Ep 2: Perception

De: Ivan Beckley, Emma Barnaby, Yero Timi-Biu, Anishka Sharma, Tej Adeleye

Imagine telling someone you’re in pain. How do you know that they believe you? Why is some people’s pain perceived differently to others? And what does that mean for those with chronic and life-threatening illnesses?

©2021 Ivan Beckley (P)2021 Audible, Ltd.

How biased patient and doctors misunderstand

Ivan presents only a “woke” POV and misses the important story. Medicine is an art and a science. A big part of the art is hearing and empathizing with a patient in pain. It’s impossible to move forward to the science until this is done. Patients need you to know how much they have suffered. Naturally, the further apart you are in shared experiences, the harder that is. Some patients won’t go further and just want to complain and often a doctor can only offer empathy without an available diagnosis or intervention.

Often a patient ignores everything else a doctor is trying to do for them as they are stuck on the narrative of victimhood, which is quite possible with the example patient that Ivan provides here.
She obviously has a non conventional view of herself, despite dysmenorrhea and childbirth, she won’t admit to being female. It’s very likely that she was diagnosed multiple times with vitamin D deficiency and a genetic collagen disease as she gave distinct and nearly pathognomonic clues. Apparently she skipped the diagnosis and on to another doctor when she didn’t get the response she (they?) wanted. This begs the question: if she had a Black doctor (presumably she is Black though they never say), would she have accepted a diagnosis and been able to move on to possible (though non-curative) treatments?
It’s also interesting how deeply biased this podcast is. For example, Whites crediting Blacks or Africans with stoicism or stronger character or constitution is seen here as a negative trait in Whites from the woke perspective. There’s a definite can’t-win-if-you’re-White-or-Black theme throughout this podcast.