.
Dr. Benson (better known as Dr. Jeff) diagnosed an old man with cancer of the gallbladder and informed him that surgery was his only option. The patient was skeptical of western medicine though, so trusting Dr. Jeff's diagnosis, he called a renowned spiritual healer who was a gallbladder specialist.
The healer threw a huge feast and healing ritual in which he proceeded to reach into the man's abdomen with bare hands and remove the infected organ, without anesthesia. Although Dr. Jeff was not present at the healing, he examined the man a few days later. He had no scars and there was no mass where there had previously been a baseball-sized gallbladder.
From this experience, Dr. Jeff adopted a much more tolerant view of non-mainstream medical practice. "It would be very silly to think that only Western medicine works," says Dr. Jeff. "I can't believe that a universe of medicine could be that narrow."
That said, don't come to the Health Center with a sprained ankle expecting a witch doctor in a loin cloth to perform voodoo incantations. Although Dr. Jeff has opened clinics in Central American mountain villages and on Native American reservations, he has spent much time in more traditional settings as well.
Dr. Jeff can very quickly prove that college students' health is far from tame. Just this year, Bowdoin has had a case of Tularemia, a disease that, on average, affects fewer that 200 Americans per year. Also, last year's whooping cough epidemic certainly made his winter far from monotonous.
What Dr. Jeff appreciates most about working in a college setting, though, is that he can combine actually practicing medicine with educating a responsive public about health issues.
It is for this reason that Dr. Jeff writes his weekly column in the Orient. He said that writing his column "is a great way to disseminate information and to discuss issues of common interest that students are reluctant to talk about individually."
Approximately half the issues that Dr. Jeff addresses are requested by students, and he has found many of them surprising. For instance, it never would have occurred to him that flatulents, knuckle cracking ("It's not good for you"), canker sores, or body hair would be of interest to college students.
Since Dr. Jeff, his wife, and two daughters moved to Brunswick last June, he has become much more involved with the college community. He says that Bowdoin students exude "energy, spirit and imagination," which make him feel as if he were in college again.
He also believes that living near Bowdoin will be beneficial for his daughters. They can't wait until their favorite performer, "the Regurgitator," comes to campus.
Given that this man's routine involves swallowing and purging live goldfish and bicycle chains, it will probably be to his advantage that there will be a doctor in the front row.