Why we need more black men in medicine. I had a patient this week who came in with left leg weakness over the last week. Younger black guy in his 30s. Brain MRI clearly indicates multiple sclerosis. So we all go in during morning rounds to give my man his diagnosis.
He has a bit of blank stare as he listens to my attending try to explain what he has. He was told earlier he mightve had a stroke, and now we're telling him he doesnt have a stroke. But he's clearly processing what he does have and just says "nah" to having any questions.
So we're running the patient list after rounding, and as we get to him my attending says somn like "idk if apathy is the word, seems like he doesnt care". Laughs and so does the rest of the team. I'm sitting there like, this aint it. And yes, I was the only one.
So after running the list, I don't even stick around with the team. I go straight back to dude's room and the code switch was automatic. "Look mane, I know all that was a lot. Did you really get what the doc was sayin?" Mans looked at me with a face of relief.
Now I'm goin into detail on MS, how it's different from a stroke, and what it means for him long term. The real validation came when he interrupted me early on and said "OH so it's a BRAIN thing I got?" "Yes my man it's a brain thing."
And now my dude understands what he has, why we need the tests we need, and what the rest of his life might look like. All because I could recognize what everyone else seemed to miss, from a cultural perspective. He's not apathetic. Folk just weren't connecting with him.
I'm in the right field fam.
Thanks for all the in depth conversation and support! Happened with a few thousand more people than expected 😂. I do wanna say...my attending wasnt and isnt ignorant or a bigot. He's very kindhearted. Just misread the patient response. I do it too, hence the need 4 diversity.
Case in point, the next day we rounded on the pt and he was much more interactive with the entire team, asking great questions and getting great responses. The diagnosis is tough but his story will end well
