Comments

1. When I was a student in Atlanta, a girl in my dorm had what I could only call a mental breakdown. She went completely ballistic, was running around half-naked, collapsing, screaming. I called 911 and the first question the operator asked me was, "what is wrong with the woman?" The second question she asked was, "is she black?"
   
   When the ambulance finally arrived, they kind of dicked around, not really willing to bring the gurney all of 50 feet to the front door (they couldn't drive up to the front door because the dorm was in an arts center and there were pillars in the way. They didn't seem concerned at all, even as they looked at the hysterical girl.
   
   I found out these guys were sent from (and taking her to) Grady. The way they treated this girl was absolutely insulting and disrespectful. They treated her like she was on drugs (she wasn't. All her friends and roommate said she was strictly anti-drug. Later blood tests showed she was completely clean). They took their time and seemed to not give a single care about this black girl writhing on the floor.
   
   Eventually they gave her injections of something to calm her down, and then took her off to Grady. I still wonder to this day if I should have lied to the 911 operator and said she was white. I bet you anything they would have sent an ambulance to take her to a different hospital, and maybe the ambulance that came would have treated her more respectfully.

   posted to Features: The Chief Complaint