A doctor says the flight crew spoke about his race and doubted his qualifications

A black doctor educated at Harvard claimed that employees on a flight with Delta correspondence had presented his racial profile. She questioned her medical credentials while she was trying to help another distressed passenger.

Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, physician, scientist, educator and policy officer for obesity at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told Boston 25 News that she was traveling to Indianapolis in Boston on October 23 when a woman began to convulse and hyperventilate.

Stanford said that she was working to calm the woman while she was assessing her condition. An air hostess approached and asked Stanford if she was a doctor. Stanford, in turn, produced his medical license.

"She looked at him and headed towards the back of the plane. Then the second flight attendant approached me and asked, "Well, can I review your license?" And I said, "Absolutely," Stanford reminded Boston 25 News.

Stanford continued to try to calm the woman, who later told the doctor that she had a panic attack, reported the Boston Globe.

In the middle of this, Stanford said the first flight attendant came back and questioned her ability to help. "You're not really a doctor," the attendant would have said. "You are just a chief doctor."

"I said," Excuse me, what do you mean by that? " [She replied,] "Oh, so you're not really a doctor, is not it?" Said Stanford at 25 News Boston.

Sending to the Boston Globe, Stanford said that she thought the suspicions of her assistants about her references were "100% biased" by racism.

A spokesman for Delta Air Lines, contacted Thursday by HuffPost, apologized to the airline for explaining what had happened and said Delta did not require a passenger to produce medical degrees for help another passenger when needed.

However, said spokesman Anthony Black, the aircraft in question was operated by another carrier, Republic Airline. Although it works in partnership with Delta, it has its own operating and training procedures.

Republic spokesman Jon Austin told HuffPost that the airline will make improvements so that its employees are better informed about medical identification policies.

"We thank Dr. Stanford for his medical assistance on our flight 5935 and we apologize for any misunderstandings that occurred during his exchange with our flight crew," Austin said in a statement. "In the future, we work with Delta to ensure that our employees understand and consistently apply all applicable policies. The care of the passenger by Dr. Stanford remained uninterrupted for the duration of the medical problem. "

In a statement to HuffPost, Delta echoed this gratitude to Stanford, adding, "We are following up with our connection provider partner to make sure their employees understand and apply the policy consistently."

Delta changed its policy on medical degrees in 2016 after another black female doctor, Tamika Cross, accused Delta employees of ignoring her proposal to help a sick passenger in favor of a white doctor, also in the plane. In this case, the female doctor did not have medical degrees, unlike the male doctor, the airline said.

Ironically, Stanford told Boston (25) that she had recently attended a panel on medical biases and told Cross about her experience, which inspired Stanford to still have a driver's license. with her.

Stanford shared his story on Twitter, prompting other doctors to come up with their own experiences. She said she had been in touch with Delta staff but said their conversation left her "very uncertain about the changes being made".

According to Stanford's tweet, the flight attendants thought she was just a therapist, even after seeing her medical license.