- Experts say doctors diagnose and treat Black Americans differently for pain management.
- They say this is partly because of the mistaken belief of some medical professionals that Black people feel pain differently than white people.
- Experts are encouraging the medical profession to make changes to avoid this and other systemic discriminatory practices.
“He made me feel like I was a drug addict and he knew I was a physician and I don’t take narcotics.”
Dr. Susan Moore said that and much more in a video she recorded from her hospital bed last December, then posted to Facebook.
The 53-year-old Black physician was being treated for COVID-19 at Indiana University Health North Hospital (IU Health).
In her video, Moore said that the white doctor treating her was dismissive of her request to continue the remdesivir antiviral treatment she had started.
She said he wouldn’t give her anything for pain until she pushed to get a CT scan that showed her condition was worsening.
Moore called her treatment racist.
“You have to show proof that you have something wrong with you in order for you to get the medicine. I put forth and I maintain that if I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that,” she said.
Two weeks later, Moore died from COVID-19 complications.
Her video went viral and has reignited a call to end discrimination for Black people seeking healthcare.
“She was not just any patient saying they’re being racist, she was a doctor and she knew how she should be treated. That’s why her voice was so powerful,” said Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, MPH, an adjunct professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
In a statement to Healthline, IU Health officials said an external review is being conducted by “six leading national and local healthcare and diversity experts with a demonstrated track record of patient advocacy and expertise on systemic racism, cultural competency, diversity and inclusion.”
Source: healthline