I had a patient last year who was hospitalized with complications from a terminal disease. She was a trans woman and due to her disease process and complications, she had to cease with her hormone therapy that she had been taking regularly. Because of this she had some rather "masculine" features and, to make matters worse, her insurance and ID names didn't match so she was admitted under her male birth name. When we made rounds that morning, a medical student on my service, apparently, thought it would be cute to say her name and gesture with quotation marks as she said her name followed by the patient's birth name. I stopped rounds and clarified for myself what was going on and said "Under no circumstances is anyone on this service to refer to this patient as anything other than HER name...am I clear on that?" After rounds, I took the medical student aside and had a conversation with them about their actions and what they could do to make up for their offensive actions to keep them from receiving a formal disciplinary report with their medical school. The patient died on our service, but she died with dignity and how she wanted to be known. That happened in deep blue RI...I can only imagine how similar situations play out in redder states. The issue of trans rights is so new for some people that it's easier for them to make crass comments and demean people rather than understand the real struggle that trans people deal with. Compassion and empathy are on too short of supply in this country, and I attribute that to many things: the rise of the evangelical..Me focused....prosperity gospel, the Ayn Randian transformation of a significant portion of the population, and lack of education. There may be more John Galts than Atticus Finchs, but I'll always try to be more like Finch...hopefully others will as well.
= new reply since forum marked as read
