What is wrong with some people?

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Has anyone else picked up on the news item about the mother who refused to let a black nurse treat her very sick child because she was a racist?

The poor child. Not only does he/she have cystic fibrosis, but is also being raised by a vile, ignorent mother. makes you want to weep.

And ultimate irony for the racist mother who thinks that being white makes her superiour to blacks, cystic fibrosis is the most common inherited condition in 'Whites' in Britain, but is very rare in 'Blacks'.

What was worse, in some ways, was the fact that the hospital condoned her attitude by removing the child from the nurse's care. Incredible.

what a twat glad mey sister was raised by a loving wonderful woman

If my child was ill I wouldn't care who looked after him - as long as they were a good nurse. I would worry at this mothers priorities while her child is sick, more worried about the colour of the nurse than what she can do to help her baby!

freckle, I wouldn't say they 'condoned' her actions, but failed to support her and point out the error of the mother's ways. I too feel very sorry for the child.

Oh I saw this today. Really, really sad all round. I felt desperately sorry for the nurse- one of the racist mother's friends also objected to her, so she was left with her heart in her mouth with every new admission, wondering if they were going to be taken away from her

again on ER (I'm not obsessed,honest ) a few months back a patient who objected to being treated by a black doctor was told that's fine, you go right to the back of the queue then..

Slightly off at a tangent but I was in chippy tonight and three teenagers were taking the micky out of the Chinese girl behind the counter because her English wasn't perfect. I got really annoyed and wanted to say something to them but didn't. I felt embarassed for the poor girl and wanted to ask them how fluent they were in their second language.

So instead I was extra polite to her and actually chatted as normal and she seemed really grateful that at least one person in the chippy wasn't looking down their nose at her for not being able to speak perfect English.

What second language? They won't have one...there are some depressingly ignorant people in this country...and worse, they don't even know how ignorant they are.

Bundle, I think you'll find that the judgement indicated that their actions in fact condoned the rascist mother's attitude. That was why the nurse was awarded £20,000. They didn't merely "fail to support her"; they actively arranged for the child to be removed from her care. If that's not condoning it, I don't know what is.

I think this sort of thing is perhaps far more widespread than we realise. My mother is in a nursing home (temporarily after a fractured femur) in Yorkshire, and sharing a room with an old lady in her nineties who gets pushed around in a wheelchair and is apparently completely incontinent. This old bag apparently refuses to be looked after AT ALL by TWO of the regular members of staff in the place, a youngish Asian male nurse, and a middle aged female nurse from the Caribbean. And, just because she's lived to this wonderful ripe old age, it seems to be OK, and they all go along with her bigoted ignorant wishes and make sure she gets cared for by other people. My Mum didn't understand why I was so shocked It's all very well respecting our elders, but I don't think they should be allowed to get away with racism.

Stories like that are so depressing aren't they? I just don't understand how people can be so bigoted.

My mum (a community nurse) recently had a patient (60?) who took a dislike to her as she spoke to his carers when she was nursing him (aparently she was only allowed to speak to him). Anyway he said he didn't want to be treated by her and she said tough there's no-one else. If you want your enema then it'll have to be me. The place he'd been before he had a long lost of people he wouldn't allowed to nurse him (basically anyone below a senior staff nurse) and it caused chaos. After a few weeks of him refusing to talk to my mum 3 times a week when she visited he realiaed he wasn't going to win and started being pleasant to her.

My mum's case wasn't as nasty as this as it wasn't racialy motivated, but I think really these people should be told "fine- it's me or your dd doesn't get treated". Same to the old lady- 90 or not- never too late to learn. I do think a lot of old people talk in a raicist manner without meaning offence, but when they start refusing treatment- let them get on with it they'll have to do it themselves.

When my dh worked in A&E this type of racism was a daily occurence

Sometimes people would come to A&E seeminly desperate for help, would then refuse to be seen by a non-white doctor and take themselves off home! How ill can you be if you just bugger off home?

Once, a colleague of dh's, who was from Egypt was trying to treat a man who said to him, 'I don't want to be treated by a Pki Junior' to which the colleague replied, 'OK then, I'll get you the Pki Registrar or the P*ki consultant'. I honestly don't know how some of the staff there managed to go to work each day to be treated like they were when they were trying their best to help people.

dh isn't British either and sported a chair shaped bruise for a while after another incident.

Outrageous!

Yes I saw the news item and was v.pleased that tribunal awarded the nurse £20,000 recognising that the hospital's decision to move her was wrong. It made me think of time when I was on maternity ward in October 2003 and was in the nursery at about midnight chatting to a Hungarian midwife and I sensed friction in the room. When the patient and her husband left the nursery to go back to her room with her baby, the midwife explained that they didn't want any of the black midwives to handle their baby. And as most of the midwives on duty that night were black, the mother refused to leave her baby in the nursery in their capable hands. How sad. And that baby will grow into a young lady with the same attitude. It was an ugly incident and I suppose the midwives just felt they had to put up with it.

when i think about the multicultural care team my dd had whilst in London having her heart operation - if I had objected to her being treated by anyone other than a white british person - she would have died - a number of staff from surgeon to paed fellow and so on came from everywhere but England - best nurse she had on the ward came from Romania - in ICU she had a number of aussies looking after her. The best doctor was the paed fellow who was of Asian descent and he was about the only one other than the surgeon whom I trusted implicity to look after my dd and treat dh and I with care and respect.

Sad that in this day and age people still hold those antiquated attitudes and the hospital should have been thoroughly ashamed of theie response.