Does your doctor judge you based on your color?

(CNN) -- John Reid, a retired businessman, came home from a Caribbean cruise a few years ago with an infected toe as a souvenir. As a diabetic, he knew it was serious, so he went to the emergency room near his home in New York City. There, he says, the first doctor he saw ordered an immediate amputation, scheduling him for surgery right then and there.

Horrified, he argued with the doctor, insisting there had to be a way to avoid lopping off his toe. "You'd better bring the head doctor in here," he said.

Reid says the more senior doctor prescribed a long-term regimen of intravenous antibiotics and physical therapy -- a treatment much more expensive and time-consuming than an amputation -- and saved his toe.
Reid, who is African-American, firmly believes that if he'd been a white man, the junior doctor wouldn't have been so quick to order the cheaper and more drastic solution over his objections.

"I think it was very disrespectful. As a matter of fact, I think she was looking down on me," he said. "She just decided that, this guy was a minority [and] we're going to do whatever we feel like doing without consulting you."

Reid says he thinks the young doctor assumed he wasn't smart enough to think through a medical decision. "She just felt like minorities are all the same -- they don't know anything, they're not intelligent, they're not educated," says Reid, a retired real estate agent who once ran his own business with nearly two dozen employees. "If she had known my background, I don't think she would have treated me that way."

Does your doctor judge you based on your color? - CNN.com

I don't know about this one. Any opinions on whether this is race related or just a young doctors mistake?

 

I don't see it as race related.The Doctor, based on his experiece, made a judgment. When this Guy complained, the other Doctor suggested an alternate procedure.
If it was a small toe,amputating it doesn't cause any problems,whereas your large Toe is critical for balance,so I am guessing it may have been a small toe in Question.
Thats my thoughts.

 

I had an uncle who had Diabetes and had to have his toes amputated due to gangrene. He was Hispanic and he had no choice. It was remove the toes because they had gotten too bad to cure in any way or let it spread more and lose his life.

I don't think it was a race issue. I think it was a call made by a young doctor who felt that was the only course of action. Just goes to show you that doctors are human and make mistakes just like regular people.

 

I agree with the others in this case but how sad it is we live in a world where one would automatically assume judgments are made based on their skin colour. Gentle sigh. And also sad that surely many do receive different treatment, both medically and otherwise, because of some people's assumptions.

People, including doctors, I suspect - are often influenced by what they've been told about others, and it's not just based on the colour of one's skin either.

I happen to have very pale skin combined with red hair - and once had a doctor, prior tosurgery, tell me that he "fully expected me to be in more pain following surgery than most patients because red-heads have a lower pain threshold". (To my knowledge there has been not a single scientific study done on this).

 

Interesting, Here in the UK their is a large number of Asian, Indian and Jamaican Doctors in the health service, so the question has to be raised if it were a coloured Dr making the diagnosis would he have questioned it, so their for questioning a white DRs diagnosis would make him racist would it not?

and to be totally honest I don't think we will ever get past the racist Issue, because when a white or Majority person sees a Coloured minority person scream racism to get preferential treatment, you create jealousy and resentment against the minority, thus resulting in racism.

and yet if you could get away with it to get preferential treatment would you not be doing it yourself?

 

I'm not meaning to sound 'glib' where sharing this but sometimes I do wonder if 'instant sensitivity' re race isn't taught from generation to the next in some cases.

Had lovely friends and when their son was fired from his after-school job, he (and his parents) were instantly feeling it must have been because he wasn't 'white'.

In reality, he was fired for many reasons including being rude to customers and not showing up to work and leaving early, etc. Not because he was 'black' - simply because he was a lousy employee.

And I was surprised that his lovely parents couldn't seem to see the real reasons - until I remembered they had moved here from the State's 'deep South' where apparently life can still be significantly different for many who aren't 'white'.

 

I had a coloured friend some 20 years ago, and while walking down the street we saw a group of coloured Kids obviously bored and looking for trouble, I was stunned and shocked whe he turned to me and siad "look at those black b#####'s"

so I would say that your right there, but also I believe that religion has a large role to play as well.

 

Before anyone is offended or makes a suggestion about use of language, Match is from the UK and using the term "Coloured" over there does not have to connotation that some give it here. Believe it or not there are very few "African Americans" in England and most of them are tourists.

 

I wont chip in too much here - but white people in the UK are now the minority and I dont mind that whatsoever.
What I do mind is when people come to our country and abuse our so called government and they inturn take more tax from me for being employed year after year!