A man is suing a Los Angeles hospital after his wife, a Black woman, died hours after childbirth, saying cultural racism at the facility is to blame.
NBC News reported Charles Johnson IV “said he discovered the disparity in care women of color receive at Cedars compared to white women during depositions in his wrongful death lawsuit that is scheduled to go to trial next week in Los Angeles Superior Court.”
At a news conference outside of the hospital, Charles Johnson IV explained there is “no doubt in my mind that my wife would be here today and be here Sunday celebrating Mother’s Day with her boys if she was a Caucasian woman.”
He added, “The reality is that on April 12, 2016, when we walked into Cedars-Sinai hospital for what we expected to be the happiest day of our lives, the greatest risk factor that Kira Dixon Johnson faced was racism.”
The outlet noted she died roughly 12 hours after doctors performed a scheduled cesarean section that took 17 minutes.
“This is sloppy. It was butchery,” attorney Nicholas Rowley said.
He continued, “It shocked everybody that we deposed, all the health care providers, even the head of (obstetrics) here, the head of labor and delivery, looked at it and said ‘No, I’ve never seen one done that fast.'”
According to the lawsuit, Kira Johnson “languished for hours without being readmitted to the operating room until it was too late,” as NBC News reported.
She reportedly previously showed signs she was bleeding internally.
The lawsuit claims a nurse told her husband she was not a priority.
The hospital in a statement rejected “any mischaracterization of our culture and values.”
The statement continues, “We are actively working to eradicate unconscious bias in health care and advance equity in health care more broadly.”
The hospital commends “Mr. Johnson for the attention he has brought to the important issue of racial disparities in maternal outcomes.”
Dr. Sarah Kilpatrick, chair of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, said she told Charles Johnson IV, “I’m sorry. We failed your family. … This shouldn’t have happened.”
Angelique Washington, a surgical technologist at the hospital, said during her deposition she says an extra prayer when “I see my Black … patients come in.”
She added, “I say a silent prayer that all goes well.”
Washington continued, “Because you do have racism very much so in the operating room.”