By Dr. Shawanda R. Obey, MD, MPH
OB/GYN, Public Health Practitioner and Patient Advocate
A Viral Moment That Exposes a National Pattern
The now-viral video from Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, Texas—showing a Black woman in obvious distress being completely ignored by a white charge nurse—is horrifying to watch. A mother in active labor, doubled over, grunting, frightened, pleading silently with her body… and a nurse walks past her without a glance.
But as heartbreaking as it is, let me tell you something that every Black woman and every Black physician already knows:
- This is not shocking.
- This is not rare.
- And this is not just a Dallas problem.
- This is an “America”
problem.
I practiced in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a decade.
I now practice in California.
I have Black physician colleagues in every region of the United States.
The stories are identical:
- Black mothers being ignored
- Their pain minimized
- Their distress labeled “behavioral”
- Their labor misinterpreted
- Their emergencies postponed
- Their safety treated as optional
This video is not an aberration. It is sadly the norm.
It is a window—a brief, accidental documentary clip—into what Black women endure every day in American hospitals.
This Isn’t One Hospital — This Is the Culture of American Healthcare
And let me be completely transparent and unapologetic:
San Antonio Regional Hospital (SARH) in Upland, California — I am talking about you.
Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (PVHMC) — I am talking about you too.
There are more. Many more.
But these two hospitals are actively retaliating against me right now for refusing to stay silent about the same conduct captured in that Dallas video.
I spoke up about:
- Unsafe nursing behavior
- Unprofessional conduct
- Nurse indifference
- Delayed triage
- Delayed treatment of hypertensive disease
- Delayed treatment of maternal hemorrhage
- Babies delivering in toilets and on floors
- Blatant racism on labor and delivery,
- Retaliation against Black mothers who try to advocate for themselves
- Maternal and fetal deaths
- Patterns of harm and cover-up
And instead of correcting the misconduct, these institutions choose to retaliate against the Black OB/GYN who refused to accept it.
- Hospitals choose punishment over accountability.
- Hospitals choose suppression over patient safety.
- Hospitals choose their bottom line over your wellbeing.
SARH and PVHMC chose to target me because I have consistently challenged the very culture and bias that allowed what happened in Mesquite to happen every single day in their hospital .
Let me Go Further because Silence Protects No One
At San Antonio Regional Hospital and other Inland Empire hospitals, patients have delivered on hospital floors, in public hallways, and in unsafe, unsanitary spaces because nurses refused to believe Black women were truly in labor.
At Pomona Valley Hospital and Medical Center in Pomona, CA, a baby was decapitated during delivery due to egregious physician negligence — a catastrophic outcome that should never happen in modern medicine. And yet I have been retaliated against for daring to speak the truth about it.
These are not “one-offs.”
These are not “rare events.”
These are symptoms of a system that does not value Black lives or the lives of the marginalized… not in Texas, not in California, not anywhere in this country.
And I will continue to expose them.
The Nurse Didn’t Even Make Eye Contact — And It Nearly Ended in Disaster
Let’s talk about the medical facts in the Dallas video.
This mother was:
- a multip (multiple prior births),
- visibly in active labor,
- grunting — which is involuntary bearing down
- likely fully dilated or close to it
Any competent nurse with basic obstetric experience should recognize these signs instantly.
But instead, the nurse:
- Did not make eye contact with the patient
- Walked past her
- Refused assessment
- Refused triage
- Refused to acknowledge her humanity
Twelve minutes later, this patient delivered. TWELVE minutes.
It was her third baby. She could have delivered on the floor, in the wheelchair, in a dirty public space because a nurse simply chose not to help her. This nurse chose not to treat this Black mother as human.
This is not just bad customer service. It is more egregious than that.
This is patient neglect. This is patient abandonment. This is a reportable, dangerous, racist act.
Education and Wealth Don’t Protect Black Women
America loves blaming Black maternal mortality on poverty, education, insurance, and lifestyle.
But let’s be honest: these social determinants aren’t the issues killing Black mothers.
Racism, bias, dismissal and unwarranted disdain for Black women are the real killers. If we are Black, we are not safe.
