RE: Massachusetts and Black Women

From March 2020 to June 2020, employees of Cambridge Hospital, Visiting Nurse Association of Eastern Massachusetts, and DaVita Woburn Dialysis Center subjected a 78-year-old, black, female Massachusetts resident to continual abuse and negligence during and after a brief hospitalization, until she died on Juneteenth 2020.

Now, in 2024, more than four years later, despite a detailed and comprehensive firsthand report of the mistreatment that occurred, provided to the three involved organizations and various relevant elected Massachusetts politicians and officials, still nothing has been done about workers from multiple Massachusetts health "care" organizations acting in unison to undermine a black female patient's well-being and established support system, thereby hastening her death.

Their behavior was not an unintended medical mistake or chance mishap — it was deliberate, egregious, and racist.

Martin Luther King Jr.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

This website is a memorial to that black woman and all women of color in Massachusetts, both known and not, who are dead or irreparably injured as a result of the state's disregard for racism, which allows such misconduct to continue.

Furthermore, it is a message to all Massachusetts residents of color: look out for yourself and your loved ones — especially the elderly and vulnerable — because if you or they are harmed or killed as a result of racial discrimination, there is an overwhelming likelihood that no "leader" in the state will do a single thing about the crime.

In the midst of recent political events in the United States related to the upcoming 2024 presidential election, many Massachusetts elected politicians have been falling in line and all over themselves to publicly declare their "support" for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. But actions speak louder than words, and so too does inaction.

Maya Angelou

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

The following demonstrates how a disheartening number of Massachusetts elected politicians and officials, as well as some medical personnel, REALLY feel about black women — their confirmed apathy reveals their true character and how they condone racism against black women in their state.

In July 2015, a 73-year-old black woman entered Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an affiliate of Cambridge Health Alliance, the operator of Cambridge Hospital, for thyroid removal, which her competent surgeon performed successfully. Then, just hours after that successful throat surgery, a hospital employee gave her solid instead of pulverized or liquid medication, nearly choking her to death when the medication got stuck and landing the patient in the Intensive Care Unit in a medically induced coma to heal.

Despite the successful surgery, the black woman left Beth Israel significantly worse off than when she had entered. The Beth Israel employee's negligence directly caused a permanently altered voice, substantial weakness that required a year of recovery, permanent newfound reliance on dialysis, and additional related medical procedures and medical expenses recurring for the rest of her life.

Did the patient also receive any redress for this considerable damage that was entirely Beth Israel's fault? Of course not. Illogically, that requires filing a lawsuit within a short time frame while you are still adapting to your unforeseen new diminished circumstances and greatly reduced quality of life; finding a lawyer willing to take on such a lawsuit given the capped monetary judgments in Massachusetts; and crossing your fingers and toes that the hospital at fault will respond to associated inquiries promptly, precisely, and truthfully so the legal process will not be needlessly drawn out and challenging.

Good luck with that if, like about 80% of Americans, you are not a member of the moneyed class, who can pay lawyers out of pocket for that obligatory level of diligent and expensive legal representation.

In March 2020, that same black woman entered Cambridge Hospital for two relatively minor surgical procedures, which both surgeons performed successfully. Then, over the next three months, hospital staff, along with their colleagues at VNA of Eastern Massachusetts and DaVita Woburn Dialysis Center, unilaterally decided it was perfectly professional, ethical, and reasonable for them to disregard the patient's clearly expressed preferences in order to dictate her medical choices and undermine her long-established and successful support system. Their behavior directly sabotaged her chances for a smooth, full recovery and caused her extraordinarily cruel and prolonged mental and physical stress.

That black woman died — unexpectedly and unnecessarily — on Juneteenth 2020, after DaVita Woburn Dialysis Center employees made no effort whatsoever to inform her caregiver, also a black woman, that they knew the patient required emergency medical intervention immediately due to missing a dialysis appointment that they (1) neglected to schedule properly and (2) did not even notice she had missed until that June day.

The unacceptable, nonsensical, and horrifying actions of Cambridge Hospital, VNA of Eastern Massachusetts, and DaVita Woburn Dialysis Center employees toward that black woman are numerous.

After this surreal nightmare of incompetence and discrimination leading to the black woman's premature death, her caregiver filed on her behalf the formal complaint that the woman had intended to submit before Cambridge Hospital, VNA of Eastern Massachusetts, and DaVita Woburn Dialysis Center staff killed her. The heads of each organization were contacted, as were select elected politicians and officials in Massachusetts.

This is what happened next in the subsequent years: NOTHING.

So, there you have it. It is what it is. That is what black women are worth in Massachusetts: NOTHING.

In Massachusetts, if Royals drop by briefly, it's a big deal, and they get right on it.

In Massachusetts, if you experience inconvenience while trying to buy entertainment tickets, it's a big deal, and they get right on it.

In Massachusetts, if you become yet another entry on the long list of white women killed by their partner, it's a big deal, and they get right on it.

And in Massachusetts, if you are an abandoned or abused animal, it's a big deal, and they get right on it.

But in Massachusetts, unconcealed discrimination is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

In Massachusetts, violating a person's rights, autonomy, and clearly stated directives is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

In Massachusetts, flagrant health care fraud is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

In Massachusetts, overt medical negligence is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

In Massachusetts, intentionally endangering a patient's mental and physical well-being is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

In Massachusetts, blatant elder abuse is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

In Massachusetts, health "care" workers knowingly doing nothing to avoid a looming emergency and to prevent the obviously imminent death of a patient is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

In Massachusetts, outright killing another human being is not a big deal when the victim is a black woman.

And in Massachusetts, if you are a black woman, speaking up about this reality will get you the death glare, crazy label, uppity brand, cold shoulder, stank eye, up-turned nose, nasty looks, derisive smirks, dismissive scoffs, irate denials, and even more racism, yet ZERO accountability and ZERO repercussions for the perpetrators of crimes against black women.

That is how too many Massachusetts "leaders" REALLY feel about black women; their past behavior confirms it.

That is how Massachusetts too often REALLY treats black women; the nonchalant killing of one more proves it.

Black women should not have to run for President of the United States for their life to matter in Massachusetts.

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Congratulations and best wishes to Kamala Harris. This American citizen methodically tortured to death in 2020 by her own health "care" providers would have been thrilled to vote for Harris if Massachusetts workers had not killed her before she could have the opportunity.

Please vote — that is, if you are blessed with candidates actually worth voting for.