A black doctor who came to the aid of a passenger on a Delta Connection flight says flight attendants doubted her qualifications in spite of showing her medical license.
Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford tweeted about the incident this week.
Stanford, a doctor educated at Harvard and Emory who specializes in obesity medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and teaches at Harvard Medical School, was on a Delta Connection flight operated by Republic Airline from Indianapolis to Boston.
Atlanta-based Delta responded with an apology, said it does not condone discrimination and is investigating the matter.
Stanford, who holds a medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and master’s degrees from Harvard and Emory, said flight attendants thought she was a therapist despite showing her medical license.
The flight attendants on the flight were employees of Republic, one of Delta’s contract carriers that operates its Delta Connection flights.
According to Delta, Stanford’s care for the passenger was not interrupted.
The incident comes after a black female doctor in 2016 said a Delta flight attendant dismissed her help during an in-flight medical emergency. That incident led to a change in Delta's policy on verifying medical credentials.
In that incident, Tamika Cross, an OB-GYN in Houston, wrote on Facebook about her experience during a flight where a man was unresponsive. "I naturally jumped into Doctor mode," she wrote in her post. A flight attendant dismissed her offer to help, then asked if she was "an actual physician" and asked what type of doctor she was and where she worked, according to Cross.
Cross wrote that a "'seasoned' white male doctor" approached and said he was a physician, and the flight attendant dismissed her help.
After the 2016 incident, Delta said its flight attendants would no longer be required to verify medical credentials and said it would broaden "inclusion training" to managers and to front-line employees who deal with customers, including flight attendants.
On Thursday, Delta issued a statement saying “we are working with all of our connection partners to ensure their changes and actions align with ours.”
“Moving forward, we are following up with our connection carrier partner to ensure their employees understand and consistently apply the policy. Regardless of aircraft, all customers are Delta customers and we are committed to ensuring they enjoy a similar experience on every flight.”
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