His brother, Mott, always
planned on becoming a family physician and practicing in their hometown
of Wallace.For these two brothers, eastern
North Carolina provided the ideal place to follow their father's example and
serve as country doctors.From a young age, Mott anticipated
to completing his degree and joining his father's practice. "I always looked
at returning to a rural family medicine practice, and East Carolina had great
emphasis on primary care. One of its missions was training rural physicians
to satisfy the need for doctors in eastern North Carolina," he says. "For
me, it was a perfect fit."His older brother, meanwhile,
was in New England learning to build boats. "When you grow up in a family
full of physicians and a long history of medicine, you go through years of people
saying you are going to be a doctor because your dad and great-granddad were,"
he says. "I sort of rebelled against all that."Mott, the youngest, completed
his degree at the ECU School of Medicine in 1987 and completed his residency
at PCMH, joining his father's practice after eight years in Greenville.Seaborn, the middle child, eventually felt the pull back east, and it brought him to ECU. At first, he was declined admission to the medical school, but after completing a master's degree at ECU with top grades and references, he gained admission. He, too, served his residency at PCMH.
"I knew I wanted to live and practice in eastern North Carolina and I really liked living in Greenville," he says. "I felt like I was really interested and really wanted to work hard. It was a good fit."
As a physician, Seaborn never
lost his love of the sea and on Hatteras Island, he found the perfect place
to build his practice."There was such a need
here," he says. "I got here and started seeing people. They were coming
in droves." He believes in putting service above financial gain. "There
is something about going somewhere where someone needs you, versus a place where
you can make lots of money."When their father died in 1999,
Mott took over the practice. He is one of only a few family doctors in the area."Wallace is kind of an
agricultural center where a lot of people traditionally have come to town for
their basic needs, whether it's buying seed or fertilizer, buying clothes or
seeing their doctor," he says.Their older sister, Elizabeth,
also attended medical school. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and practices
pediatrics in Greenville.Mott and Seaborn, though practicing in remote locations, look to University Health Systems for professional support, resources and medical care for their patients. For Mott, PCMH stands above other medical centers for many reasons.
"When you refer patients,
you refer them to a place, but you also refer them to people. I've never had
a patient go to Pitt and not come back with a positive opinion, from top to
bottom. Their care has been compassionate and courteous and I think people really
respond to that."Seaborn has recently joined
HealthEast, a network of healthcare centers affiliated with University Health
Systems, making the brothers an example of the medical center's mission to train
young people for service in the region."I wanted to have somebody
that would help me, and help my medical center," he says. "I don't
know if I could have done it myself."
Drs. Mott & Seaborn Blair
See also
Interview
Transcript (Dr. Mott)
See also
Interview
Transcript (Dr. Seaborn)
The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University
600 Moye Boulevard
Greenville, North Carolina 27858-4354
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