Man nearly dies on flight because crew don't believe black woman is a doctor

[MoltenLasagne]

Dr Tamika Cross was on a flight when a man needed emergency care - when she tried to help she was told to sit down, ignored and then when she insisted she was a doctor, was asked for her credentials before being allowed to help.

I wish I could say I'm shocked but I'm not - this is what intersectional feminism is supposed to be about. There are now a collection of stories of women doctors being ignored for men with lesser qualifications, and non white women being treated with complete contempt.

http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/female-physicians-told-to-sit-down-shut-up-and-get-out-of-the-way-during-emergencies-as-patients-nearly-die/

I am absolutely 0% shocked by this. I’ve seen it happen.

also Interesting to note that in many of the stories the white/Male Doctor is also telling the flight crew that the woman in question needs to be allowed to help.

I am a scientist but I work v closely with physicians in my work. Pretty much every female medic has a story like this - either told to butt out in public, or more commonly patients requesting ‘a real doctor.’

For women of colour it seems to be even worse. And yes this is what intersectional feminism means to me - how women are multiply disadvantaged when it comes to being say, female and black, or female and poor, or female and disabled.

Incidentally you don’t need to ask for credentials in an emergency - there are Samaritan laws in situations like these that protect the physician from being sued if they are acting in genuine need in an emergency. I don’t know what the liability of the airline would be if they refused a doctor access and insisted a nurse take over.

Holy crap, this is awful.

The airline’s defence to Dr Cross was that it’s always their policy to ask for credentials. (I think they changed that after people heard about her story.) But they didn’t ask the white male physician on her flight for his credentials - and the exact same thing happened in several of the other stories on that link too. So either that’s bollocks, or ‘credentials’ include ‘looking like we expect a Proper Doctor to look.’

I work on London Underground and deal with passengers who have medical issues regularly. To avoid any legal repercussions, we must find out the credentials of any medically trained persons before allowing them to assess a patient. But as for the airline's obvious discomfort with the gender and race of the doctor in this story, that is fucking terrible in this day and age.

What do you use as proof of credentials luna ?

Bloody terrifying!
The flight crew should be ashamed and the airline should be taking serious action they are endangering the lives of their passengers by denying them the most appropriate medical care.

Those stories are shocking.

I wonder if the problem is the same in the UK? I suspect it could be, but I have no idea.

Proof of membership of a professional body such as the NMC or Royal Colleges or ID from a hospital.

Lyra, I wondered if it happens in the uk too.

Thanks Luna. Interesting to know

I think there should be a policy of asking for credentials from any volunteer medic; to protect the patient not the medic. It is not unknown for people to pass themselves off as medics. This should be applied to everyone.

Bloody shocking.

This was Delta, wasn't it? The article lists a huge number of results. I do get the impression (e.g. the guy pulled off an over booked United flight) that there are several American airlines with a severe problem with endemic, institutionalised racism (and sexism).

I don't think this is only a Delta thing, or a US airlines thing, there are stories on there about Egypt air and Emirates as well as others unidentified. Plus Bowl has said that every female medic she knows has a story like this and I presume she's in the UK.

The story is two years old - it had a lot of publicity at the time.

I once fainted on a flight. A doctor offered to help but wasn't allowed to because he didn't have the ID card that the flight attendant had been told doctors carry at all times. He said there was no such card. There is definitely a policy of asking for ID - although I agree it doesn't explain why the white male doctor wasn't asked for ID in the case reported in the OP.

These are awful accounts. Delta airlines seems to feature a lot.

Re credentials, I have a photographic ID card from the Law Society - does the GMC issue similar?

There’s no standard ID card.

Different countries have different things. You have your actual medical licence, proof of membership of various professional bodies or as Luna says above things like the ID cards you have to work at specific hospitals (like a credit card thing in a lot of places to get you through doors and whatnot.) that’s more a building based thing though.

I presume a screenshot of such things? For some people their professional credentials could fill a small folder.

For what we do our medics are required to have proof of a licence to practice and that again has many forms - usually a registration number.

Anyone wanting to do harm could easily fake credentials. How is an air hostess or London Underground worker going to know if a piece of paper or a credit card sized thingy is valid or not?
And in the time all that takes, someone could die.

Should I carry my (paper) First Response certificate from Guiding around too? Could I do CPR without it?

And what about retired medical people? Is their knowledge useless without any certification?

Who carries their work ID with them when they aren't working?

I get why airplane crew and tube crew have a policy saying they need to see credentials. You could have any crazy person saying they’re a doctor and then killing someone by their actions and then the family will sue the airplane company for allowing a crazy random person to do stuff.

But I don’t carry credentials with me. Regulatory body used to send an annual credit card sized bit of card to show you’d paid your subs but they’ve stopped doing that now to save money/the environment. I only carry my work ID with me if I’m at work. If I’m on holiday or out shopping I have no way of proving my credentials.

A doctor friend of mine ignores any calls on flights for medical assistance, etc even without the hassle of having to prove credentials. She says it’s not worth the risk of being sued. A colleague of hers saved a woman’s life on a flight once and the woman then sued this doctor for exposing her breasts to the rest of the passengers as he inserted a chest drain.

The doctor concerned must have been beside herself

If you cant let someone help unless they have id thats fair enough

But that's obviously not the case on this occasion

And being ignored and told to sit down when you know you can help!

you cant let someone help unless they have id thats fair enough

That's ridiculous! How would a layman recognise ID?

Guaranteed if you had a guy of a certain age and race I. E. Michael Palin for example, he wouldn't even be second guessed. They wouldn't ask for any credentials at all.

Dispicable.

I said IF hera

So IF the airline require id that thats the rule of the airline

But they didnt ask her for id...they told her to shut up and go away

At no point did i say ' i think you cant let someone help...'