Black doctor dies of Covid days after complaining of ‘racist’ hospital treatment
Dr Susan Moore says she had to beg to be given a CT scan and drugs used to treat Covid patients
A black doctor died of coronavirus after complaining of racist treatment at a hospital whose staff she accused of not taking her illness seriously. Dr Susan Moore, 52, was killed by Covid in Indianapolis, Indiana on December 20. She had battled bacterial and Covid-related pneumonia since late November.
Moore, a mother of one, was killed by the disease a fortnight after sharing social media updates detailing what she says were delays in diagnoses and treatment from one doctor.
Moore recorded herself in hospital on December 4, and singled out Dr Eric Bannec of IU Hospitals in Indianapolis for failing to treat severe, Covid-related pain in her neck.
She said: ‘I was crushed. He made me feel like I was a drug addict. And he knew I was a physician. I don’t take narcotics. I was hurting.’
Moore said she had to beg her doctor for a CT scan, and convince him that she was having serious trouble breathing to get one, despite her own decades of medical expertise.
The doctor also told of how she had to beg to be given Remdesivir, an anti-viral treatment which can help treat seriously-ill Covid patients.
That scan confirmed the condition Moore said was causing her neck pain. She said: ‘I put forth and I maintain, if I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that.
‘This is how black people get killed, when you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves.
‘I had to talk to somebody, maybe the media, somebody, to let people know how I’m being treated up in this place.’
Moore, who leaves behind her son Henry, 19, as well as two elderly parents with dementia, was sent home hours later.
But her health continued to decline thanks to a worsening fever, and drop in her blood pressure.
She was then admitted to Ascension St Vincent Hospital in Carmel, Indiana, where she says she received better treatment.
The medic, who suffered from an imflammatory lung condition, was diagnosed with both bacterial and Covid pneumonia while at that hospital. She criticized IU health again for what she claims was negligent treatment.
Moore said: ‘Those people were trying to kill me. Clearly everyone has to agree they (discharged) me way too soon.’
Turning her attention to Ascension St Vincent, Moore added: ‘They are now treating me for a bacterial pneumonia as well as Covid pneumonia.
‘I am getting very compassionate care. They are offering me pain medicine.’
But that was not enough to save Moore, and she was put on a ventilator on December 10, before dying a week-and-a-half later.
An IU health spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of Moore’s case, but said they investigated all allegations of racism.
Dr Bannec has not commented on Moore’s allegations against him.
Covid has killed more than 327,000 Americans, a disproportionate number of whom are black and Latino.
Scientists have speculated that this is because communities of color are more likely to suffer from poverty, whose effects put them at higher risk of severe Covid side effects.
They are also more likely to be front line or essential workers whose jobs put them at higher risk of catching Covid in the first place.
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