Dr. Susan Moore died Dec. 20 from complications from COVID-19, her son told the New York Times. The internist died about two weeks after she shared a video in which she accused a doctor at North Health University Hospital in Indiana (IU North) of ignoring her pain complaints and medication requests because she was black, even though she was a patient and a doctor herself.
In a video posted earlier this month, she filmed herself from a hospital bed and recounted her experience at IU North. Moore said his doctor eliminated the symptoms and told him, “You’re not even short of breath.”
“Yeah, I am,” Moore said in the video, which he shared on Facebook on Dec. 4.
He recalled in the video that he had to apply to receive remdesivir, the antiviral drug used to treat patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and who do not need mechanical ventilation.
And despite the pain, the doctor told Moore he could send her home, she said, and he didn’t feel comfortable giving her more narcotics.
“It made me feel like I was a drug addict,” she said in the video. “And I knew I was a doctor.”
Moore had also posted updates on his Facebook page along with the video.
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Moore, who was an internist, said his pain was treated “properly” only after concerns about his treatment arose. He was later discharged from IU North, but returned to a different hospital less than 12 hours later, he wrote on his Facebook page.
“I presented and argue that if it was white, it shouldn’t go through that,” Moore said.
A spokesman for IU Nord confirmed to CNN that Moore was a patient in the hospital and that she was finally discharged, but refused to say more about her, citing the patient’s privacy.
“As an organization committed to equity and reducing racial disparities in health, we take allegations of discrimination very seriously and investigate all allegations,” the spokesman said.
In a statement issued Thursday, Dennis M. Murphy, president and CEO of Indiana University Health, defended the technical aspects of the treatment Moore received, though he conceded “that we may not have shown the level of compassion and respect that we strive to understand what matters most to patients. “
He also called for an external review of the case.
Racism in health care is nothing new
Moore’s story speaks to a broader issue of what experts call the implicit racial bias in health care for black patients. Studies have shown that in some situations black patients receive fewer pain medications than their white counterparts. And a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine attributed unequal treatment in part to “racist cultural beliefs and practices.”
The article cited a 2016 study that found that half of white medical students and residents “had unfounded beliefs about the intrinsic biological differences between blacks and whites,” falsely believing that the pain of black patients was less severe than white patients.
“Acceptance of this inequitable treatment as‘ normal ’is historically rooted and supported by the belief that black people are intrinsically prone to disease and, implicitly or explicitly, do not deserve high-quality care,” they said. the authors of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote an article comparing the subject of racism in medicine with racism in policing.
COVID-19 has further underscored racial disparities in medical treatment, which disproportionately affects communities of color.
For a “majority of doctors, mostly white in the United States, the perception is that African Americans don’t need so much for pain,” said Dr. Ala Stanford, pediatric surgeon and founder of Black Doctors COVID-19. Consortia.
Moore leaves behind his 19-year-old son, Henry Muhammed, and his elderly parents, both with dementia, according to a GoFundMe created in his name.
According to the New York Times, Moore’s family said he was born in Jamaica and grew up in Michigan before studying engineering at Kettering University. He then earned a doctor’s degree from the University of Michigan School of Medicine, the Times reported. The GoFundMe page describes her as a person who loved to practice medicine and was proud to be a member of the Delta Sigma Theta brotherhood.
CNN has contacted Moore’s family for further comments. Her son told the New York Times that she was an expert at defending herself in hospitals, where she often received treatment for sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that affects the lungs.
“Almost every time she went to the hospital she had to fend for herself, fight for something in some way, shape or form, just to get basic and proper care,” she told the Times.
“That’s how blacks are killed,” Moore said in the video, “when you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves.”
Stanford acknowledged that Moore was not his patient and did not know what the situation was at the hospital where he received treatment. But he considered Moore’s need to repeatedly defend his own attention to be “unacceptable.”
In addition, Moore’s decision to request pain medication was not only to relieve the pain, Stanford said, but would also support his recovery by making it easier for him to breathe. And Moore’s application for an antiviral is now part of the standard treatment for COVID-19, Stanford added.
“That’s basic,” Stanford said. “That’s standard for what you get. I know it to take care of enough people with coronavirus in the hospital and help them transmit it.”
“She’s me and we’re her”
Moore tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time on Nov. 29, according to his Facebook post. On December 4, she was hospitalized at UI North in Carmel, Indiana. It was only after a CT scan showed a new lymphadenopathy, a disease in which the lymph nodes increase, that the hospital agreed to treat his pain, he said.
“You have to prove that you have something wrong so you can get the medicine,” he said in the video.
Dr. Stanford said lymphadenopathy would indicate that “the disease process lasted a period of time” and that Moore’s body was fighting the disease.
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According to his Facebook posts, Moore was finally able to speak with the chief medical officer of IU Healthcare, who assured that he would make sure he received the best care. He also told her that diversity training would be conducted.
On Dec. 7, the hospital discharged Moore and sent her home, according to her Facebook post. But less than 12 hours later, she was sent to a different hospital after fever and a drop in blood pressure, according to the Facebook post. Moore said he was receiving treatment for bacterial pneumonia and COVID pneumonia. He described the care at the second hospital as “very compassionate”.
The next day, Moore wrote that she was being transferred to the ICU. It was the last update shared on their Facebook page.
His story has led to an outpouring of generosity from people who have listened to him and the GoFundMe page has raised over $ 100,000 as of Thursday night.
Dr. Alicia Sanders, another doctor who first came in contact with Moore after watching her video, helped start the page to raise funds for her family, including Muhammed’s return to school in Indiana University. Sanders said the reason he first came in contact with Moore was “heartbreaking.”
“She’s me,” said Sanders, who is also black. “She’s me and it’s her. It could have been any of us what happened to us.”
Stanford, who told CNN he acknowledged the bias and racism implicit in medicine but had decided to try to change things in the health care system, echoed that comment. He told CNN that when he first learned of Moore’s story, he left her trapped and brought tears to her eyes.
He shared it with a group of friends, all of them surgeons from all over the country. They could all relate, Stanford said, after experiencing the same treatment despite their experience.
“We all have the stories,” he said.
“If any of us get sick, please don’t shut up. Be vigilant, be present, be public,” Stanford wrote to them and added of Moore, “She was one of us.”
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The video from the previous player is from a previous report.