#WhatADoctorLooksLike is Trending and the Reason is Sad

13 Oct, 2016

A Facebook post by a black woman and doctor, who says she wasn’t allowed to assist a passenger during a mid-flight medical emergency due to discrimination, is causing a social media stir.

Dr. Tamika Cross, who is in her OBGYN residency with McGovern Medical School at University of Texas-Houston, wrote a post Oct. 9 about what happened during a Delta Airlines flight from Detroit to Minneapolis.

Cross graduated with a Doctorate of Medicine from Meharry Medical College in Nashville Tennessee, according to her LinkedIn profile. A McGovern Medical School at University of Texas-Houston representative confirmed Cross is completing a residency at hospitals in the Houston area.

Cross, originally from Southfield according to her Facebook profile, says she was in Detroit for a wedding and was returning home to Houston, via a layover in Minneapolis, when a man two rows in front of her began experiencing a medical emergency.

She attempted to help on multiple occasions, but was told by Delta flight staff to remain in her seat. Cross alleges flight staff, because of prejudice, refused to believe she was a physician.

“(A stewardess) said to me ‘Oh, no sweetie, put (your) hand down; we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we don’t have time to talk to you,'” Cross writes was the reaction when she raised her hand in response to a request for physicians on board. “I tried to inform her that I was a physician but I was continually cut off by condescending remarks.”

Cross says she insisted she was a physician. She was asked to present credentials and answer a litany of questions. Meanwhile, she says: “Another ‘seasoned’ white male approaches the row and says he is a physician as well. She says to me, ‘Thanks for your help but he can help us, and he has his credentials.’ Mind you he hasn’t shown anything to her. Just showed up and fit the ‘description of a doctor.’ I stay seated. Mind blown. Blood boiling.”

Cross’s Facebook post is going viral. It had over 18,000 shares and 6,200 comments as of 11 a.m. Thursday.

“Discrimination of any kind is never acceptable,” Delta spokeswoman Catherine Sirna told MLive by email Thursday. “Spokesperson for Delta Air Lines. “We’ve been in contact with Dr. Cross and one of our senior leaders is reaching out to assure her that we’re completing a full investigation.”

Patrick Hogan, a spokesman with Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, confirmed a man passed out on the flight referenced by Cross. He said paramedics were called to the gate to treat the man when the flight landed.

Cross wrote that the man became responsive and his health appeared to have been improving by the time she last saw him.

One of the flight attendants approached Cross when things settled down.

“She came and apologized to me several times and offering me Skymiles,” Cross wrote. “I kindly refused. This is going higher than her. I don’t want Skymiles in exchange for blatant discrimination. Whether this was race, age, gender discrimination, it’s not right.

“She will not get away with this, and I will still get my Skymiles.”

MLive.com

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