Today during M&M conference, we reviewed a case of a patient whose chief complaint was "I can't breathe." It was the 3rd case & the chief residents wanted to shoehorn it in before the hour was over. When I heard the phrase, I was shook & of course, thinking about #GeorgeFloyd

Acting accordingly, the team of doctors and nurses did what they could to assess the patient, figure out the root cause, and ultimately fix the problem. That is what you do when someone utters the phrase "I can't breathe."

The juxtaposition of course is what happened in Minneapolis when George Floyd uttered the very same phrase as a police officer kneeled on his neck. 5 years ago Eric Garner said the very same words. Both of these men died. Why? Because their pleas for help were ignored.

I am not saying that health professionals always get it right or that our fields don't have those same "bad apples" that we talk about within the police force. We have our biases, our shortcomings as humans, and we certainly know there are racists and bigots in the field.

We do studies in medicine that highlight our deficiencies or how we do right by some patients and dismiss others. Unfortunately, we don't do enough to document what we can and should be doing to better. Or HOW we ARE doing better.

That said, if someone is saying "I can't breathe' the humane thing to do is to assess the problem and fix it. My colleagues did what was right, what happened to #GeorgeFloyd and the actions of the police was wrong.

This is weighing heavy on my heart today. Having an M&M case presented only made those words "I can't breathe" speak louder to my soul as a physician and a Black man.