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Young
Guns
“We need to make it part of our responsibility
as doctors . . . to show up at the government
hearings, write letters, call our elected officials
and be the person who says, ‘No more.’”
Dr. Coy Flowers
Dr. Coy Flowers, a member of the
Young Guns Class of 2013, is as much a
fighter as he is a leader. Since his induction
into the Young Guns honors program,
he has used his leadership and tenacity
to fight for change, both medically and
socially. A partner at Greenbrier Phy-
sicians, Inc., he has served the West
Virginia State Medical Association in
the roles of vice president, president-elect
and now president. For the past three
years, he has also served as the vice chair
of the American College of Obstetrics and
Gynecology-West Virginia Section, and
in 2014, he worked with Fairness West
Virginia to achieve the legalization of
same-sex marriages.
Flowers is a proud advocate for better
health in rural West Virginia. “Being an
advocate is more than just putting your
name on a petition,” he says. “We need
to make it part of our responsibility as
doctors not only for our practices but also
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
for our communities and for our state
to show up at the government hearings,
write letters, call our elected officials
and be the person who says, ‘No more.’”
The fight for quality health care for
the rural parts of the state is one he faces
every day as the medical director of the
Drug Free Moms and Babies Project
(DFMB) offered at Greenbrier Valley
Medical Center (GVMC) and Greenbrier
Physicians, Inc.
“When the program first began in
2012, more than 20 percent of babies
being born at the GVMC nursery had
a positive illicit drug test result,” says
Flowers. Due to such a staggering number,
the program aims to offer support to
mothers who are struggling to combat
their drug addiction.
He was inspired to get involved in
this cause when the number of addicted
mothers coming into his exam room was
constant and had increased over just a
few years. “We realized that this was
a problem affecting women regardless
of age, race or economic status, but we
also saw that moms were motivated for
change. When you have those two things
together, it creates opportunity,” he says.
“This gave us the motivation to strike the
right chord to truly make positive changes
for moms and their babies.”
The DFMB program has shown a great
success rate of not only having less babies
being born addicted to drugs but also
keeping mothers clean through multiple
pregnancies. Through the program, the
rate of newborn babies testing positive
for drugs at delivery has dropped from
20 percent to 5 percent. Flowers and his
team are also keeping track of mothers
who are filtering back into the program
two years after they have delivered. In
2011, 22 percent of mothers tested pos-
itive after their first pregnancy, and that
rate has dropped to 13 percent. “Not only
are we having moms getting through the
program and having less babies being less
addicted, but we are also seeing moms
who are continuing to hold on to their
sobriety,” he says.
Looking toward the future, he is opti-
mistic because the DFMB program con-
tinues to expand across the state. What
originally started out as four programs in
Southern West Virginia has now grown
to 18 statewide.
“My goal is to have access to more
programs that give moms a skill and get
them back out in the workforce,” he says.
“Let’s get her productive and busy for
her to stand on her own two feet again.”
Not only is he committed to the health
and well-being of mothers and babies
in the Greenbrier Valley, but Flowers
believes it is his calling to push for the
underdog that is rural West Virginia.
“As a physician, I am on the front lines
of health care, and sometimes that means
seeing the bad side. But I have pledged
to continue to fight for the increased
access to maternity care and health care
in the rural part of our state,” he says.
“I believe that if more doctors and first
responders made their voices heard, we
would be a whole lot better off in the
Mountain State.”
MAGGIE MATSKO
BOB BROWN