Why are Moms of Color at Risk in the Delivery Room
She Takes Her Journey to Capitol Hill
(LOS ANGELES) After years of silence, Bianca Dickerson Williams — an L.A. mother who suffered catastrophic life-altering injuries at UCLA Medical Center while the delivery of her second child – – began speaking out about her experience. She traveled to Washington, DC to tell her story on Capitol Hill and is suing the hospital. Bianca is now discussing the role of racism in health care and the lack of understanding that all women of color, regardless of their socioeconomic status, are at risk of abuse and mistreatment in the delivery room.
Dickerson Williams experienced a 40-week pregnancy; she went to the hospital to have labor induced to accommodate her doctor’s schedule. She was in labor and had only dilated 2 centimeters after numerous hours. She was initially told they would have to perform a Cesarean since she hadn’t dilated far enough. Despite that, the doctor instructed everyone to proceed with a vaginal birth and to increase the Pitocin, a hormone that helps with dilation.
However, since she’d been under the epidural for several hours, she couldn’t move her legs without assistance. The doctor had a nurse put her legs into position for a Western-style vaginal birth, but the bed had no stirrups. Consequently, the nurse had to hold the left leg up during delivery.
Just as the baby was coming out, the nurse looked away and let go of the leg. Dickerson-Williams’ leg dropped, an act that she would later learn caused catastrophic damage and would take her years to uncover.
The nurse raised the left leg again and Dickerson-Williams gave birth to her daughter on the next push. However, the nurse did not immediately give the baby to the new mother. Instead, they whisked the newborn away and the doctor began attempting to repair the damage in her vagina, all the while telling her everything was fine along with the nurse. It wasn’t until several hours later that she got to hold her daughter.
As the epidural wore off, Dickerson-Williams was in excruciating pain. Since this was her second child, she felt the pain was out of proportion to normal, but she trusted her doctors and the staff because the doctor and nurse continued to dismiss it again and again telling her everything is fine.
She continued complaining about the unbearable pain, but the nurses and the doctor ignored her. The pain was unrelenting. She had never felt such pain in her life. With that, they gave her some narcotics, which did little for the pain. Later, the hospital sent in a mental health social worker to evaluate her mental state but not a single person to investigate her physical pain.
“If you were to read my medical records, they read as if nothing happened to me. My medical records were altered. The hospital nurses and UCLA doctors attempted to cover up their negligence and I’ve been in litigation for almost seven years fighting for my life, fighting for my family, all while I’ve been sick,” said Dickerson-Williams.
In the first few months after giving birth, Dickerson-Williams alleges that her doctor, Tristan Bickman (OB-GYN) kept trying to dismiss the ongoing pain, the problems about which she complained, and informed her that everything was fine. Those complaints included stabbing pain in her vagina, rectum and bleeding from the rectum, nausea, difficulty with urination and bowels plus an inability to have intercourse with her husband. Dickerson-Williams also saw the Chief of Obstetrics & Gynecology at UCLA hospital, Dr. Christopher Tarnay, whom she alleges dismissed her complaints and refused to order an MRI when she requested it of him. “I asked him to order an MRI so we could get a visual of my pelvis”. Dickerson-Williams alleges that Dr. Christopher Tarnay (Chief OB-GYN Pelvic Pain & Reconstructive Surgery) responded that it was not going to help him despite all her undiagnosed symptoms.
Her physician, an OB-GYN, delivered both her children at UCLA Hospital (the first child was delivered without any complications), so she trusted her doctor, the hospital, and believed what she had told her in the delivery room and at every post-partum visit with her doctors and UCLA hospital. She was continuously told that everything was fine and healing normally. Dickerson-Williams alleges that Dr. Tristan Bickman (OB-GYN) never made any referrals or ordered any tests despite 16 weeks of vaginal and rectal complaints. Instead, she wrote her a prescription for Zoloft, an anti-anxiety drug when the plaintiff complained of physical pain, not mental issues.
When the pain still wasn’t subsiding, she had to begin the journey of finding a doctor who could diagnose her and order an MRI. As a result, she’s gone across the country to see various doctors in Chicago, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. She’s had several surgeries trying to correct the damage done by her leg being dropped and the botched repair job to her vagina.
“Instead of holding my baby in my arms that day, I was hoping and praying to God that I was going to make it out alive,” said Dickerson Williams. “Instead of owning up to their catastrophic mistakes, conducting tests, and finding solutions for the debilitating physical pain they caused, the hospital sent a social worker to evaluate my mental state and ask if I have diapers at home. I felt unheard, ignored, and humiliated.”
According to the Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), statistics about Black women and infants are as follows:
- In the USA Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women.
- The USA has the highest maternal mortality rate amongst developed countries.
- In California, Black women are six times more likely to die due to complications whit in the first year of pregnancy than White women.
- In the USA Black women are 3-4 times more likely to die from pregnancy complications.
- Black women have a 70% increased risk for severe maternal morbidity.
- Indigenous women have the next highest morbidity and maternal health issues.
“I think that one of the things that have been most alarming and eye-opening for me is this notion that this is happening to black and brown women, simply because we are underprivileged, or we’re uneducated. We don’t have the financial means. We’re in a lower socioeconomic bracket. We’re on welfare, or we don’t have access to good healthcare. And then you have me. I was overly educated. I have a Juris Doctor degree. I had top-of-the-line insurance, a PPO through Blue Cross Blue Shield. I lived in one of the best neighborhoods in the country, and I was at one of the best hospitals in the world. And this still happened to me. And the only thing that is present is the color of my face. And when I really sit in that, and I really think about that, it feels like someone is taking a dagger and stabbing me in my heart, over and over again. I am the confirmation that racism in the healthcare system and disparate impact and implicit bias is ever present in our healthcare system in this country.”
Learn more about Bianca’s experience in the documentary film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQpAAMcV-L0&t=19s.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/floresdickerson/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bianca-dickerson-williams-j-d-aaaa79b/
