Hún Rex Becket er fjölmiðlakona sem hefur búið hér á Íslandi í 10 ár.
Rex var að segja frá því í opinni færslu á Facebook að læknir á bráðamóttökunni hafi neitað að tala við hana á ensku, þrátt fyrir að hún átti erfitt með að tjá sig almennilega um málið á íslensku út af því hversu þjáð hún var.
Svo þegar hún benti honum á ókurteisi hans, þá versnaði málið:
Sitting in the hospital room, a doctor named Hlynur Þorsteinsson comes in and I ask him nicely if we can speak English and in Icelandic he says no we are going to speak Icelandic. I tell him I need to speak English and he says “why don’t you practice?” I say “why don’t you do your job and treat me?” He refuses to treat me and carries on debating my language skills, and tells me to calm down. I tell him that this happens way too often with old man doctors like him and I am a journalist and I’ll be happy to write an article about this. He finally “treats” me by intentionally bending my knee brusquely and painfully and slamming his fingers down on the pressure points. I ask him if I can get scans and he says no and to go to a private clinic that costs a lot of money. He keeps slamming at my knee and claiming that it dislocated in the opposite direction. He doesn’t write me a prescription, I tell him he is intentionally treating me badly because I told him he was being rude and he says I was the one who was rude, leaves and does nothing to help me. I finally see a nurse outside and call for her and I tell her what happened. She gives me the doctor’s name and apologizes, asks what the plan is and I told her I was left with no help. They didn’t even leave the wheelchair in the room so I could leave, being basically immobile. Finally another nurse comes in to put a bandage on my knee. She is Polish and I tell her what happened and she is extremely kind and sympathetic, gets me a cup of water, gives me a hug and says she knows how it feels too. I am fed up of being discriminated against for being an immigrant when I am at my most vulnerable, and being mistreated by medical “professionals” as far back as my childhood (in multiple countries.) This is not the way to care for people who are in pain and struggling, especially when one is completely capable of communicating with me in English better than I can communicate my problem and needs in Icelandic. I am fed up of constantly experiencing this in the emergency ward which should be focused on quick and efficient primary care rather than berating, judging, shaming and disciplining people for their country and language of origin. I was in a fine mood when I got there and now I feel broken. Fuck this bullshit. Please share so people know more about this all too common problem in the ER because it needs to change.
ps. Can someone bring me breakfast?