The talk was recorded. Within months it was being used in medical schools as a case study in implicit bias and standard-of-care violations. I received hundreds of emails from patients describing their own experiences of being dismissed, mocked, undertreated, or sent home when something serious was wrong. Some were heartbreaking in their familiarity. A Black woman whose postpartum pain was brushed off until she became septic. A teenager with endometriosis told for years that she was dramatic. A veteran with a bowel obstruction labeled drug-seeking because he had track marks from old injuries and looked “rough.” The specifics varied. The structure did not.
My son called from the emergency room before dawn and said, “Dad, the doctor is refusing to treat me. He says I’m faking it for drugs.” When I got there, the doctor’s s…
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