Honestly, I do not think this is a case of Jahi not getting proper care because of the color of her skin. I say that having worked early in my career in a hospital very similar to CHO, and in similar adult hospitals ever since. (That is not to dispute studies that say there can be a disparity in the care of African Americans and other minorities, because I believe that can be true. But I think something else was at play here.)
From what I've read of the case, what I think needed to happen was that Jahi be taken back to the OR to correct the bleeding, likely from the carotid artery that was very near to the surgical site, and that didn't happen. It didn't happen because the covering doctors did not intervene when they were notified repeatedly throughout the evening of her bleeding**. (See Section 22 of the Malpractice document above.) This can, unfortunately, sometimes happen in hospitals where it's part of the culture to allow tired and overwhelmed doctors to ignore requests for help, especially at night.
The nurses had a responsibility to escalate their requests for assistance when they got no response from the doctors on call, taking it as high or as broad as they needed to to get help for Jahi. (Sections 30-33.) That is not always an easy thing to do, especially for a less-experienced staff. And I'll admit that sometimes it's a lot easier to look back at things and say we should've done this or that, than it is looking forward when you're in that actual situation and perhaps trying to care for someone like Jahi as well as another patient (or patients) who may be vomiting, or having complications or pain, also, and dealing with families' questions and concerns, etc.
But pints of blood are too much blood to lose. A little blood, yes. That much blood, no.
This was a very unfortunate situation in a lot of ways.
But I don't believe it had anything to do with her race. Had she been a white girl, the response likely wouldn't have been any different. (UNLESS she was the family member of a VIP - THAT would've gotten attention, sadly enough.)
I hope when this case eventually comes to court that it helps change the culture in hospitals that still exists today that some doctors don't want to be disturbed, and learn that by dragging their feet over and over they can get away with not responding to requests. There was a case in the 80s that changed culture once before in a big way, where legislation dictated how many hours resident doctors could be working after a young diabetic woman died as the result of an error by a resident who'd been working for 36 hours straight. I hope that this case has similar results in that requests for assistance cannot be ignored.
** Hospitals can track electronically who was paged, how many times, and what was said, etc., so I'm sure they have that information; there will also be documentation in notes.
