Many of us have negative relationships with the healthcare system, going to doctor's appointments, or asking for medical help at all—and unfortunately, that's for good reason.
Too often patients are subjected to medical bias, gaslighting, and neglect, and it can often lead to poor medical attention, inaccurate diagnoses, and even unnecessary medications and procedures. And the main victims of these occurrences are often women and people of color.
TikToker @sarahtheseven recently came out on TikTok with her story of medical gaslighting, medical neglect, and possible fraud when she broke her arm and interrupted an orthopedic surgeon named Ricky during his holiday weekend.
Wearing a hard plastic shoulder cap and sling, the TikToker deadpanned to the camera:
"Medical gaslighting is when you break your arm in half, and you go to the ER to get it set, and they call an orthopedic surgeon named Ricky."
Likely because of the "inconvenience" to his weekend plans, Doctor Ricky refused to see the TikToker, leaving her in pain for several days. By the time the appointment came, her pain threshold had understandably been maxed out, and when he began to inspect her, she started to cry.
Because of her tears, he decided she was not "fit" to be a patient and would need surgery instead of having the bone set. Keep in mind, the arm that had been broken in half had not been set for several days and is a notoriously difficult bone to set, fuse, and heal correctly—and, of course, is incredibly painful when broken.
The TikToker did not want to go under the knife and started listing examples of her normal pain threshold, including having two babies naturally without pain medication.
The doctor argued that having babies was not painful because it was "natural" and that she was not fit to be his patient.
The greater problem with this was that Doctor Ricky also refused to refer her to any other doctor, arguing that she simply had to go into surgery, and he also refused to reject the surgery, which locked her into being unable to receive medical care from anyone else.
The TikToker said she then got in the car and drove to the ER, where she got her arm set. After they tried to refer her to Doctor Ricky once again for a follow-up, he refused to see her because she'd rejected his "fancy expensive surgery."
You can watch the video here:
Some were disgusted by the sexism and misogyny involved in this story.
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Others were alarmed by the story and demanded that Sarah file a lawsuit.
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After receiving feedback, TikToker @sarahtheseven explained that she was trying to move forward with a lawsuit but was still figuring out the ins and outs of the process.
Not only were fellow TikTokers disgusted by what happened to @sarahtheseven, but they hoped that something would come of her pursuing legal action.
This feels a lot like medical malpractice, medical neglect and gaslighting, and possibly even fraud, and something needs to be done about it before Doctor Ricky can do this to another patient.
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