Source: Susan Moore / facebook
Dr. Susan Moore, a black doctor who had been documenting the abuse she had suffered in the health care system after her diagnoses of COVID-19, has died at the age of 52. In her honor, other doctors have been raising Moore’s name online and making efforts to continue ongoing talks on how to combat systematic racism against black women, especially in the health field.
Throughout December, Moore had been publicly sharing the advances and pitfalls of his experience with the virus while receiving treatment at the University of Indiana hospital system. In a video he posted on Facebook on December 4 since the installation, Moore expressed his frustrations with his doctor and his care team by saying, “Now, that’s not how you treat patients, period. I don’t trust this hospital and I ask them to move me.”
He mentioned that he felt the hospital was trying to discharge her without completely treating her illness, and said, “These people wanted to send me home with new lung infiltrates and all sorts of lymphadenopathy in my neck.” She added that her doctor, Dr. Bannec, told her, “If I stayed, he would send me home on Saturday at ten o’clock, in the dark. Who does?” She asked.
Meanwhile, one of Moore’s nurses, who was apparently trying to dispel any allegations of racial discrimination, told her “I was leaving for Black Lives Matter,” to which Moore replied, “No, I don’t think any of that, nor a little, not an iota … you wouldn’t even know how to leave, [you] you probably can’t even spell it. “
Later, in the heartbreaking clip, Moore said, “This is how blacks are killed when you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves. I had to talk to someone, maybe to the media, to someone. To let people know how they treat me on this site, “
During his hospital stay, Moore said he had to “request” chest x-rays and computed tomography scans, was told he could not get Remdesivir (a drug that reduced the recovery time of the virus) and was denied the pain medications.
“All I can do is cry I was in so much pain,” she shared. “He (Dr. Bannec) said you can go home now … Why do I have to prove there’s something wrong with treating my pain?”
In an Instagram post in Moore’s memory, medical professional and OBGYN Charis Chambers summed up Moore’s untimely death by saying, “She was discharged at home and needed readmission less than 12 hours later. She didn’t trust the previous hospital team after how she was treated, so she ended up going to a different hospital. Once there, he received much better care, but it was too late … This is unacceptable. This is heartbreaking. That has to stop. ”
Using social media as a tool, as Moore did to share their experiences, other health workers have spoken out after the tragedy. Dr. Carmen Brown tweeted, “She had to defend herself and was still ignored. Do you see how terrifying it is for people who have no voice ???”
Dr. Vidya Kumar Ramanathan tweeted, “Very sad to see this. Dr. Moore was in my medical school class. He was kind, hardworking, bright and generous. Really saddened by that.”
Moore was the sole provider of his 19-year-old son and his two parents, both with dementia. You can support your GoFundMe settings to meet your needs here.