A doctor posted earlier that she saved a life because she believed her patient.
She described him as “strong”, a father, a firefighter. Someone who “wouldn’t complain for no reason.”
How can HCWs not realize this bias insinuates others DO complain for no reason?
I’m glad the man got the care he needed - as he had a life threatening issue that could have easily been blown off.
But what if it had been someone else? A disabled or marginalized women? Someone who’s homeless, has multiple complex illnesses or dealing with drug addiction?
Bias and misogyny are huge problems in medicine.
By this doctors own admission, they believed it to be serious because the patient was “not the type” to complain for nothing.
How can they not realize they’re insinuating there IS a type that complain for nothing?
The majority of people won’t go to the ER for funsies. They’re not complaining for attention - they’re suffering.
If they’re disabled? Odds are good they’ve been suffering for days trying like hell to avoid going to the ER.
But we don’t take them seriously. Why? Bias.
The tendency to dismiss, gaslight, downplay and ignore is always there.
The number of times I’ve gone to the ER and watched a male patient receive vastly quicker & more efficient care makes me physically ill.
It happens ALL the time.
The result? Patients like me don’t go to the hospital. We suffer in silence. We roll the dice with our health rather than be subjected to gaslighting and trauma.
It needs to stop because it costs lives - they’re just not talked about.
When someone with a complex chronic illness dies at home it’s unlikely anyone knows that they were debating medical care. That they would have gone in if not for the myriad of times they were ignored or abused.
Those stories never get told.
I have my own such story from when I had a hysterectomy at 24
I was discharged from hospital despite feeling “off”. I decompensated at home.
I went to the ER for help and was told I was “fine”. Asked “what do you want us to do?”
Told I was “overreacting”
Two weeks passed as I got sicker and sicker. Increasing pain, swelling and fatigue.
I couldn’t eat, walk or function. I was pale and listless and had stopped checking phone or email. I was not “fine”
Yet it took 4 trips and a man coming with me to be taken seriously
I had been bleeding into my abdomen & a large life threatening infection had developed.
Yet I wasn’t believed. I wasn’t listened to.
After 3rd ER trip yielded no results I was adamant I wasn’t going back. I wanted to die in my own bed
The man who took me in saved my life
I could have become a statistic. Bled to death at home because ER told me repeatedly that I was “fine”
They told me this without running single test. They wrote me off the moment I walked in
We must change the culture. Listen to patients. Treat them equally. Lives depend on it
Patients with life threatening medical emergencies should not have to be “strong & tough” young men to be taken seriously
I shouldn’t have needed to bring a man to the ER for them to finally run tests. Patients deserve to be listened to… ALL patients:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/my-most-dangerous-er-experience-and
#chronicillness #disability #spoonie #ableism #bias #misogyny #discrimination
#medicaltrauma
She described him as “strong”, a father, a firefighter. Someone who “wouldn’t complain for no reason.”
How can HCWs not realize this bias insinuates others DO complain for no reason?
I’m glad the man got the care he needed - as he had a life threatening issue that could have easily been blown off.
But what if it had been someone else? A disabled or marginalized women? Someone who’s homeless, has multiple complex illnesses or dealing with drug addiction?
Bias and misogyny are huge problems in medicine.
By this doctors own admission, they believed it to be serious because the patient was “not the type” to complain for nothing.
How can they not realize they’re insinuating there IS a type that complain for nothing?
The majority of people won’t go to the ER for funsies. They’re not complaining for attention - they’re suffering.
If they’re disabled? Odds are good they’ve been suffering for days trying like hell to avoid going to the ER.
But we don’t take them seriously. Why? Bias.
The tendency to dismiss, gaslight, downplay and ignore is always there.
The number of times I’ve gone to the ER and watched a male patient receive vastly quicker & more efficient care makes me physically ill.
It happens ALL the time.
The result? Patients like me don’t go to the hospital. We suffer in silence. We roll the dice with our health rather than be subjected to gaslighting and trauma.
It needs to stop because it costs lives - they’re just not talked about.
When someone with a complex chronic illness dies at home it’s unlikely anyone knows that they were debating medical care. That they would have gone in if not for the myriad of times they were ignored or abused.
Those stories never get told.
I have my own such story from when I had a hysterectomy at 24
I was discharged from hospital despite feeling “off”. I decompensated at home.
I went to the ER for help and was told I was “fine”. Asked “what do you want us to do?”
Told I was “overreacting”
Two weeks passed as I got sicker and sicker. Increasing pain, swelling and fatigue.
I couldn’t eat, walk or function. I was pale and listless and had stopped checking phone or email. I was not “fine”
Yet it took 4 trips and a man coming with me to be taken seriously
I had been bleeding into my abdomen & a large life threatening infection had developed.
Yet I wasn’t believed. I wasn’t listened to.
After 3rd ER trip yielded no results I was adamant I wasn’t going back. I wanted to die in my own bed
The man who took me in saved my life
I could have become a statistic. Bled to death at home because ER told me repeatedly that I was “fine”
They told me this without running single test. They wrote me off the moment I walked in
We must change the culture. Listen to patients. Treat them equally. Lives depend on it
Patients with life threatening medical emergencies should not have to be “strong & tough” young men to be taken seriously
I shouldn’t have needed to bring a man to the ER for them to finally run tests. Patients deserve to be listened to… ALL patients:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/my-most-dangerous-er-experience-and
#chronicillness #disability #spoonie #ableism #bias #misogyny #discrimination
#medicaltrauma
My Most Dangerous ER Experience and How My Advocate Saved My Life
A story of medical gaslighting, negligence and neglect that very nearly cost me my life - and how my accidental advocate (untrained and unprepared) saved me.Broadwaybabyto (The Disabled Ginger)
Beverley •
I don't know if it's the way they express themselves, the fact that they're relatively young to be experiencing the symptoms they endure, presumably a combination of the two.
Recently I attended an appointment with them, and the GP they saw actually told them to their face to stop monitoring their menstrual cycle presuming they were imagining their symptoms based on this tracking.
Arrogant and presumptuous.
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷 hat dies geteilt
Beverley •
It seems to me that because the words are unpalatable, and spoken by someone with a 'label' they are not believed, not understood as literally as they are delivered and intended.
I cannot put into words how worried I am about what will happen to them once I am no longer alive to advocate on their behalf.
Broadwaybabyto •
You could well be right about the label. It’s so unfortunate that sometimes we aren’t listened to no matter how clear we are.
I’ve had to bring a cishet male to make the exact same points on my behalf - but doctors listen to him when they won’t listen to me.
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷 hat dies geteilt