North Carolina physician earns rural doctor award

Hurricanes can't keep family physician Charles Boyette, MD, from caring for his patients.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Dec. 8, 2003.

Thank goodness Charles Boyette, MD, lives on higher, drier ground.

When Hurricane Isabel pounded the North Carolina coast in September, the little town of Belhaven, N.C., was in harm's way. Water surged from the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Pungo River and flooded the farming and fishing community of about 2,200 people.

Floodwaters closed the local hospital, so Dr. Boyette's home, safe from the rising water, served as the emergency department.

"I had the rescue workers bring the patients to my house," said Dr. Boyette, a family physician in Belhaven for 38 years. "We opened up my office after the storm. The office covered the town until the hospital was able to open back up."

That kind of devotion to his town and its people is what earned Dr. Boyette the honor of 2003 Country Doctor of the Year. Staff Care, a Texas-based temporary physician staffing firm, has bestowed the title on rural doctors for nine years now.

Dr. Boyette, 68, a two-time finalist, won the award from a field of 139 nominees. "I don't believe there's a doctor in the United States who does anything more for the people and their community than Dr. Boyette. I firmly believe God sent him this way," said Belhaven Councilman Albert Baker.

Baker is one of Dr. Boyette's patients, and he is a colleague as well. Dr. Boyette has served as Belhaven's mayor for 31 years.

The doctor fights as hard for the well-being of this town in eastern North Carolina as he does for the health of his patients.