A black doctor who claimed to have been abused because of his race while suffering from COVID-19 at an Indiana hospital has died, according to his family.
Dr. Susan Moore died on Sunday, her cousin announced on Twitter.
Moore was diagnosed with the virus on November 29 and was hospitalized. But it went viral on social media with videos claiming to have to beg for a CT scan and remdesivir, an antiviral drug that can speed recovery from the virus.
In a December 4 video posted on Facebook, Moore claimed that doctors at Indiana University Health Hospital even tried to send her home.
“This is how black people are killed when you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves,” she said in the video. “I had to talk to someone, maybe the media, someone to tell people how I’m being treated in this place.”
Moore said she had to see a white doctor at the hospital for treatment, but was told she would probably be sent home.
“I had as much sore throat as my throat hurt,” she said in the video. “I was crushed. It made me feel like a drug addict and he knows I’m a doctor. “
Moore said she spoke with a patient’s lawyer “who left me wanting” and asked to be taken to another hospital.
When doctors finally did the scan, they found new damage to her lungs – but kept her waiting for hours for painkillers, she said.
“And that nurse was telling me, ‘Oh, I was marching in the Black Lives Matter,'” Moore said. “I said, ‘No, I don’t believe any of this. Not even a little. Not even an iota. You wouldn’t even know how to walk. I probably can’t even write it. “
“I proposed and I claim that if I were white, I shouldn’t go through this,” she said. “And that man never came back and apologized.”
In a statement Wednesday, the hospital said it did not comment on specific patients or their medical history.
But, according to the statement, “as an organization dedicated to equity and the reduction of racial disparities in healthcare, we take allegations of discrimination very seriously and investigate every allegation.”
Treatment options are often agreed upon and reviewed by medical experts in a variety of specialties, and we maintain the commitment and expertise of our caregivers and the quality of care we provide to our patients every day.