A live call-in radio show I was once listening to had a caller with a horrific story to tell. Mind you, this was years before the pandemic came along.
This lady's daughter was a small child who had not been feeling well. There were a variety of complaints which had been presented to the family doctor who eventually decided that the symptoms were psychosomatic and therefore suggested that counseling might be of benefit.
Eventually, the caller said, and presumably through other medical venues, it was discovered that the family doctor had misdiagnosed the child and the result was life threatening. The actual illness was leukemia.
The fact that the doctor had not properly diagnosed his patient and the additional fact that the family was black meant, according to the caller, that the doctor was a racist. Presented with that thought, the radio host was in immediate agreement and went on with discussing how best to deal with racist doctors.
Mind you again, this was on live radio.
No consideration was given to any possible reasons why the diagnostic error itself had been made nor by what medical factors the doctor might have been misled. Instead, the unchallenged opinion of a medical lay person, the child's mother, was simply taken as an unquestionable truth on which basis the doctor was to be verbally condemned.
No mention was made about the child's eventual medical progress. I can only hope that with proper medical care, that matters worked out for the best.
I have listened to other such stories with descriptions of inferior medical care being afforded to black patients as compared to white patients and many have seemed quite believable. However, the immediate judgmental condemnation of the doctor in the above conversation, in my view and for lack of further information, was unwarranted.
Knee jerk assumptions of the kind that were exhibited by that radio host actually work to the detriment of the listening audience, black and white alike. Medical science is complex. Doctors are given many years of education and training before they can earn the title of "Doctor". To simply dismiss their actions as the result of a single alleged trait is to very likely lose sight of remedial resources, be they medical, psychological and/or social, which denial works to the harm of the patient whether pediatric, youthful, middle aged or geriatric and of whatever race.
Everybody deserves better than that.
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