Google
Trusted Resources: News & Events
Latest announcements and gatherings
My medical school lesson was tinged with racism. Did that affect how I treated a sickle cell patient years later?
The young woman was curled up in a ball. She was sweating and shivering from pain. As she answered my questions, all my many, many questions, tears fell silently from her eyes.
I was a third-year medical student, and the resident I was working with had asked me to evaluate this woman. She had been here several times before. She was in the middle of a sickle cell crisis.
I remembered this young woman while reading STAT’s recent story about how too many patients with sickle cell face exhausting, infuriating and life-threatening delays in getting care when they arrive in emergency rooms in excruciating pain from a restricted flow of oxygen to their organs.
Thinking back, I’ve recognized the truth of that article: We don’t always take sickle cell seriously. I realized, too, that I, a doctor of color, might be complicit in bias against these patients. The more I think about it, the more I realize how deep the roots of that injustice stretch.
+myBinderRelated Content
-
Increased acute care utilization in a prospective cohort of adults with sickle cell diseaseThe ESCAPED (Examining Sickle Cell Acute...
-
Sickle Cell and the Work PlaceSickle cell patients find it very tough ...
-
Emergency Medicine Management of Sickle Cell Disease Complications: An Evidence-Based UpdateBACKGROUND: Sickle cell disease (SCD) af...
-
How Sickle Cell Affects the Bodyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RewyXWKJ...
-
George Atweh, MDGeorge Atweh, MD, is a professor and div...
-
The Sickle Cell Council of New MexicoThe Sickle Cell Council of New Mexico se...
-
Cassandra Josephson, MDDr. Cassandra D. Josephson is the Medica...
To improve your experience on this site, we use cookies. This includes cookies essential for the basic functioning of our website, cookies for analytics purposes, and cookies enabling us to personalize site content. By clicking on 'Accept' or any content on this site, you agree that cookies can be placed. You may adjust your browser's cookie settings to suit your preferences. More Information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
Powered by
Support for this site is provided by
This platform is made possible through a partnership with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. (SCDAA) and its member organizations. SCDAA's mission is to advocate for people affected by sickle cell conditions and empower community-based organizations to maximize quality of life and raise public consciousness while advancing the search for a universal cure.