Dr. Terry Claggett, a popular specialist in internal medicine who touched the lives of Leeward Coast families for more than three decades, died Oct. 5. He was 66.

Claggett died of a heart attack in the parking lot of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, said his longtime best friend, Norine Wong.

He worked at the health center for about 35 years and got a lot of love and satisfaction from caring for patients, said Ricardo Custodio, the health center’s medical director.

"Just the fact that he was here … it improved the health and welfare of the community," he said. "He was the person that took on the toughest internal medicine patients."

Claggett was only 7 when his grandparents died in Maryland. His parents were unable to care for him, so he was sent to an orphanage, Wong said.

He lived at the orphanage until age 18, then attended the University of Texas at El Paso on a scholarship. He made an asset of his 5-foot- 4-inch frame by training racehorses.

After getting his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, he did his residency at the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, and in 1975 became the first internist at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center.

Claggett became widely known and respected in the community because he "took care of basically everybody’s relatives," Custodio said.

Custodio still keeps in his office a package of powdered doughnuts that Claggett gave him in April 2003 — a message that Custodio, who was still new at the job, was doing well.

"He was a clinical kupuna," he said.

Claggett could also be frank and irreverent, often swearing to emphasize to his patients that they would die if they did not take their prescription medication.

"He was superhonest with his patients," Custodio said. "Out here in Waianae, I think that’s a badge of honor where patients trust you."

But he also fought for his patients.

When Medicare refused to give one of his patients a wheelchair, he dashed off an appeal in the style of Dr. Seuss.

The woman, who was in pain when she walked, had four chronic maladies, including osteoporosis and arthritis in the spine, knee and shoulders.

Claggett wrote a pidgin rhyme about the woman’s health troubles and ended it by saying she needed the wheelchair to keep her from falling, "so her head no crash like one jelly bean."

The denial was reversed.

"He was just a smart doctor," Wong said. "He was a great diagnostician."

Barbara Napolis of Waianae said Claggett was her doctor for 35 years, and she credited him with saving her life three times.

"He’s more than a doctor," she said. "He’s a friend, he’s a brother. He loved his patients so dearly."

Napolis said Claggett found a blood clot in her right lung before it could kill her and that his straightforward talks helped her get control of her diabetes and lupus.

"I should have probably been dead in ’92 or ’93," she said.

Wong added, "He accomplished a lot for his patients. He did major feats every day."

A celebration of life for Claggett will be held on the front lawn of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center from 4 to 6:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Donations will be accepted for a scholarship at the University of Texas at El Paso.