Activation Awareness: This episode discusses serious pregnancy complications and the dismissal of women's health concerns.
In this week's episode of The Present Illness, Drs. Arghavan and Alyssa deliver a stat consultation on two viral stories about Black women receiving substandard obstetric care. With surgical precision, they dissect the case of Karrie Jones at Dallas Regional Medical Center, who was kept in a wheelchair for admitting questions while in active labor, and Mercedes Wells, who was turned away from Franciscan Hospital in Indiana only for her husband Leon to deliver their baby on the side of the road. Their differential diagnosis includes systemic racism, dismissal of women's pain, and healthcare systems operating with more red tape than gauze.
This TikTok from OB-Gyn Shannon Clark gives her expert take.
Fact check: Texas did not disband their maternal mortality review committee—Georgia did, after ProPublica reported on deaths in Georgia.
Resources mentioned:
- 2025 March of Dimes Report Card
- Allyson Felix: Tori Bowie Can't Die In Vain
- Tierra Walker’s death due to lack of abortion access
- ProPublica’s reporting on what happens when someone who needs an abortion can’t get one—and how the system fails them once they have a child:
- ProPublica’s Post-Roe American archives
- Brittany Watts on her experience being arrested after a miscarriage
- Another woman was arrested for having a miscarriage at a fast food establishment
- On the woman being prosecuted in South Carolina
- Texas' so-called abortion-trafficking laws
- South Carolina’s bill to punish abortion with death penalty
- Arghavan’s essay on maternal and infant mortality after Dobbs
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Credits
- Production by Arghavan Salles and Alyssa Burgart
- Editing by Alyssa Burgart
- Theme Music by Joseph Uphoff
- Social Media by Arghavan Salles