If you haven’t had your blood boil yet today, here’s a story that will do it for you.
Tamika Cross, MD, a resident OB/GYN from Houston, Texas, was on board a Delta flight from Detroit to Minneapolis when a passenger two rows ahead of her began screaming that her husband had become unresponsive. Initially, the flight attendant assured the plane’s passengers that the man had simply suffered a “night terror.” But when he again lost consciousness, she frantically asked for her coworkers to page for a doctor.
Hearing the exchange, Dr. Cross raised her hand to get the flight attendant’s attention so that she could help — and was shocked by the reply she received.
In a Facebook post written on October 9, Dr. Cross claims that the flight attendant told her, “Oh no, sweetie put your hand down, we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we don’t have time to talk to you.”
When Dr. Cross attempted to inform the flight attendant that she was, in fact, an “actual” medical professional, the flight attendant allegedly shut Dr. Cross down with what she described as “condescending remarks.”
But wait! There’s more. Just then, the actual call for a physician went out through the overhead speaker, asking for any physicians on board to please press their call button. As the flight attendant watched, Dr. Cross pressed hers and was met with a stare — and a demand to see her credentials.
“She said, ‘Oh wow, you’re an actual physician?'” Dr. Cross wrote on Facebook. “I reply yes. She said, ‘Let me see your credentials. What type of Doctor are you? Where do you work? Why were you in Detroit?’ (Please remember this man is still in need of help and she is blocking my row from even standing up while bombarding me with questions).”
Where she found the patience to respond, we will never know. But Dr. Cross did try to inform the flight attendant of her extensive credentials, which included research on sickle cell anemia at the University of Michigan and working as an Administrative Chief Resident at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
“I respond[ed] ‘OBGYN, work in Houston, in Detroit for a wedding, but believe it or not they DO HAVE doctors in Detroit,'” Dr. Cross explains. “Now excuse me so I can help the man in need.”
And that’s when things went from bad to worse because like a lot of situations involving outright discrimination, a white man showed up.
“Another ‘seasoned’ white male approaches the row and says he is a physician as well,” Dr. Cross wrote. “She says to me, ‘Thanks for your help but he can help us, and he has his credentials’. (Mind you he hasn’t shown anything to her. Just showed up and fit the ‘description of a doctor’) I stay seated. Mind blown. Blood boiling.”
Thankfully, by this point, the man in need appeared to be doing better — sitting up and answering questions — which of course was Dr. Cross’s main concern. But that still didn’t stop her from being highly miffed when the flight attendant had the “nerve” to come back 10 minutes later and ask Dr. Cross’s opinion on what they should do for the gentleman.
Although it’s not clear why the “credentialed” physician hadn’t obtained this information, Dr. Cross informed the flight attendant that she would need the man’s vitals (heart rate, temperature, and respirations), along with his blood sugar level before she could offer any advice. Upon discovering the man’s blood pressure was low, Dr. Cross then worked with the flight attendant to help him.
“The point is she needed my help and I continued to help despite the choice words I had saved up for her,” she wrote. “The patient and his wife weren’t the problem, they needed help and we were mid-flight.”
In the end, the flight attendant did apologize to the young doctor and as a peace offering, offered her some Delta SkyMiles — which Dr. Cross says she “kindly” refused. Because according to her, this is about more than SkyMiles and more than an apology offered — this is about the kind of discrimination that young women of color everywhere face.
“This is going higher than her,” wrote Dr. Cross. “I don’t want SkyMiles in exchange for blatant discrimination. Whether this was race, age, gender discrimination, it’s not right. She will not get away with this.”
Since Dr. Cross posted her story on October 9, it has quickly gone viral with nearly 70K “likes.” The Internet has rallied behind her, flooding Delta’s Facebook page with hundreds of comments urging them to address the situation and threatening a boycott.
Delta spokesperson Catherine Sirna issued a statement to the Guardian saying:
“Discrimination of any kind is never acceptable. We’ve been in contact with Dr cross and one of our senior leaders is reaching out to assure her that we’re completing a full investigation.”