<
https://prismreports.org/2023/09/21/women-of-color-long-covid-nightmare/>
"Over the past three and a half years, Cynthia Adinig, a marketing specialist
and mother living in Virginia with her 8-year-old son, has become a prominent
advocate for patients with long COVID and other chronic illnesses. She’s been
featured in
The Washington Post and other major media outlets, testified
before Congress on long COVID, and founded an agency focused on advocating for
people of color in health care. She also sits on the board for several
organizations dedicated to solving underfunded chronic conditions like myalgic
encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), which has similar symptoms
to long COVID.
But none of that stopped her from being kicked out of the hospital this summer
when she was experiencing a flare-up of her own long-COVID symptoms. She first
had a mild COVID-19 infection in March 2020 that she was able to manage at
home. Since then, she’s been diagnosed with dysautonomia, a group of conditions
caused by problems with the autonomic nervous system. Common among long-Covid
patients, it can cause high heart rate, dizziness, and fainting. Her COVID
infection has also led to mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), another
frequent issue among long-COVID patients that causes intense allergic reactions
to foods and medications. These diagnoses and associated treatments have
enabled her to establish a regimen of medications to keep her symptoms more
under control over the past year. Even with the medications, she still
struggles with brain fog, fatigue, and exercise intolerance.
But in July, Adinig experienced a flare-up of her symptoms due to bad air
quality from the Canadian wildfires. She had a sinus infection, her face was
puffy, her heart was racing, and she had trouble breathing despite having
numerous air purifiers in her home. She thought she was going to die, so she
called an ambulance.
Once in the ER, however, when she explained her condition and treatment for
these flare-ups, she said the doctor refused to listen or prescribe her
medication and said they didn’t see anything wrong with her. When she
protested, the doctor kicked her out and called security, according to Adinig.
“I was sobbing in the waiting room,” she said. “Security came and brought me
tissues.” Eventually, her husband was able to make it to the drug store to
stock up on enough over-the-counter antihistamines until she could speak to her
regular doctor. Without this, she says, “I would have died.”
In health care, this kind of treatment is a reality for disabled people, women,
and especially women of color. Some 1 in 5 patients have reported experiencing
discrimination in health care. Black people, who have been disproportionately
affected by the pandemic along with Latinx people, consistently received poorer
care in hospitals than their white counterparts, which correlated with higher
mortality rates. These outcomes are even worse for Black women, especially
mothers. Medicaid and uninsured patients, who are disproportionately low-income
people of color, also report being treated more unfairly than those on private
insurance plans."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: September 28, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-89962624
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
