With The Times

Even though the Civil Rights Movement resulted in hospital desegregation in 1964, according to U.S News, black communities “hardly noticed.” In some cases, even in the late 70s, racial discrimination was still deeply rooted in healthcare.

In an article written by The Atlantic, the history of American healthcare is explored, and some details may surprise most. According to the article, the maintenance of the medical system existed even in the late 60s, when Civil Rights became entangled with heavy disparities in many medical practices.

For instance, after suffering from a deep gunshot wound, a well-known black activist in history, Assata Shakur, was placed under physical restrictions by healthcare professionals while they put her under heavy anesthesia medication. However, the timeline for revolutionizing healthcare and decreasing disparities involving patient treatment has dramatically shifted.

In America, a current ongoing issue is the prolonged waiting list for heart transplants, especially for desperate patients. Even so, according to a study by the American Heart Association, black patients are “less likely than their white peers” to get a heart transplant.

With a lower guarantee of surgery success than their white counterparts, black patients in need of a heart are dramatically disadvantaged. According to the Health Resources and Service Administration, approximately 17 people die each day waiting on an organ transplant. 

Given research done by the AHA, these statistics could mainly reflect the detailed disparities black patients face, and this is alarming.

Ciara Andrade, 19-year-old University of Massachusetts Boston Nursing student, says organ transplants are never an easy process. “Sometimes people go years without getting an organ, which can affect the ones you currently have. The system is corrupt, especially if you can’t afford to compete in it,” Andrade said.

In the age of advanced technology, waitlisted heart transplant patients have been fairly able to survive, but this is also an issue of economic status. A study conducted by the National Library of Medicine found that “black race and multiple indicators of low socioeconomic status” related to a greater risk of death or retransplantation after surgery.

As for these statistics possibly resulting from medical errors is unclear, but the most likely explanation is the lack of financial support for medical bills. Due to the high risk and rarity of donor matches, this surgery is one of the most expensive transplant surgeries in the country.

To combat this issue, in 2007 an experiment to use ventricular assistance devices that manually take over the heart’s organ functions was conducted, otherwise known as a Berlin Heart. According to Boston Children’s Hospital, out of patients on the transplant waiting list using this device, 90 percent “successfully transitioned to a transplanted heart.”

According to the Healthcare department at the University of Utah, there are around six different types of ventricular assist devices for patients waiting on a heart transplant. Out of the options, the most revolutionary is called a Total Artificial Heart, composed of “two artificial ventricles made from biocompatible plastic, which prevents the TAH from being rejected by the body.”

However, these treatments are only available to those who can afford the costly bills associated with keeping the hospital machines running. To make matters worse, insurance only covers a certain amount and, according to Fortune Magazine, the average heart transplant surgery costs approximately $1.4 million. Additionally, with the “lack of donor hearts” low-income black patients are at a severe disadvantage.

An additional study in 2015 found that approximately 74.63% of US candidates failed to receive an organ transplant, with “4925 deaths in 2019 occurring whilst waiting for a transplant.” To put this in perspective, thousands of Americans die every year waiting for a transplant, whether this data allocates to economic status, race, religion or personal reasons, these deaths occur due to severe disparities in the medical system.

With the several medical advances that exist in today’s society, the medical system can still be widely criticized due to the lack of modern, equitable healthcare. Therefore, it is bold to assume that the current medical system is completely objective when it clearly favors the higher economic class.