Death of Susan Moore

On December 20, 2020, the American physician Susan Moore (born 1967 or 1968) died in Carmel, Indiana, from complications related to COVID-19.[1] In the weeks preceding her death, Moore, who was black, had shared concerns that her symptoms were not being taken seriously by white medical professionals.[2]

Life

Susan Moore was born in Jamaica.[1] She had a degree in engineering from Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. She worked for 3M as an industrial engineer for almost ten years before returning to school.[3] She was a 2002 graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School.[4][1] Moore was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[5] Moore worked as a family physician in Carmel, Indiana.[6] Her close family included her nineteen-year old son, Henry Muhammed,[7] and her elderly parents both of whom she cared for at the time of her death, since they were living with dementia.[2]

Treatment for COVID-19

Admission to Indiana University Health North Hospital

Moore tested positive for COVID-19 on November 29, 2020, and was admitted to IU Health North Hospital for care.[8] On December 4, 2020 she shared a video to Facebook where she recorded her experience of medical care there.[2] In it she described how white doctors refused her pain medication, which she said "...made me feel like I was a drug addict".[8] She also recalled in the video how she had to beg for treatment with the anti-viral drug remdesivir, used to treat COVID-19 patients not on a ventilator,[9] in addition to begging for a CT scan.[2] She reported that a white doctor said, “You’re not even short of breath”, which she said she was.[9] In the video she stated that: “I put forth and maintain, if I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that .. This is how Black people get killed, when you send them home, and they don’t know how to fight for themselves.”[7]

On December 7, 2020, Moore was discharged from IUHNH.[8]

Admission to Ascension-St. Vincent Hospital

However just twelve hours later, she was re-admitted to hospital, this time to Ascension-St. Vincent Hospital. There she experienced improved medical treatment, according to her Facebook posts.[8] Her final Facebook post read that she was being transferred to an intensive care unit.[10] On December 10, 2020, she was intubated.[1]

Death

Moore died at Ascension-St. Vincent Hospital in Carmel on December 20, 2020.[7]

Aftermath

Moore's death is viewed by some as an example of medical racism, where her race was a defining factor in how she was perceived and the treatment she was given.[11]

In their statement after Moore's death the African American Policy Forum stated that "systemic forms of racism .. construct a reality wherein women like Dr. Moore can be stereotyped as an addict simply because they request the medication necessary to treat the excruciatingly painful side effects of a lethal disease. Here racism and sexism served to typecast Dr. Moore as someone who could be deemed unruly, intimidating, and untrustworthy at perhaps the most vulnerable moment of her life."[12]

In the period of the COVID-19 pandemic when vaccinations began and the history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was frequently cited as the reason for vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans, Moore was invoked as a counter-example of present-day racism that poses obstacles to accessing health care and erodes trust in it.[13][14][15]

References
  1. Eligon, John (December 24, 2020). "Black Doctor Dies of Covid-19 After Complaining of Racist Treatment". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  2. CNN (December 26, 2020). "Black Indiana doctor died of coronavirus weeks after accusing hospital of racist treatment". ABC11 Raleigh-Durham. Retrieved April 11, 2021. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. "Black Doctor Dies of COVID After Alleging Subpar Treatment". Medscape. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  4. Maybank, Aletha; Jones, Camara Phyllis; Blackstock, Uché; Perry, Joia Crear (December 26, 2020). "Opinion: Say her name: Dr. Susan Moore". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  5. AAPF (February 11, 2021). "AAPF Statement on the Death of Dr. Susan Moore". AAPF. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  6. AAPF (January 15, 2021). "Black Physician's COVID Death Underscores Health Disparities". AAPF. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  7. agencies, Guardian staff and (December 26, 2020). "Black doctor's death becomes a symbol of racism in coronavirus care". The Guardian. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  8. Mack, Justin L. "Dr. Susan Moore: What we know about the Black doctor's claims of racism at Carmel hospital". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  9. Andone, Dakin (December 25, 2020). "A Black doctor died of Covid-19 weeks after accusing hospital staff of racist treatment". CNN. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  10. Watts, Amanda; Hanna, Jason (January 8, 2021). "Indiana health system says experts will examine Covid-19 death of Black doctor who accused staff of racist treatment". CNN. Archived from the original on January 8, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  11. Nirappil, Fenit. "A Black doctor alleged racist treatment before dying of covid-19: 'This is how Black people get killed'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  12. AAPF (February 11, 2021). "AAPF Statement on the Death of Dr. Susan Moore". AAPF. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  13. Dembosky, April (April 5, 2021). "Stop blaming Tuskegee, critics say. It's not an 'excuse' for current medical racism -". KQED. Archived from the original on April 5, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  14. Nephew, Lauren D. (February 2021). "Systemic racism and overcoming my COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy". eClinicalMedicine. 32: 100713. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100713. ISSN 2589-5370. PMC 7816611. PMID 33495751.
  15. Bajaj, Simar Singh; Stanford, Fatima Cody (February 4, 2021). "Beyond Tuskegee — Vaccine Distrust and Everyday Racism". New England Journal of Medicine. 384 (5): e12. doi:10.1056/NEJMpv2035827. ISSN 0028-4793. PMC 9908408. PMID 33471971.
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