#medical apartheid

[afriblaq]

Black Women HEAR ME WELL: They are actively kill!ng us. They DO NOT care about us in these hospitals. We MUST build our own healthcare networks. They CANNOT stop us from taking our health into our own hands….

REPOST @essenceofblackculture Deborah Lowe, a Milwaukee resident, underwent an emergency C-section in 1989 due to complications with her twin pregnancy. During this procedure, she also had a hysterectomy and was placed on life support, during which a feeding tube was inserted.

Unfortunately, this feeding tube was inadvertently left inside her body.

For 35 years, Lowe experienced persistent abdominal pain, swelling, and other health issues. Despite numerous medical consultations, the cause of her discomfort remained undiagnosed until April 2024, when a surgeon discovered the retained feeding tube during a colon procedure.

Lowe has since filed a lawsuit against the hospital, alleging medical negligence and seeking compensation for the decades of pain and suffering she endured. raventhesciencemaven I HATE that this happened to her and I PRAY that she is blessed beyond measure.

[veluigi]

^Really important insider interview about how the fires are affecting marginalized communities in LA right now.

Some highlights: LA overfunds police multiple times over their Fire Dept to which they had cut funding. A sizeable number of Altadena residents never saw any firefighters or trucks responding. Altadena has lost a majority of its Historically Black community & infrastructure. BIPOC who are disproportionately affected by asthma need access to inhalers, translators, and shielding from ICE. Conversation about homeowners excludes renters without insurance. People need support to rebuild their lives & futures on their own terms in the wake of insurance companies dropping coverage & corporations vying to swoop in and colonize entire neighborhoods. Community organizing beyond reactivity starts with each of us!

Resources for people in the LA area below:

LA Fires Mutual Aid Resources

MALAN Fire & Wind Storm Available Resources

SoCal Mutual Aid Discord

Signal Group

[3rdeyeblaque]

On August 1st we venerate Ancestor Henrietta Lacks on her 103rd birthday 🎉

Sister Henrietta is known throughout the world as, "The Mother Of Modern Medicine", being the biological source of the HeLa cells - 1st immortalized human cell line, which has been central to cancer research studies & methods. Billions of her cells are presently used in biomedical research development around the world, notably in the manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, mapping the human genome, HIV/AIDS & cancer treatments, testing human cells against zero gravity in space, other vaccine research, & undoubtedly much more.

Today, however, venerate the woman behind the medical atrocities that it took to achieve such a feight.

Born Roanoke, VA, a young Henrietta grew up working on a tobacco farm with her father, her 9 siblings, & extended relatives on their land in Clover, VA - where their ancestors had worked as slaves. She'd lost her to complications of child birth when she was just 4yrs old. Due to his lack of patience, her father divided his children to be raised among different relatives accordingly. Henrietta was to be raised by her grandfather, who had already taken in her First-Cousin, David "Day" Lacks - who she later married. Henrietta continued her schooling until the 6th grade. On a hopeful prayer, they left Clover, VA for Turner Station, MD to escape the impoverished life that came with tobacco farming. There, they settled down to start their family.

While pregnant with her 5th child, Henrietta discovered a painful knot inside her that persisted through atypical bleeding post-childbirth, among other symptoms. Finally, she sought medical treatment. Prior to this, she & her family would lay flowers at the local Jesus statue, recite prayers & rub his feet for good luck. Henrietta kept her diagnosis to herself so as to not worry her family; she was determined to overcome her medical condition on her own.

While receiving treatment at a segregated ward in John Hopkins University, doctors took a tissue sample of her tumor for medical research without her knowledge or consent. This was an everyday practice at most medical institutions of the time. Unfortunately, Sister Henrietta did not survive her treatment. She was later buried at the Lacks Family Cemetery in Clover, Va.

Following her death, the medical research scientists from John Hopkins University coerced her husband to consenting to have an autopsy conducted on her remains; they claimed doing so would provide beneficial health information to his children. This allowed them to lawfully collect tissue samples from all of Henrietta 's organs. As of 2020, the cells from these tissue samples that were collected on that day & prior are THE most widely used in biomedical research labs around the world.

For all her pain, suffering, & desecration (of which the latter continues presently), may Sister Henrietta be forever elevated in peace, healing, & light in the spiritual as her physical essence has become immortalized in the physical.

