3 minute read
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
Physician Spotlight
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
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In 1973, Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn took an up-tempo Cajun sound country song to the top of the Billboard country music charts. The song details the long-distance relationship a couple faces to keep their love going. It’s a tune that relates somewhat to the lives of Memorial Medical Group Family Medicine Specialists Ben Groves, DO and Kira Groves, DO.
Ben is from Mississippi and Kira is from Louisiana, more specifically Lake Charles. Today, they share an office, practice medicine together and raise a family. The pair met on a medical mission trip to Honduras while attending William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. That is when the long-distance relationship began.
“I was three years ahead of her in school. After getting my doctor of osteopathic medicine I headed off to Virginia for my family medicine residency,” Ben recalls. “We got married while Kira was still in medical school, and would travel to see each other as much as we could.”
After Kira graduated with her doctor of osteopathic medicine, she joined Ben in Virginia to start her family medicine residency. Before beginning that three-year journey, the couple welcomed their first child. Ben would stay on with the residency program as part of the faculty.
“You could say we had a lot going on during that time; getting married, residencies, starting a family,” Kira says. “We had great support from our families, and prioritized our family and relationship.”
That meant date nights were usually intertwined with hitting the books. Flexing their life and schedules around working different shifts and all hours of a day, which is typical when going through a residency program.
The crazy life and schedule comes with understanding with both Ben and Kira being doctors. It provides insight as to why things can get crazy from time to time, and the demands medicine can have.
“No matter what your profession is, patience and understanding go a long way in a marriage,” Ben says. “Every job out there has demands and as long as you are on the same page as a couple, you can make it work.”
After residency was completed the couple set their sights on Kira’s hometown of Lake Charles. Ben will admit he didn’t know anything about boudin before moving here, but that the people are similar to his childhood home in north Mississippi.
Ben is also a soon-to-be Major in the National Guard. He has served since 2007 first in Mississippi’s National Guard, then North Carolina and now Louisiana. His service has even taken him to Kuwait.
Today, the two docs are building a family medicine practice just a stone’s throw from Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. Treating patients of all ages and providing care across the whole spectrum of medicine. While they don’t treat patients together, they are able to bounce ideas off of each other when faced with various treatment options. However, when it comes to their own children’s health, they leave that up to their very capable pediatrician.
“The Children’s Clinic does a great job,” Kira says. “I was horrified when our baby got her first fever at 6-months, and she ended up being fine. So, we try not to doctor each other or the children. It’s hard to be objective with your own family.”
