I would call.... BS and Mumbo Jumbo..... but there are some good comments following the article.
WyzGuy56 wrote:
Cross-cultural communication should play absolutely no role when a team of physicians who speak English are communicating information to a family who also speaks English. In what way should the doctors at CHO have altered their interactions with the family? You make it sound as though this is the first black family to have lost a child who was in the care of CHO, and that the physicians, nurses and social services staff have never before encountered a black family. In one sentence, the lack of equality between races is lamented; in the next, we're told that Jahi McMath's family should have been treated differently because of their race. You can't have it both ways. In addition, what a monumental slap in the face to all those who work at CHO, caring for children and saving lives every single day, to suggest that they treated Jahi as less than based upon her race. SF Gate is not doing the McMath family--or the black community--any favors by printing these pieces. If members of the black community are seeking unification with all of the other races that inhabit this country, they need to stop creating devisiveness in articles like these.
bee_traven wrote:
The McMath family was given more time and consideration than most families ever receive when a family member dies in hospital. If their race played any role in this sad story I'd say that it worked to their benefit, not their detriment.
wondering1951 wrote:
Agree so much with this. Their child had a post op complication. Awful and terrifying but happens everyday. What happened differently in THIS case, is instead of behaving like ADULTS, this family went on the attack. Every interaction the staff had wit Jahi from that moment forward was met with hostility and suspicion. Was that because the family was black? Seems to me that other black kids die at CHO too. Do all their families behave that way? I bet they don't.. Should it be tolerated from ANY family?
By all accounts this family was rude demanding and hostile to the staff (they weren't all responsible for "killing" this girl" but they were all treated to a spoiled brat's attitude from Jahi's mama. She denigrated the staff, talked about the nurses in front of them WHILE they were caring for Jahi.
Was that because she felt culturally misunderstood? Or was that because she was hurt and angry and instead of dealing with it, she lashed out at the people she blamed, with however little evidence she possesed?
Perhaps the next article should be entitled "Practicing Medicine While White (or not black)
StudAngel wrote:
It took them a while to bring race into this. Never mind the mother encouraging the girl to talk and laugh immediately after surgery. Never mind the doctors orders not to eat and the mother enabling her once again to eat a hamburger that tore the stitches and ultimately killed her. None of that matters, it's all about race. FYI, when a green light turns red while driving, it's not race that made the light change, when it rains on your car after you wash your car, it isn't about race. You made a mistake and need to live with it. RIP girl.
wondering1951 wrote:
Then the family, through their attorney, took issue with an increasingly unsympathetic public. They USED that public and the media to pressure the hospital and later the courts to acquiesce to their wishes . Well that backfired spectacularly when that same public learned how they'd been manipulated by these people: The "routine" surgery that wasn't, then the accommodations the hospital made for this family that other equally ill children and THEIR families didn't get. The attitude this family displayed towards the staff that not only distracted from the experience for OTHER critical kids and THEIR families all the way to the allegations of racism that Uncle dearest leveled because their special badges (to help the family screen visitors) were seen as evidence of, what else but more racism.
So the mistrust runs both ways. The McMath family has "skewed the facts in this case in an effort to "control the message". They aren't interested in the "truth" or they would have welcomed Dr Durand's offer to discuss the case openly. Instead they make slanderous accusations but hide behind HIPAA so the full facts may never be known. Why do you think that is if they honestly believe they were TOTAL victims and have no blame themselves in this whole sad affair. And has led most people to believe the family is running FROM the truth to arrive at payday
And that doesn't even address the problem of Uncle Omari who never met a camera he didn't like.