Reading Response 5

While reading “Milk” it really stuck out to me how Coreen was treated by the doctors and nurses, specifically the main nurse Patrice. Patrice started patronizing Coreen very early on when she was asking her questions about her job, race, and ethnicity. The nurse was being very condescending and rude when Coreen didn’t fully answer the questions or was wrong about what is a country or not. Patrice’s treatment of Coreen only got worse as the story went on. When Coreen was both freezing and burning at night, Bea tried to help her and called in Patrice. Patrice then said that Coreen was being dramatic and Bea had to go find a doctor for Coreen because Patrice was dismissing her needs. Coreen was then diagnosed with Endometritis, which could have possibly been diagnosed earlier if Patrice was attentive to her patient. There was also an issue where her IV was not correctly hooked up for 10-15 hours. This shows how none of the nurses were paying attention to her. This treatment of Coreen reminds me of TikTok’s that I continually get where black women speak about how they are treated in healthcare. Their symptoms are disregarded as them being “dramatic” and they do not get the full attention of healthcare professions that men, or even white women do. They are ignored and this is something that we see happening to Coreen because she is South African. Although she was born in America and identifies as just American, the doctors kept pushing to know where she is “really from.” Bea does not face any of these issues with the nurses. The issue of black women being treated unfairly in healthcare is still an ongoing issue that needs to be changed