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Death of Susan Moore

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On December 20, 2020, the American physician Susan Moore (born 1967 or 1968) died in Carmel, Indiana, from complications related to COVID-19.[1] In the weeks preceding her death, Moore, who was black, had shared concerns that her symptoms were not being taken seriously by white medical professionals.[2]

Life

Susan Moore was born in Jamaica.[1] She had a degree in engineering from Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. She worked for 3M as an industrial engineer for almost ten years before returning to school.[3] She was a 2002 graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School.[4][1] Moore was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[5] Moore worked as a family physician in Carmel, Indiana.[6] Her close family included her nineteen-year old son, Henry Muhammed,[7] and her elderly parents both of whom she cared for at the time of her death, since they were living with dementia.[2]

Treatment for COVID-19

Admission to Indiana University Health North Hospital

Moore tested positive for COVID-19 on November 29, 2020, and was admitted to IU Health North Hospital for care.[8] On December 4, 2020 she shared a video to Facebook where she recorded her experience of medical care there.[2] In it she described how white doctors refused her pain medication, which she said "...made me feel like I was a drug addict".[8] She also recalled in the video how she had to beg for treatment with the anti-viral drug remdesivir, used to treat COVID-19 patients not on a ventilator,[9] in addition to begging for a CT scan.[2] She reported that a white doctor said, “You’re not even short of breath”, which she said she was.[9] In the video she stated that: “I put forth and 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.”[7]

On December 7, 2020, Moore was discharged from IUHNH.[8]

Admission to Ascension-St. Vincent Hospital

However just twelve hours later, she was re-admitted to hospital, this time to Ascension-St. Vincent Hospital. There she experienced improved medical treatment, according to her Facebook posts.[8] Her final Facebook post read that she was being transferred to an intensive care unit.[10] On December 10, 2020, she was intubated.[1]

Death

Moore died at Ascension-St. Vincent Hospital in Carmel on December 20, 2020.[7]

Aftermath

Moore's death is viewed by some as an example of medical racism, where her race was a defining factor in how she was perceived and the treatment she was given.[11]

In their statement after Moore's death the African American Policy Forum stated that "systemic forms of racism .. construct a reality wherein women like Dr. Moore can be stereotyped as an addict simply because they request the medication necessary to treat the excruciatingly painful side effects of a lethal disease. Here racism and sexism served to typecast Dr. Moore as someone who could be deemed unruly, intimidating, and untrustworthy at perhaps the most vulnerable moment of her life."[12]

In the period of the COVID-19 pandemic when vaccinations began and the history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was frequently cited as the reason for vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans, Moore was invoked as a counter-example of present-day racism that poses obstacles to accessing health care and erodes trust in it.[13][14][15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Eligon, John (December 24, 2020). "Black Doctor Dies of Covid-19 After Complaining of Racist Treatment". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d CNN (December 26, 2020). "Black Indiana doctor died of coronavirus weeks after accusing hospital of racist treatment". ABC11 Raleigh-Durham. Retrieved April 11, 2021. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ "Black Doctor Dies of COVID After Alleging Subpar Treatment". Medscape. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  4. ^ Maybank, Aletha; Jones, Camara Phyllis; Blackstock, Uché; Perry, Joia Crear (December 26, 2020). "Opinion: Say her name: Dr. Susan Moore". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  5. ^ AAPF (February 11, 2021). "AAPF Statement on the Death of Dr. Susan Moore". AAPF. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  6. ^ AAPF (January 15, 2021). "Black Physician's COVID Death Underscores Health Disparities". AAPF. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c agencies, Guardian staff and (December 26, 2020). "Black doctor's death becomes a symbol of racism in coronavirus care". The Guardian. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d Mack, Justin L. "Dr. Susan Moore: What we know about the Black doctor's claims of racism at Carmel hospital". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Andone, Dakin (December 25, 2020). "A Black doctor died of Covid-19 weeks after accusing hospital staff of racist treatment". CNN. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  10. ^ Watts, Amanda; Hanna, Jason (January 8, 2021). "Indiana health system says experts will examine Covid-19 death of Black doctor who accused staff of racist treatment". CNN. Archived from the original on January 8, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  11. ^ Nirappil, Fenit. "A Black doctor alleged racist treatment before dying of covid-19: 'This is how Black people get killed'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  12. ^ AAPF (February 11, 2021). "AAPF Statement on the Death of Dr. Susan Moore". AAPF. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  13. ^ Dembosky, April (April 5, 2021). "Stop blaming Tuskegee, critics say. It's not an 'excuse' for current medical racism -". KQED. Archived from the original on April 5, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  14. ^ Nephew, Lauren D. (February 2021). "Systemic racism and overcoming my COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy". eClinicalMedicine. 32: 100713. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100713. ISSN 2589-5370. PMC 7816611. PMID 33495751.
  15. ^ Bajaj, Simar Singh; Stanford, Fatima Cody (February 4, 2021). "Beyond Tuskegee — Vaccine Distrust and Everyday Racism". New England Journal of Medicine. 384 (5): e12. doi:10.1056/NEJMpv2035827. ISSN 0028-4793. PMC 9908408. PMID 33471971.
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