The president and CEO of an Indiana hospital caused adverse reactions to the release of what medical professionals and health attorneys described as a “victim accusation” statement about a black doctor who died of COVID-19 after she was allegedly abused by a doctor and nurses at the medical unit because of her skin color.
In a press release, Indiana University Hospital President and CEO Dennis M. Murphy described Dr. Susan Moore as a “complex patient” and said that during her stay at IU Health North in Carmel, Indiana, the healthcare staff who treated her for coronavirus, “may have been intimidated by a knowledgeable patient who used social media to express her concerns and criticize the care they were giving.”
Moore, 52, who operated her own family office, died at another hospital the day she was discharged from IU Health North, her 19-year-old son told ABC News ani, Henry Muhammed.
Before being sent home from IU Health North, Moore recorded a harsh review of her treatment and posted the video on her Facebook page, saying, “I presented and argued, if I were white, I shouldn’t go through that.”
She claimed that the doctor who treated her did not repeatedly ignore her complaints that she was in terrible pain and wanted to send her home. She initially said that the doctor told her that she felt uncomfortable giving him painkillers and “made me feel like a drug addict,” she said on social media.
“This is how people of color are killed. When you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves,” Moore said in the Dec. 4 video he posted on his Facebook page on the hospital bed. at IU Health North. “I had to talk to someone, maybe the media, to tell people how I’m being treated in this place.”
Muhammed told ABC News in a telephone interview on Wednesday that his mother knew her own medical history better than anyone else and should have been seen as an asset to the medical team and not as a sign of intimidation.
“I don’t understand how knowing your medical history is intimidating to a nurse or hospital staff,” Muhammed said.
He said that apart from a chaplain from the IU health system who came to him, no official from the medical center contacted him to apologize or express his remorse.
In his statement, Murphy said he was “deeply saddened by her death and the loss of her family.”
“I’m even saddened by the experience he described in the video,” Murphy wrote. “It hurt me personally to see a patient addressing me on social media because I felt that their care was inadequate and their personal needs were unheard.”
Murphy promised to bring together a diverse group of health and diversity experts to conduct an external medical review of Moore’s concerns “to address any potential treatment bias.” At the same time, he showed up to defend the hospital staff who treated Moore.
“I don’t think I’ve failed in the technical aspects of providing Dr. Moore’s care,” Murphy wrote. “I am concerned, however, that we may not have shown the level of compassion and respect for which we strive to understand what matters most to patients. I am concerned that our care team did not have time because of the burden of this pandemic. hear and understand patients’ concerns and questions. “
Muhammed said he and his family had discussed with lawyers about their appeal options, but had not yet decided whether to take legal action against IU Health.
“I hope they do an honest and impartial investigation,” he said of the hospital, “but I can only hope so. I don’t know if they will.”
Moore tested positive for COVID on Nov. 29 and went to IU Health North because she had been to the hospital before and was close to her home, Muhammed said.
He said his mother was discharged from IU Health North on December 7, but was home only 12 hours before having to call an ambulance to take her quickly to another hospital. Moore wrote on her Facebook page that when she was hospitalized at Ascension St. Vincent of Carmel, her temperature rose to 103 degrees, and her blood pressure dropped to 80/60. Normal blood pressure is generally 120/80.
Her health continued to deteriorate and she was placed on a ventilator, her son said. She died of complications from COVID-19 on December 20.
Moore’s ordeal left public health attorneys and health care providers disappointed by Murphy’s statement and caused many of them to develop outrage on social media.
Dr. Theresa Chapple, a black doctor and Maryland public health lawyer, wrote on Twitter that after reading Murphy’s statement, “I’m in a hurry.”
“It’s so ridiculous and also something that people of color go through in this country for quite some time, and that includes black doctors,” Chapple told ABC News on Wednesday. “We went through this when we tried to plead for ourselves, when we tried to plead for our children. We are fired. We are seen as upset, upset or volatile. Bullying is a new one that I had not heard before reading this. “
Chapple said her work focuses on maternal mortality and trying to prevent the death of black women as a result of childbirth.
“One of the ways we tell women what they can do to help address it is to advocate for themselves or have a lawyer there with them. So now to approach this tried and true approach that we know helps in certain circumstances and to see clearly that it doesn’t help when you’re black and educated, it’s really a slap in the face, “Chapple said.” What else can you do for to save your own life? ”
Christie VanHorne, a New York public health lawyer whose company, CVH Consulting, works to improve communication between patients and health care providers, said she was so angry with Murphy’s response that she wrote IU Health a message complaining that the hospital is “guilty of the victims” “Moore for the alleged inadequate care he received.
“It’s honestly a shame for the medical profession to blame the victim and the team of nurses,” VanHorne told ABC News on Wednesday. “To say that the nurses were intimidated by the patient is absolutely ridiculous when he just tried to plead. for her.”
Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, associate black professor at Morehouse Medical School in Atlanta and former president of the American Public Health Association, and three of her medical colleagues wrote an op-ed paper on Moore’s case that was published in Washington Posted Saturday in saying Moore’s experience is more of a “confirmation” of the racial inequities in the national health care system that surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The system has a name: racism. No matter how well-intentioned our health care system is, it did not eliminate the misconception of a hierarchy of human assessment based on skin color and the misconception that if there was such a hierarchy, “white” people would be on the side. “according to Jones, along with Aletha Maybank, chief health officer at the American Medical Association, Uché Blackstock, founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, and Joia Crear Perry, president of National Birth Equity Collaborative.
Blacks were also disproportionately affected and died of coronavirus more than their white counterparts. An analysis by the Brookings Institution published earlier this year showed that the COVID-19 mortality rate for black people was 3.6 times higher than that of white people.
An ABC News survey published in April found that people of color from coronavirus hot spots are twice as likely to die from the disease as their white counterparts.
“Dr. Moore knew she was being abused. She knew she was being abused because she knew what she was going to receive. So that makes his voice even louder when he calls them, “Jones told ABC News on Wednesday.
Jones said IU Health must recognize that systemic racism exists in its system before it can solve the problem.
“It’s not about a single nurse on her own or a single doctor on her own,” Jones said. “You have to hire a lot of people, understanding that racism exists and that it is a problem for the whole system.”