One woman said her family was refused admission to an emergency facility after waiting three hours because employees didn’t like that her son “pulled the race card.”
In a TikTok posted on January 22, Jade (@jay.lo___) shows off her conversation with a MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care employee after she and her husband waited for their 4-year-old son for more than three hours.
The employee could be heard asking to be removed from the facility because he had “pulled the race card.” Jade said she and her family were the only black people attending her emergency treatment, and they were the only ones not seen by the facility’s medical staff.
“They don’t like that you pulled the race card. We’re not racists here,” the employee told Jade. “Everyone, the way you are speaking makes me feel very uncomfortable…and I would like to ask you to leave.”
Jade’s husband said he was told that his son could not see a doctor, but that someone who came later could see him first.
“We are the only black people here today,” Jade told the nurse. “[The doctors] They’re uncomfortable meeting us because we said they won’t see us because we’re black. And now no one feels comfortable meeting us. ”
Regarding the number of black people sitting in the waiting room with Jade and her family, the employee said, “That’s your opinion.”
MultiCare Chief Communications Officer Mars Edwards Olson said in a statement to the Daily Dot that MultiCare has been in contact with Jade, and that she and her family are being treated at Indigo Urgent Care. The company said it is investigating why it was not.
“While it is always our goal that people who come to us for care feel that they are treated with dignity and respect, clearly our patient’s family, in this case, I didn’t feel like we were successful,” Olson told The Dot.
On Wednesday, Jade’s video had been viewed about 250,000 times.
@jay.lo___ Racist urgent care turned my 4 year old son away after waiting over 3 hours. They treated the non-blacks that came after us. When I said it was racism and asked why others were being treated they told us to leave and called security. #Racism #Racism awareness #Medicine #fyp ♬ Original song – Jade
in follow up video, Jade, a lawyer, said her son had injured his arm, but because it was a Saturday, she could not take him to the GP. So she and her husband took him to MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care in Kent, Washington.
When she went to Indigo Urgent Care, she said she was told there would be a wait of up to two hours. Her husband then said she was told that she would not be able to see her son that day.
“‘We have someone with an even more emergency and we have an appointment scheduled right now,’ Jade says she was told at the emergency clinic.”
Jade said she felt the situation was “racist and discriminatory” when her family didn’t get answers.
“Considering we’re the only black people there. And we’re the only ones claiming they’re blind,” Jade says. After waiting even longer to see a doctor, Jade said she was told by an emergency medical staff member named Mia that the staff were unpleasant. [she] I played the race card. ”
Also, she said her son was in so much pain that she feared he had dislocated his arm. Her staff allegedly told her that she and her family looked “impatient,” which Jade said was a microaggression against her family based on her race.
“The difference between policies and procedures is whether you apply them discriminatively or not,” Jade says. Treat everyone with respect.”
Commenters on Jade’s video suggested she go to the emergency room next time and file a complaint with the Washington Department of Health. Some defended the actions of emergency care personnel, saying, “There are specific triage procedures that must be followed,” or how medical professionals determine the urgency of a patient’s needs.
“Patients are seen in order of severity based on a triage scale,” @mama_llama_lisa commented.
We crawl the web for you so you don’t have to.
Sign up for the Daily Dot newsletter to get the best and worst of the internet delivered to your inbox every day.
*First published: February 1, 2023 at 8:22pm CST
Tricia Crimmins
Tricia Crimmins is an IRL staff writer at the Daily Dot. She is a New York-based comedian and adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Previously, she contributed to Mashable, Complex Networks, and Moment magazines. You can find her on Twitter @TriciaCrimmins.
