Feeling Oppressed

A Time When I felt Oppressed

About 10 years ago, when my daughter was 10 years old, she fell off her scooter and dislocated her thumb.  We had to take her downtown to the regular Children's Hospital instead of the urgent care because we knew she would likely need a cast.  When we got there we were given a room to wait in.  My daughter was in extreme pain.  We waited and no one came to see us.  As we sat there we became aware that others were being treated.  One family was Asian and their boy had a toothpick stuck in their foot.  Another had a stab wound and it seemed his entire gang of rough people had come along with him.  Doctors and nurses went in and out of these two rooms but no one came to see us.   My husband went back to the registration desk and asked when we would be seen.  They said we were on the list and it would only be a matter of time. After another half hour he went to the nurse's station and inquired.  He was spoken to very tersely by a doctor who said we would just have to wait our turn like everyone else.  When we were finally seen we were sent to another room to meet with an orthopedic doctor.  When we described how we were treated he said he had been sitting doing nothing for several hours.  He couldn't explain why we had been treated that way.

It felt to us like someone had taken an immediate dislike to us because of the way we looked.  Perhaps we appeared wealthy and seemed snobby compared to the rest of the clientele there.  I don't think we did anything rude by inquiring approximately every half hour if we had been forgotten.  We didn't mind if others had more severe injuries that needed to be treated first.  We just didn't want to feel overlooked.

This incident returned to my mind as I thought about this assignment.  It is a time when I felt oppressed and ashamed to be who I was.  I understood that not all could be treated equally due to the need to triage the more severe injuries.  However, I do not feel we were treated in an equitable way either, because we were completely ignored and not treated with respect.  I now realize that some groups of people are treated this way all the time and I can only imagine how that must feel.  I would never want to be a part of making anyone feel the way we did on that day.