“I don’t trust this hospital,” said Dr. Susan Moore from her hospital bed in Indiana, an oxygen tube in her nose. “That’s not how you treat patients.”
Moore, an Indianapolis physician who was being treated for COVID-19 at Indiana University Hospital North, died of the virus this week. Earlier this month, she posted a video to Facebook saying she didn’t think she was getting proper medical care because she was black.
Moore tested positive for the coronavirus on Nov. 29 and said her symptoms were a high respiratory rate, high heart rate, high fever, and coughing up blood. She described the tough struggles she faced treating white doctors and nurses in the hospital, including begging for the antiviral drug Remdesivir, waiting hours for painkillers, and requiring a CT scan of her chest to prove that her pain was real.
Her scan found lung infiltrates and inflamed lymph nodes, she said, but she continued to wait hours for painkillers.
“All I know is that I am in severe pain,” said Moore in the heartbreaking video, adding that the doctor was downplaying her pain. “[The doctor] made me feel like a drug addict, and he knew I was a doctor. ‘
She spoke to a patient attorney, who she said said nothing could be done. She also asked for a transfer to another hospital, but was told to just go home.
“This is how black people are killed,” Moore said. “If you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves.”
As a doctor, Moore clearly knew what to ask, but struggled to keep advocating for herself as her condition worsened.
“I suggested and insist that if I were White, I wouldn’t have to go through that,” said Moore. “And [the doctor] never came back and apologized. ”
Moore was eventually sent home, but less than 12 hours later, she developed a fever and her blood pressure plummeted, so she returned to the hospital.
GoFundMe
“Those people tried to kill me. Obviously, everyone should agree that they fire me way too soon,” she wrote. “They are now treating me for both bacterial pneumonia and Covid pneumonia.”
Moore’s story has become all too common for black Americans as COVID-19 is disproportionately devastating black communities across the country. Black Americans are 4.7 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than white Americans, and three times more likely to die from the virus.
According to a GoFundMe set up to cover her family’s expenses, Moore’s 19-year-old son, Henry Muhammed, is “in a good mood” but now faces both her death and his grandparents’ dementia. Dr. Moore was the family’s sole supplier.
GoFundMe
Henry had previously enrolled at Indiana University to study biochemistry and mathematics, but dropped out of school to care for his mother and grandparents. A GoFundMe update said some of the money will be used to ensure his education continues.
“Susan was a phenomenal doctor,” the organizers said in a statement. “She loved practicing medicine, she loved being a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she loved helping people, and she was not apologetic about it.”
In Moore’s Facebook post, she said that the hospital’s chief medical officer told her staff that she would receive diversity training and that she would receive an apology from the doctor who treated her.
“We are very sad to hear about the death of Dr. Susan Moore and our hearts go out to her friends and family,” the hospital said in a statement Wednesday.
“As an organization committed to equality and reducing racial inequalities in health care, we take allegations of discrimination very seriously and investigate every allegation. Treatment options are often agreed and reviewed by medical experts from a variety of specialties, and we stand by behind the dedication and expertise of our healthcare providers and the quality of care provided to our patients every day. ”