We pour libations💧& give her 💐 today as we celebrate her for her love of family, community, & faith.

Offering suggestions: prayers toward her elevation, libations of water, catholic prayers, & a Catholic Bible.

‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️

[longliveblackness]

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Acting on the presumption that rural southern blacks were generally more promiscuous and syphilitic than whites, and without sufficient funding to establish an effective treatment program for them, doctors working with the Public Health Service (PHS) commenced a multi-year experiment in 1932.

Their actions deprived 400 largely uneducated and poor African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama of proper and reasonable treatment for syphilis, a disease whose symptoms could easily have been relieved with the application of penicillin which became available in the 1940s.

Patients were not told they had syphilis nor were they provided sufficient medication to cure them. More than 100 men died due to lack of treatment while others suffered insanity, blindness and chronic maladies related to the disease.

The original experiment took on a life of its own as physicians, intrigued by the prospect of gathering scientific data, ignored human rights and ethical considerations and managed to extend it until 1972 when a PHS researcher Peter Buxtun revealed its history to the press. Public exposure embarrassed the scientific community and the government and the experiment was quickly shut down.

Attorney Fred Gray initiated a lawsuit on behalf of the patients. In an out-of-court settlement each surviving patient received medical treatment and $40,000 in compensation.

In the wake of the scandal Congress passed the National Research Act of 1974 which required more stringent oversight of studies employing human subjects.

In 1997, on behalf of the federal government, President Bill Clinton issued a formal apology to the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.

•••

Experimento de Tuskegee (Sífilis)

Actuando bajo la presunción de que los negros en las áreas rurales del sur eran generalmente mas promiscuos y sifilíticos que los blancos, y sin tener los fondos suficientes para establecer un programa de tratamiento efectivo, los doctores que trabajaban para el Servicio de Salud Publica comenzaron un experimento que duró varios años en el año 1932.

Sus acciones privaron a cuatrocientos afroamericanos de un tratamiento adecuado y razonable para el sífilis, una enfermedad cuyos síntomas podrían haberse aliviado fácilmente con la aplicación de penicilina, la cual estuvo disponible en la década de 1940.

A los pacientes no se les dijo que tenían sífilis, tampoco se les brindó suficiente medicamento para curarlos. Mas de cien hombres fallecieron debido a la falta de medicamento, mientras que otros sufrían demencia, ceguera y otras enfermedades crónicas relacionadas con la enfermedad.

El experimento original cobró vida propia cuando los médicos, intrigados por la perspectiva de recopilar datos científicos, ignoraron los derechos humanos y las consideraciones éticas y lograron extenderlo hasta 1972 En este año es cuando un investigador del Servicio de Salud Pública, Peter Buxtun, reveló su historia a la prensa. La exposición pública avergonzó a la comunidad científica y al gobierno y el experimento fue rápidamente cancelado.

El abogado Fred Gray inició una demanda en nombre de los pacientes. En un acuerdo extrajudicial, cada paciente que sobrevivió, recibió tratamiento médico y 40,000 dólares de indemnización.

A raíz del escándalo, el Congreso aprob�� la Ley de Investigación Nacional de 1974, que exige una supervisión más estricta de los estudios que utilizan sujetos humanos.

En 1997, en nombre del gobierno federal, el presidente Bill Clinton emitió una disculpa formal a las víctimas del Experimento de Sífilis de Tuskegee.

[king-corvid93]

Currently, I’m reading Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington….this is the first time I’ve had to take a mental break from a book in years. Omg this book is so rough. It’s REALLY good. Amazing, but rough af (respectfully).

(I’m only on chapter 4)

[safirefire]

Two books I have only read sections of for research but am planning on finishing eventually that I think are very relevant given recent legal decisions

Fatal Invention by Dorothy Roberts [x]

Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington [x]

[padawan-historian]

Warning ⚠️ (Dys)functional white savior convientlly forgets that abortion is an ancestral practice of resistance and communal care. Also fails to mention the state-sanctioned sterilization of indigenous, Black, and queer folx throughout the 20th century . . . an inhumane practice perpetuated against undocumented communities and a subject the Pro-Life Movement is curiously quiet about.

[umbralwaves]

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has reported¹ “concerns” that the Israeli regime has stolen organs from Palestinian corpses, citing medical professionals who have documented evidence of “possible organ theft by the Israeli military,” that includes, “missing cochleas and corneas as well as other vital organs like livers, kidneys, and hearts” from bodies of dead Palestinians returned by the Israeli military to southern Gaza.

