By Jeff Amy | April 20, 2015
An 88-year-old Mississippi physician, who has faced scrutiny because he was practicing medicine from his car, said after a meeting with regulators that he now expects to be able to continue seeing patients.
Dr. Frazier Landrum talked to reporters after a meeting with the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. He and lawyers said that during the meeting officials agreed Landrum may keep seeing patients if he takes a refresher course in medical record keeping.
Residents of the small town of Edwards rallied to support Landrum, and are renovating space for him in a former post office. Landrum said that office is expected to be finished within weeks.
`”There aren’t words to express what and how much I appreciate everything that’s been done for me, and the people who supported me,” Landrum said.
Dr. Vann Craig, the board’s executive director, confirms a meeting occurred last week, but says he’s not allowed to discuss ongoing inquiries.
An unknown person complained to the board that Landrum was practicing out of his car after giving up a previous office in an apartment complex. The physician and World War II veteran said he left because he felt threatened by drug dealing and violence there. Plans for a new office stalled, but patients kept calling.
“That’s when I started seeing people out of my car,” Landrum said. “Not because I planned it that way, but people said, ‘Can you see just me?”’
Landrum said that an investigator with the board demanded that he turn over his medical license, but he refused.
“I was shocked and floored because I didn’t expect anything like that,” he said.
He said he wasn’t interested in retiring, and that because of community support, his practice is larger now than it was before. He said he’s always modeled his work on the physician who cared for his family when they were poor farmers.
“He was always as happy as if we had paid him $10,000,” Landrum said. “That was just my attitude: Take care of them irrespective” of how much they could pay.
The physician attracted support not only from neighbors, but from those far away. The Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute began providing him legal services, demanding that the state board provide records related to the investigation. One focus of the conservative-leaning organization is to sue governments to protect individual rights.
“We are very confident in the way the meeting went,” said Christina Sandefur, a lawyer for the institute. “From what I can tell, the matter has been resolved. We’ve been able to talk everything out.”
Landrum has also been represented by Ridgeland lawyer Andy Taggart, who is prominent in Mississippi Republican circles.
Copyright 2015 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.