A HOSPITAL in Indiana is to ask for an external review “to address any potential treatment bias” following the death of a Black doctor who criticised the racist treatment she received there in a video on Facebook. 

Dr Susan Moore, who was being treated at Carmel hospital in Indiana, passed away from complications caused by the coronavirus last week after testing positive late last month.

Moore posted an emotional video on Facebook at the start of December in which she described her doctor’s racist treatment. 

She said she was forced to repeatedly justify the pain she was in and was treated with suspicion by the white doctor treating her.

When she asked for pain relief, “He said ‘you don’t need it. You’re not even short of breath.’ I said ‘yes I am.’ Then he went on to say ‘you don’t qualify.’ Then he further stated: ‘you should just go home right now, I don’t feel comfortable giving you any more narcotics,’” Moore said in the video.

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

The 52-year-old said: “I was in so much pain from my neck. My neck hurt so bad. I was crushed. He made me feel like I was a drug addict, and he knew I was a physician. I don’t take narcotics. I was hurting.”

“If I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that. That man never came back and apologised,” she added.

In a statement, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Indiana University Health, Dennis Murphy, said he was deeply saddened by Moore’s death and “even more saddened by the experience she described in the video”.

He said: “After our preliminary medical quality review, I am fully confident in our medical team and their expertise to treat complex medical cases. I do not believe that we failed the technical aspects of the delivery of Dr. Moore’s care. I am concerned, however, that we may not have shown the level of compassion and respect we strive for in understanding what matters most to patients.

“There is still much that we need to learn through internal review. Additionally, I am asking for an external review of this case. We will have a diverse panel of healthcare and diversity experts conduct a thorough medical review of Dr. Moore’s concerns to address any potential treatment bias.”

The COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately impacted Black people around the world. Black Americans are nearly four times more likely to be hospitalised due to the virus and three times more likely to die than white Americans. 

Black Britons are at almost twice the risk of dying from COVID-19 than white people. Health experts have warned that the lack of data available into how Black and ethnic minority people in Britain have been affected by the coronavirus crisis could be putting more lives at risk.