When I was Saved by “DEI”

“DEI”:

Last September, I was in the UChicago hospital for pneumonia and blood clots in my right lung.

When I initially got to the hospital, I waited 7 hours in the waiting room before being taken to the emergency room. By that time, I was in so much restrictive pain that I could not physically sit or lay down.

After they gave me morphine, my mother came and told me that the Black nurse in my care team whispered to her that she was glad another person was here with me to advocate for me, because the other nurses here don’t treat “us” the same. If you’re Black, you know what this means. The nurse said that she had to tell them to give me morphine because she saw how much pain I was in but they were just going keep giving me Tylenol. Beforehand, a different nurse came in and made a joke like “we didn’t know why you didn’t sit down, thought maybe you were from the psych ward lol.” I didn’t find it funny.

The context that makes it even less funny is there are studies that show that medical practitioners think Black people have a higher pain tolerance, so they prescribe less pain meds, when they do the meds they prescribe are weaker and are more likely to assume that we are just “complaining” when we say we are in pain. Google it.

When I was admitted into the hospital, the nurses and doctors kept telling me conflicting things about my care — treatment, medication, etc. After two days, I was getting marginally better including one day where I had a fever basically all day. One nurse made a slick reply towards my wife and she chewed him out and got the supervising nurse. I was in there two days with trouble breathing more than maybe 20% of a normal breath, and not once did they give me oxygen. I was in a lot of pain and was having terrible sleep since I already (since I was about 21) have some waking anxiety. That mixed with blood clots and not being able to breath well was putting a strain on my heart.

Since I wasn’t getting much better, my mother-in-law, who is a nurse, came and told them they were going to take me out of UChicago because my care had been inadequate. The doctors were apologetic and promised to be more aggressive with my care, so my mother-in-law told them “okay, well you need to do…” this this this (I don’t remember all of them, just the oxygen). They did those three things, and I immediately felt better. I’d say I felt 30% better in seconds, maybe a minute; after feeling maybe 5% better after two days.

In those 4 days, “DEI” made my inadequate care better, saved me from having to be in the hospital longer (more time away from my kids, work, more expenses, etc.), likely saved me from having any long-term issues (Lord willing). There’s even a small chance that “DEI” saved my life (you can die from blood-clots in your lungs and in a location that close to your heart).

If you are someone who equates “DEI” to giving an unqualified person a position just to fill a quota, and to be very direct and not sugarcoat this, if you believe “DEI” is largely used to put unqualified Black people in schools or jobs, etc., this story still won’t convince you of anything. Even if Trump eliminates DEI initiative everywhere, you still will associate anyone who isn’t a white male and especially any who is a Black person as unqualified or incompetent. That’s in you, and I know there is literally no proof I could show you to convince you otherwise. Not a test score, not a study, not an anecdote, nothing.

I just hope that enough us in this country have maintained the ability to be disarmed by the humanity of others, regardless of what they look like.

God bless.