A Locum's ScrapBook: Sister's of the Heart

Editorial Tagline: “Our Cultural Challenge is whatever you want it to be: I see it as hope-“

Addendum: The above quote is from the perspective of white privilege. It’s enunciated more clearly here:

“This quote doesn’t grasp the movement and it’s not a cultural challenge we’re facing. Everyone can have our culture but not everyone can have the color of our skin. The black lives matter movement is movement for equality and justice for our fallen brothers and sisters who died in an injustice because of the color of their skin.” Courtney B

Editor’s Note:

I am currently at Hospital 55, South of the Ohio River for sure- and may have crossed another one on the way down. Definitely deep South. I don’t keep track of rivers further south of the Ohio- they always represent a different variance of subjugation.

I was born in Germany- grew up there for 6 years and came over to the states at the age of six. It was after World War II, but the scars were still there. I was a left over puppy from what was once the German Reich. Typically- cultural euthanasia would have been a consideration.

So I know what it is to be a stranger in a strange land. America was new and exciting until I started watching television and saw all the TV shows that showed American soldiers killing German soldiers. That was standard fare back then. Eventually I rooted for the Americans killing Germans. I wanted to be accepted so bad- that watching my own brothers and sisters die-was screened away as a survival mechanism at the age of 6. How horrible must it have been for adults back then? That is pretty sad IMO.

It was like prison. Once you get your ass kicked- you are cool.

It was a different and shorter version of the deep South- “go to the back of the bus meme”- because I was white, I was allowed to fight my way out of that back seat.

What struck me in the first week here down South was that I had to ask “do you have sickle cell anemia” to my first 3 patients. That was a question I kept wanting to ask for most of my career- but never really got too many chances at it. Maybe as a student in Detroit but that was a while ago.

The obvious inference was that yes- these were black people that were having heart surgery.

We all have blinders on.

I guess I missed that entirely when I first got here. Preconceived profiling would be a good two-word answer to my total ignorance.

On top of that I realized that the entire majority of our OR crew was also Black. How did I miss THAT for the first week or two that I was there? Did it matter or make a difference?

No.

Is this staff as good as anybody else in the country? Yeah– they are at least as good if not better.

IMO: It is as solid of an OR staff in terms of dedication as I have ever encountered, and I have dealt with many. The weakest link is staffing numbers. We don’t have enough.

Regardless- It is Level 1– and that is serious for those of us that like to hover near the edge 🙂

Pump Strong (bcf)

Frank