An American Debt Unpaid: Stories of Native Health - Alliance for a ...

The next day one of the physicians told me he was sending me home,since they didn’t have answers to why I was so sick. He told me that alot of the time they have patients coming in seeking pain medications orrunning from their stressors. He said, “You have kids at home. Don’t youwant to go home and take care of them?”I couldn’t believe he was actually saying these things to me. It made meso angry. Hearing him say those things to me I just wanted to leave. Ididn’t care how sick I was I just wanted to get out of that place!Now they have me scheduled to follow up with an infectious diseasedoctor, but I’m seriously thinking about canceling that appointment. Idon’t look forward to being treated like I’m faking my illness, or there toseek medication. My whole experience with that medical center was anightmare and left me feeling disgusted. If I ever get sick again I don’twant to go back there. I’ll die at home.I feel that I saw a lot of incompetent care, and disrespectfultreatment, while I was working as an LPN with IHS. Once I was with awoman going into labor, and the attending physician told her to handleit herself, because he was busy.Another time, I told the doctor that a patient was in severe pain. Thedoctor said, “So you think you’re a doctor, now? Who are you to saywhat he is or isn’t feeling?” That patient had to be flown to Billings witha ruptured gall bladder.Guinea pigs to experiment on—that’s how we’ve been treated. In the1980’s, an IHS nurse told me she’d been sent to the reservationbecause, as she put it, “You Indians are incapable of thinking foryourselves.” And a doctor once said to me, “You Indians make things up.It’s in your nature to tell lies.”I’ve had many of my own health struggles: diabetes, deafness in my leftear from a mini-stroke, asthma, head trauma after an assault. Because Iwas an LPN, I received special treatment, treatment other people wouldbe very lucky to have. But I’ve also often felt like doctors didn’t listen tome closely, and I’ve felt like racism has interfered with my care and thecare of Indian people generally.Brenda PRETTY WEASELCrow/Sioux/IrishCrow Agency, MontanaBrenda Pretty Weasel currently works for theCensus Bureau. In the 1990’s, she worked fortwo years as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)with the Indian Health Service. She hurt herback while working and later lost her job—dueto the pain, she could no longer perform herduties. In her spare time, she reads mysterynovels.NORTHWEST FEDERATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS 49