I’ve written about my reasons for leaving UCSF. And while it was painful to feel unsupported, isolated, undervalued, and gaslighted—including by Black leadership within the institution—I was already a published author, recipient of multiple coveted grants and fellowships, and double board-certified in nephrology and internal medicine. I’ve since learned that my story pales in comparison to so many other young Black physicians who are being disproportionately pushed out of medicine at a time in their career when they have no license to practice independently but do have $240,000 of debt on average after completing medical school. Only 5% of physicians in training in the US are Black, but account for 20% of program dismissals. And this doesn’t even count those who are convinced to resign to avoid the damaging mark of dismissal on their record.
how to get on the kidney transplant wait list
Mr. Garcia was one of the lucky ones.
Not in the born-in-poverty or kidney-failure-by-30 sense. But lucky in the sense that by the time his kidneys failed completely, he was in California where Medicaid pays for undocumented folks get the same dialysis as the US-born and not in one of the 38 states that wait until undocumented people show up to their ERs damn near dead before they will give them a dialysis treatment or three before they send them back out to start the process again five or six days later—even though it is far more expensive than standard care. Because racism.
17 years and counting!
It’s our 17th kidney transplant anniversary y’all! (Check out my latest video for “Real Kidney Talk with The People’s Nephrologist” where I talk about being a kidney donor.)
If it’s not obvious from our picture, my husband and I are both Black. And don’t let the fair skin fool you: We are unapologetically and proudly Blackity-Black.
how dare this Black doctor complain about racism?
I’m classy but a cuss a little. Sometimes a lot. And it often spills over into my writing. The kind of shit that gets censored on my professional Facebook page.
So when I co-authored this profanity-free piece about equity with my friend and badass-hijab wearing-mama of 6-trauma surgeon colleague Dr. Qaali Hussein in July, I seized the opportunity to amplify it on Facebook.