Doctor Who Claimed Racial Discrimination While Being Treated For COVID-19 Dies Of Virus

NEW YORK (VINnews) — An Indianapolis doctor who complained publicly about her treatment for coronavirus and claimed that due to her color she received inferior treatment  died of the virus this week.

Dr Susan Moore shared a video on her Facebook page from her hospital bed with an oxygen tube hooked up to her nose. Looking drained and speaking with difficulty, Dr. Moore described her torrid experience as a patient, stating that “I don’t trust this hospital” and “that is not how you treat patients.”

Dr. Moore tested positive for the virus on November 29 and complained of a high respiratory rate, accelerated heart rate, fever and coughing blood. Moore, who is black, claimed that white doctors and nurses in the hospital ignored her pain and did not give medication, did not give her enough of the antiviral drug Remdesivir and did not allow her a CT scan to prove that her chest pain was genuine. When a scan was eventually done it detected pulmonary infiltrates and inflamed lymph nodes but despite this Moore waited hours for pain medication.

Moore said that the doctor dismissed her pain, making her feel “like a drug addict” and not like the doctor he knew she was. A plea to the patient advocate didn’t help and even her request to transfer to another hospital was denied. Moore took this morbidly, claiming that racial discrimination was the cause of the disproportionately high numbers of black deaths from COVID-19. At present blacks are 3 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than whites.

.”This is how Black people get killed,” Moore said. “When you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves.”

“Those people were trying to kill me. Clearly, everyone has to agree they discharge me way too soon,” she wrote. “They are now treating me for a bacterial pneumonia as well as Covid pneumonia.”

She did not realize that she was effectively prophesying her own demise. Just 12 hours after being sent home against her will, her fever spiked and blood pressure plummeted and she returned to hospital, where she died this week from complications of the virus.

As the sole breadwinner for her family, Moore’s death left her 19-year-old son and parents suffering from dementia to fend for themselves. A GoFundMe was set up to help the family.

“Susan was a phenomenal doctor,” organizers said in a statement. “She loved practicing medicine, she loved being a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc, she loved helping people, and she was unapologetic about it.”

In Moore’s Facebook post, she said that the hospital’s chief medical officer told her staff will receive diversity training, and that she would receive an apology from the doctor that was treating her.

“We are very sad to hear about the death of Dr. Susan Moore and our hearts go out to her friends and family,” the hospital said in a statement Wednesday.

“As an organization committed to equity and reducing racial disparities in healthcare, we take accusations of discrimination very seriously and investigate every allegation. Treatment options are often agreed upon and reviewed by medical experts from a variety of specialties, and we stand by the commitment and expertise of our caregivers and the quality of care delivered to our patients every day.”