I Was Shamed by My Doctor for Being Black

[Crunchy Frog]

120. They did that to me.

Last March I went into a local ER in the middle of the night, via ambulance, due to rapid onset of excruciating abdominal pain from what turned out to be a kidney stone. First time in my adult life that I've even been to an ER, so no "frequent flyer" here. I'm a white female, older than I care to mention, but I'm also on Medicaid, and that may have impacted the way I was treated.

Got hooked up to the monitering devices and a saline lock. And left alone to scream in agony for nearly 3 hours. The only attention I got was some staff member popping into my cubicle every so often to tell me to STFU, and someone coming in to inform me that my call button was being ignored because I "was only using it to ask for pain meds".

Got no medical attention at all, not even a pain assessment, until I managed to get my mother in to advocate for me. As far as treating the pain, I was generously given two 5mg Hydrocodone tablets, AFTER the stone had shifted position, and the pain had largely dissipated on its own. And given a prescription for high dose ibuprofen for treatment of intermittent pain as the stone made its way down the ureter (a process that took 8 weeks). Was told that it would be completely effective for kidney stone pain. NOT!

The big difference for me was that the arrival of my mother did not precipitate the bringing in of security officers. She's white, respectable looking, and obviously highly intelligent, and experienced with advocating for people in medical situations.

When/if this happens again, I won't be going to the ER. I'm looking into alternative means for controlling that kind of pain while remaining at home. I don't like to do it that way, but the system has kind of forced my hand.