Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
“Legacy”
Another book that I can hardly put down has just made its way to my home. Some months ago, on NPR-the- Mothership, its author was being interviewed. It was definitely a driveway moment kind of session. I probably sat in my garage for 15 minutes listening carefully to every word. And, I was determined to get the book whenever I could. I left it at that and went upstairs.
The subject of the book has attracted me on several levels, but there are two compelling areas. One is that it is written by a physician and the nursing piece of me wants to absorb what she has to say. The other one comes from the Racial Justice Learning Group that I helped start about four years ago. In the monthly zoom sessions we discuss an assigned chapter in a book on racism. We are on at least our fourth book. When we finish this one, which is about racism in the workplace and what we can do about it, I may have found our next one.
The book’s title is, “Legacy. A Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine”. Dr. Uche Blackstock wrote this expose of the effects of systemic and personal racism on the lives of Black Americans. The information presented applies in general to all people of color, but her emphasis is on African American citizens of these United States.
Her mother was a Harvard trained physician. She had twin daughters, Uche and Oni, who followed in their mother’s footsteps and became the next generation of physicians. The title of the book, Legacy, refers to them being the first Black people to accomplish this. Sadly, their mother died of Leukemia at the young age of 47, before she could see the dream realized. It has not been proven, but their mother’s blood cancer may have appeared because as a child she lived in two neighborhoods that had been dumping grounds for radioactive waste.
The first chapters talk about all of the social, environmental, and political factors that contribute to negative health outcomes in Black people. In one chapter she writes about three of her patients in particular. The information in that chapter brought tears to my eyes. She writes about the racist policies affecting the health of Black Americans: redlining that dictates where people of color can live, the fact that only 5% of physicians are Black, the lack of training of all physicians in the needs of Black patients – these all contribute to sub-standard care.
She exposes the myths that medical students are taught about caring for Black patients. One of the most hearbreaking beliefs is that Black people don’t feel pain as much as white people do. This has resulted in underprescribing of pain medication, and less attention given to reports of painful symptoms from Black patients. She herself nearly died during her medical school experience. Appendicitis was misdiagnosed as “pelvic pain” and she was sent home still in severe pain. The two white physicians who attended her barely spent any time with her. As a result, her appendix ruptured and she became septic. Not until then was any close attention paid to her symptoms. She had to be rushed into surgery to clean up the infection that was spreading throughout her abdomen.
The book is about the failures of our social, political, and health care systems to address negative health outcomes of Black people. The book arrived on Tuesday and I am half way through it. I recommend it.