A black doctor who claimed she had been maltreated for her race while suffering from COVID-19 in an Indiana hospital has died, according to her family.
Dr. Susan Moore passed away on Sunday, her cousin announced on Twitter.
Moore was diagnosed with the virus on November 29 and was hospitalized. But she went viral on social media with videos claiming to beg for a CT scan and remdesivir, an antiviral drug that can speed recovery from the virus.
In a December 4 video posted to Facebook, Moore claimed doctors at Indiana University Health Hospital even tried to send her home.
“This is how black people are killed if you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves,” she said on the video. “I had to talk to someone, maybe the media, someone, to let people know how I’m being treated in this place.”
Moore said she had to beg a white doctor at the hospital for treatment, but was told she would likely be sent home.
“My neck hurt so much, my neck hurt so bad,” she said on the video. ‘I was crushed. He made me feel like a drug addict and he knows I’m a doctor. “
Moore said she spoke to a patient advocate “who left me behind” and asked to be transferred to another hospital.
When the doctors finally did the scan, they discovered new damage to her lungs – but they made her wait hours for painkillers, she charged.
And that nurse said to me, ‘Oh, I marched into Black Lives Matter,’ said Moore. ‘I said to her,’ No, I don’t believe any of that. Not even a little bit. Not one iota. You wouldn’t even know how to march. Probably can’t even spell it. “
“I did and I keep insisting that if I were white, I shouldn’t have to go through that,” she said. “And that man never came back and apologized.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the hospital said it will not comment on specific patients or their medical history.
But, the statement said, “as an organization committed to equality and reducing racial inequalities in healthcare, we take allegations of discrimination very seriously and investigate every allegation.”
“Treatment options are often agreed and assessed by medical experts from a variety of specialties, and we stand behind the dedication and expertise of our healthcare providers and the quality of care delivered to our patients every day.”