Charles Johnson is a single father who's currently suing cedars-sinai hospital in Los Angeles after his wife died during childbirth
This story is difficult. I'm just warning you guys before we toss to the video
But with that said here is Charles Johnson explaining what happened to his wife. I can see the Foley catheter
coming
From Cure's bedside began to turn pink with the line
He says doctors told them now three-year-old Langston's births would be a routine cesarean section
I just held her by her hands and said please look my wife isn't doing well
This woman looked me directly in my eyes, and she said sir your wife. It just isn't a priority right now
It wasn't until 12:30 a.m
The next morning that they finally made the decision to take here back to surgery
as critical minutes turned into hours Johnson says he was continually ignored by staff at cedars-sinai hospital in Los Angeles as
Kyra's health continued to suffer
When they took her back to surgery and he opened her up, there were three and a half liters of blood in her abdomen
From where she had been allowed to bleed internally for almost ten hours
And her heart stopped immediately such a devastating story, but
Unfortunately, it's not unique or isolated. This is actually a huge problem. That is
Definitely prevalent among the african-american community now Charles Johnson told CNN I started to do research myself
I realized oh my gosh, we're in the midst of a maternal mortality crisis. That isn't just shameful for American standards
It's shameful on a global scale. So to give you a few statistics
America is the only developed country with a rising death rate for pregnant or new mothers
approximately 700 of these women in the United States die each year one of the richest countries in the world and that's what happens and
one of the biggest issues is you know much like Kyra's case when a
Woman needs help. Especially a black woman and says she's in pain or isn't feeling right
Oftentimes that call for help will be ignored and there are serious consequences to that people literally die
I think a lot of people forget that the medical community would do
experiments on people for centuries and
essentially poke prod cut us open with this idea that we don't feel pain and
Unfortunately, some of that has continued to press through to modern-day medicine and medical care providers who continue to ignore
Women and especially black women when we let you know, there is a problem
There's something I know and we saw it with Serena Williams and her trying to explain to the doctors. No, I have a problem
there's something going on and literally having to throw a fit before they actually
Listen to her and that it really affects our daily lives and the possibility that we may end up
Admitted to a hospital in some way or some form and hey, they're not gonna listen to us
Even though we're telling them there's something wrong. Yeah. It's like in the hospital if we're too hysteric
we
Don't get any help or help. Our pain is not treated as as important if we're to asterick and the cops pull us over
We're dead
Yeah, it goes to this thing. You're saying it's like it's
difficult just
Existing in this country as an african-american sometimes good. It's like you're walking on eggshells
Just trying to be treated like a normal person but like that
this is such an indictment on the health care system that like
Republicans and a lot of Democrats are saying is the number one health care system in the world
The one that produces the best outcomes and this is happening cedars-sinai is a really good Hospital
Yeah, they're phenomenal hospital like their doctors who work there. I'm sure fine
but like this happens in our health care system on a day-to-day basis that they'll say like, oh
But other countries they wait for their care people die waiting for their care here, and we do nothing about it
But no god forbid
We have socialist Bernie care that will ruin things and something also too I think is important to note that
Blacks indigenous and Alaskan Native women are 2 to 3 times more likely to die during childbirth
Or as a result of pregnancy related complications than white women
Yeah, and it's because doctors don't listen to us and just like a quick story
I went out on a date maybe six months ago first date. I have no problem telling a man
I want triplets the man. His response is it's probably for the best because of the high maternal mortality rate for black women
It's the only way just to do it once oh my because you can't risk doing it more than once as you may not survive
Some excellent pickup line. I'm gonna use that please. Oh, yeah Wow
Works anytime apparently good way of breaking up. Oh my god
I think when he said that to me, I was like, oh my god, like he was down and he knew exactly
Why and why it was so important you?
Want triplets, dude?
I can only do it once cuz like if I go into a doctor so only reason though all that and they're like cute cuz
they all look the same and you can like switch them up and
They look cute but there's three of them
Runs away. I have an insurance policy two more. We're not. Oh my god. I just always imagined like in middle school
They just like switch them around
No one ever knows who's like, oh, is it the twin who's in class today are the ones I'm playing hooky?
It's a sitcom boy now. Sorry I needed light in the story
We did need that but let me give you a few more facts about this it's you know, look a broader
Look at what's going on?
So there's a non-profit that does research and activism in the field and they came to more
Devastating unfortunately conclusions on this every mother counts
Says many of their deaths are because of unequal health care or the unequal health care system and systemic racism
Also an expert in the field added a well-educated
african-american woman with more than a high school education
Has a five fold risk of death compared to a white woman with less than a high school education
so that might feel like a weird thing to bring up but I think it's incredibly relevant because
oftentimes when we talk about
Unfair treatment it's seen through the lens of socioeconomic status and that certainly plays a huge role
But even if you have two people with the same education, you know the same wealth the same everything
there's still a problem in the way that
People are perceived certain groups of people are perceived. And so I
Want to plug this even though I have issues with some of their reporting but the New York Times wrote a very detailed feature on
how black women are
Most vulnerable to this and it was just really well done. So, please check that out. It was a good piece and
There are good reporters working at organizations that I don't necessarily agree with all the time
So take a look at that article and more. Thanks for watching The Young Turks. Oh, really? Appreciate it
Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships, you'll get to interact with us more this live chat emojis badges
Your kind of approaches of me Anna John jr. So those are super fun. But you also get
playback of our exclusive
Member only shows and specials right after they air so all that
All you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you