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By Janelle Griffith
One doctor said that she had been the victim of racial discrimination by two flight attendants on Tuesday while she was trying to help a sick passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight.
Fatima Cody Stanford, Ph.D., said that she had flown to Indianapolis for Boston when she had noticed that a woman beside her was in hyperventilation.
Stanford, an obesity specialist physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a teacher at Harvard Medical School, said that she was already helping the sick passenger when an air hostess l? approached and asked if she was a doctor.
Before being questioned, Stanford stated that she had shown her medical license to a flight attendant – and that she was not believed.
While she was working to calm the panicked passenger, Stanford said that a second flight attendant had asked for clarification and asked if she was "a real doctor".
"The experience has made me furious," she told NBC News on Thursday.
Stanford said she found the entire meeting remarkable because she had just attended a conference on medical biases on Oct. 19, during which she interviewed another doctor, Tamika Cross. , who had a similar experience in October 2016 aboard another Delta flight.
Stanford said she had invited Cross to speak at a conference on medical bias two weeks ago and that the two incidents were strangely similar.
Cross herself went to Instagram on Wednesday and asked, "Where have we been since 2016?"
"I found it odd that it happened almost two years to the day as Dr. Cross." Stanford said Thursday.
On Wednesday, Stanford spoke to the airline in a tweet, prompting Delta to respond by email.
"@delta, I am very disappointed that your #Diversity policy has not brought about any change.As a #blackwoman doctor who showed my #medical license to help a passenger on DL5935, your #flightwaiter did not believe still not that I was #Physician " Stanford tweeted.
In a second tweet, Stanford said that his qualifications do not "protect him from racism".
A few hours later, Stanford said that she had talked to Delta and that the flight attendants thought she was a therapist.
Reached Thursday, flight DL5935 was operated by one of its regional partners, Republic Air, based in Indianapolis.
"We thank Dr. Stanford for his medical assistance aboard Republic Flight 5935 IND-BOS and we regret any misunderstanding that occurred during his exchange with the flight crew," said a spokesman for Delta. follow up with our carrier partner to ensure that their employees understand and apply the policy consistently. "
Delta changed its medical credential policy in 2016 after Cross, a 28-year-old black doctor, said she was greeted with skepticism when she volunteered to heal. a sick passenger during a Delta flight between Detroit and Minneapolis.
Delta spokesman told NBC News that "we are working with all of our connection partners to make sure their changes and actions match ours."
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