The corpses subjected to organ theft were themselves stolen from the vicinities of Al-Shifa and The Indonesian hospitals in Gaza, as doctors and journalists have reported on Nov 18 and Nov 20. According to Euro-Med Monitor, “the Israeli army also dug up and confiscated the bodies from a mass grave that was established more than 10 days ago in one of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex’s courtyards.”

Although the Israeli military has returned many of those stolen corpses to the ICRC, dozens remain in Israeli custody. The theft of dead Palestinian bodies has long been an Israeli policy that serves two purposes: transforming the corpses into bargaining chips for political gain and collectively-punishing bereaved Palestinian families by depriving them of the ability to give their loved ones proper burials. The legality of such necroviolent practices has been upheld both by the Israeli government and the Supreme Court.

Reports of Israeli organ theft not scarce. In 2009, The Guardian reported² that “Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families.” (See also: CNN, NBC News, etc).

Euro-Med Monitor cites Over Their Dead Bodies³, a book by Israeli doctor Meira Weiss, in which it is revealed that “organs taken from dead Palestinians were utilized in medical research at Israeli universities’ medical faculties and were transplanted into Jewish-Israeli patients’ bodies.” Euro-Med Monitor writes, “Even more concerning are admissions made by Yehuda Hess, the former director of Israel’s Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine, about the theft of human tissues, organs, and skin from dead Palestinians over a period of time without their relatives’ knowledge or approval.”

An Israeli investigative television series titled “Orly and Guy Return with Answers” broadcasted an episode⁴ about the Israeli Institute of Forensic Medicine which dealt in detail with the illicit harvesting of organs from the bodies of dead “Palestinians, immigrants, and foreign workers” (see transcript⁵)

People who have brought this issue to light, including myself, have continually been subjected to harassment and punishment and accused of "blood libel." One example of this is a Montgomery County teacher who has been put on leave over social media posts decrying Israeli necroviolence. The Washington Post's

@NicoleAsbury reported on this incident and falsely claimed that "there is no evidence of organ harvesting," despite ample evidence. @EuroMedHR has called for "the creation of an independent international investigation committee into organ theft suspicions."

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) November 26, 2023

[serious2020]

Tori Bowie, an elite Olympic athlete, died of complications from childbirth

RISE IN POWER, FRENTORISH ‘TORI’ BOWIE RISE IN POWER, QUEEN www.npr.org/2023/06/13/1181971448/tori-bowie-an-elite-olympic-athlete-died-of-complications-from-childbirth

[largemuscle69]

BOOK 1: Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington

Truly just a stunning book. Written in an easily digestible manner, Washington walks us through the systematic abuses African Americans have suffered at the hands of the medical system from slavery until now. I felt this was particularly important to read as an early career scientist that might continue in a future of medical research.

[nakeddeparture]

Medical Apartheid - What’s in those pills they so readily give to inmates at Hotel St Philip/Dodds Prison - Barbados.

https://youtu.be/7fr56K7AD5I

Who are the foreigners reporting back to? Why are things getting worse? Don’t you have questions??? Naked!!

Like/share/subscribe - ✔️🔔/HAVE YOUR SAY/comment on YouTube (it costs you nothing). WhatsApp #2527225512.

[afriblaq]

Yep, we know where this is going and what they are trying to do...

[thoughtfulfangirling]

The perception of evil in such cases, I realized, can prove as damaging as malfeasance itself.

— Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington

[haveyoureadthispoll]

From the era of slavery to the present day, the first full history of black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment. Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions. The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.

[safirefire]

im still in the middle of Medical Apartheid and Cobalt Red just came off hold but then I remembered that All This Twisted Glory (This Woven Kingdom #3) comes out next week on Feb 6th and now I’m re-reading the first two because I loved them so much they really hit my need for a fantasy with an interesting plot plus a good romance and it’s by the same author who wrote Shatter Me so if you liked that series I highly recommend it because the main character is so Juliette coded and the writing is so beautiful with funny and quippy dialogue but their speech pattern is Victorian so it’s like a Cinderella/regency romance in a Persian inspired setting with djinn and magic so anyway this is about to be a Tahereh Mafi account for the next two weeks

but also I feel a little bit like