Doctor dies of COVID-19 after filming viral video: 'This is how Black people get killed'

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https://thehill.com/homenews/news/531635-doctor-died-of-covid-19-after-filming-viral-video-this-is-how-black-people-get

 

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A Black female doctor died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, just weeks after posting a viral video in which she said she believed she was not receiving proper medical treatment because she was Black.

CBS News on Thursday reported the death of Susan Moore, a physician in Indiana who had tested positive for the coronavirus on Nov. 29, and experienced symptoms like a high respiratory rate, high heart rate and high fever, in addition to coughing up blood.

In a Dec. 4 video posted on Facebook, Moore said her symptoms were being ignored, with doctors pushing her to leave the Indiana hospital and return home despite lingering symptoms.

She said even though she told physicians she was in a great deal of pain, she did not receive pain relievers until a CT scan revealed pulmonary infiltrates and inflamed lymph nodes.

"He made me feel like I was a drug addict, and he knew I was a physician,” said Moore of her interaction with the physician who was treating her.

"This is how Black people get killed," Moore said in the video. "When you send them home and they don't know how to fight for themselves."

“I put forth and I maintain if I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that," she added.

Moore said she spoke to a patient advocate who said there was little that could be done, at which point Moore requested to be moved to a different hospital.

CBS News reported that 12 hours after Moore returned home, her temperature spiked and her blood pressure dropped, returning her to the hospital. Moore died at a different hospital than the one in which she filmed her video.

Black Americans are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than white Americans, CBS News noted, and three times more likely to die from the disease.

The hospital where Moore said she struggled to receive proper treatment, IU Health North Hospital, released a statement Wednesday.

"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.

"As an organization committed to equity and reducing racial disparities in healthcare, we take accusations of discrimination very seriously and investigate every allegation," the statement read. "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."