
Deserving to be treated, not mistreated
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Anna Brown, a St. Louis-based homeless woman needed treatment for a sprained ankle. She went to three emergency rooms seeking such treatment. In the third hospital, St. Mary's Health Center, Ms. Brown was emphatic about needing care. Instead she was arrested for trespassing and died in a jail cell. Was she ill-treated because she was homeless? Black? Broke? It really doesn't matter. The fact is that the hospital that failed to treat her may have contributed to her death.
Too many African-American people are treated in emergency rooms, as criminals, not people in need of health services. After learning of the Brown case, a sister friend shared that she had such an extreme anxiety attack that her 10-year-old son called 911. When she got to the emergency room (with health insurance, thank you), she was queried about her use of drugs and alcohol, not her health condition. It was only after her blood was tested that she was treated. So she spent four agonizing hours on a hospital bed with raspy breath, a frightened son, and no medical care.
They aren't the only ones. African-American and Latino men with broken bones are less likely to get pain medication than others. Even children of color are less likely to receive painkillers than White children, because some physicians think they are faking the level of their pain. When we look at health disparities and wonder why African Americans are more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney failures, breast cancer, AIDS and then some, one might point to the many ways that doctors - especially those in emergency rooms - signal that Black pain is not worth treating. The result is that someone who is really hurting chooses to forego medical care instead of dealing with medical condescension and arrogance.
To be sure, and to our society's shame, emergency rooms often become the health providers of last resort. Those without a regular physician are stuck going to an emergency room when all else fails. A cold becomes the flu becomes pneumonia and only when a patient is struggling for breath does she seek treatment in an emergency room.
I can understand a doctor's frustration because the patient did not deal with her challenges earlier. But emergency room doctors, well paid, need to do their work without judgmental attitudes getting in their way. Brown deserved to be treated as a human being. She deserved to be treated as someone who was struggling with pain. Instead, she was treated as a criminal because she insisted on care. Thus, she was accused of trespassing, instead of being treated as someone who was hurting.
While many would describe our society as post-racial that is a specious and inaccurate description of the world in which we live. Racism muddies the water that we all swim in, and physicians are not exempted. Those who swim in muddy water reflect the muddy attitudes that are prevalent in our society. Many doctors consider themselves "culturally sensitive" but they have come to conclusions about poor folks, Black folks, and others that they treat. It is easier to write off a woman like Brown than it is to find out what is really wrong with her. The tragedy is that Anna Brown is not the only one who has been treated this way.
The Hippocratic Oath that physicians swear to states, "first, do no harm." We have health disparities because people are treated differently in our health care system. We cannot talk about closing gaps without talking about the ways that medical attitudes shape the medical experience for those who are so underserved that they come to emergency rooms for help. While the jury is out on the ways that Obamacare will reform our health care system, the intent of health care reform is to eliminate tragedies like Brown's.
Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author.
Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly
More districtchronicles News Articles
- So what's the low down on digestion?
- Do You Really Need an Annual Physical?
- Back to school – walk your child's route to school
- Sickle cell disease, discovered 106 years ago, still afflicts African Americans
Recent districtchronicles News Articles
Discuss This Article
MOST POPULAR DISTRICTCHRONICLES

Religious groups to Obama: Dismantle immigration registry’s framework By Lauren Markoe, Religion News Service

Fidel Castro Is Dead By Frederick H. Lowe

Sharpton Announces D.C. March During MLK Weekend 2017 By Hazel Trice Edney
GET TOP STORIES DELIVERED WEEKLY
FOLLOW OUR NEWSPAPER
LATEST DISTRICTCHRONICLES NEWS
- DHCD Acts to Preserve 63 Affordable Housing Units in Wards 4 and 8
- Mayor Bowser releases housing report
- District Holds First-Ever State Diploma Commencement for Residents Who...
- Here are Six Black Republicans that Trump Should Be Talking to about Cabinet...
- County Launches Dementia Friendly Initiative
- County Seeks Volunteers to Work With Victims of Sexual Assault
- Empowering Kids to Combat the 'Trump Effect'
RECENT DISTRICTCHRONICLES CLASSIFIEDS
OUTSIDE THE LINES
- How Do We Know LASIK Is Safe?
- Building A Medicaid Bipartisan Bridge
- Footballer Jerry Rice Makes Big Play For Kidney Health
- Tips For Easy Snow Removal
- Thirty Years Of Perfect Harmony To Help Kids
- An IRS Incentive To Save For Retirement
- How To Wow The One Who Wows You
- Top Roofing Trends
- Living Better With Chronic Respiratory Diseases
- Prevent CO Poisoning
FROM AROUND THE WEB
- Online Conference Connects Global Startups and Investors
- Corporate Takeover Tale Offers Blueprint for Survival
- Women Say They're Ready to Put Their Money to Work for Them
- This Year, Rethink The Way You Plan a Vacation
- Fall in Love with UPtv's New Uplifting Series: Design Twins
- Pop the Question with the Perfect Song
- Post-Holiday Wake-up Call: Signs Senior Loved Ones May...
- New Year, New Goals: Tools to Get You Where You Want to Go
- How Self-Publishing Made This Author A Best-Seller
- Big Swings in The Market Haven't Dampened People's Optimism
COLLEGE PRESS RELEASES
- Enter the 2019 SVG/NACDA College Sports Media Awards Today!
- Cengage Offers College Students Free Access to Career Resources with Cengage Unlimited Subscription
- ACTA Launches HowCollegesSpendMoney.com
- Nikon Announces The Second Year Of The Nikon Storytellers Scholarship, Reaffirming Its Commitment To Education For The Next Generation of Creators
- New Survey: Demand for Uniquely Human Skills Increases Even as Technology and Automation Replace Some Jobs