There will be those who deny that Black maternal health is at risk in hospitals, but the evidence, the tragedies, and our experiences as Black OB/GYNs trying to advocate for you tell a very different story.
There are countless examples but I will mention only two:
Serena Williams: Dismissed and Called “Crazy”
At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a “prestigious” hospital located amid wealth and privilege in West Los Angeles near Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, Serena Williams — one of the most accomplished athletes alive — had to beg clinicians to take her symptoms seriously after childbirth.
She told them she was having a pulmonary embolism.
She knew the symptoms.
She had a life-threatening, often fatal condition.
But she was ignored.
Her concerns were dismissed.
The nurse called her “crazy.”
Serena Williams had to fight for her own care… and her own life.
Kira Johnson: A Preventable Death While Nurses Minimized Her
Also at Cedars-Sinai, Kira Johnson, daughter-in-law of Judge Glenda Hatchett, died after what should have been a routine scheduled repeat C-section.
Her symptoms were not taken seriously.
Her husband begged for help.
Kira repeatedly said something was wrong.
She hemorrhaged internally for ten hours.
Nurses decided she was not a priority.
And Kira died because no one listened.
If Wealthy, Powerful, Famous Black Women Aren’t Safe…
If Serena Williams can be dismissed and nearly die…
If Kira Johnson can be ignored and allowed to bleed to death in a world-class hospital…
What do you think happens to the average Black mother who walks into a hospital with:
- no celebrity
- no media presence
- no political influence
- no wealth
- no camera recording the neglect?
Exactly what we saw in Mesquite.
A Black mother in obvious distress, in advanced labor, ignored by a nurse who would not even look at her , and who nearly forced her to deliver in a dirty public space.
Is This OK?
No.
It is not OK.
It has never been OK.
And it will remain this way until hospitals confront the racism embedded in their culture and the bias embedded in their triage.
Black women are dying not because of who we are, but because of how we are treated.
Why Black Women Seek Black Physicians (and Why the System Fears It)
Black women seek Black physicians because they want someone who will listen to them.
And studies show they receive better care when they do.
(This applies to all patients, not just Black ones.)
The data is clear:
It isn’t Black physicians harming or killing Black mothers or their babies.
It is a system dominated by people who do not understand them, do not believe them, and do not see them.
When Black physicians advocate for Black patients we experience retaliation:
- We are called “disruptive.”
- Our advocacy is stereotyped as “aggressive.”
- Our reports of unsafe nursing behavior are reframed as “incivility.”
- Our protection of patients is labeled as “behavioral.”
The goal: threatened, intimidate and humiliate Black OB /GYNs who advocate for you into silence.
The same system that fails Black mothers turns around and punishes the Black doctors who defend them.
That is exactly what I have experienced at SARH, PVHMC and other institutions for engaging in safety advocacy and demand for equity. But I refuse to be silent.
How the System Harms Black Mothers: A Nationwide Pattern
1. Black mothers are labeled “aggressive” for expressing pain
Normal labor sounds—crying, moaning, grunting—are treated as character flaws.
2. The “Noncompliance” label is a weapon
After being traumatized or ignored, Black mothers avoid follow-ups—and the system blames them.
3. Black physicians who advocate are punished
Hospitals like San Antonio Regional Hospital and Pomona Valley Hospital respond with:
- Sham peer review
- Fabricated narratives
- Retaliatory restriction of hospital privileges rooted in economic motive.
- Attempts to silence through threats and intimidation and isolation.
- Coordinated retaliation led by their corporate attorneys
- Blackballing
- Exclusion from practice
Meanwhile,…you are deprived of needed access, advocacy, care with dignity and compassion,…and your morbidity and mortality risk rises.
4. Nursing leadership protects nurses, not patients
There are many excellent nurses—but the current nursing culture in many hospitals has become increasingly cult-like: hierarchical, retaliatory, insular, and aligned around protecting each other rather than protecting patients. This culture is driving good nurses out of the field and harming Black mothers every single day.
Charge nurses:
- minimize complaints
- weaponize stereotypes
- retaliate against Black physicians who voice concerns about toxic nursing culture
- fabricate events to protect their own
This is how patients get hurt.
This is how babies die.
This is how tragedies like Kira Johnson happen over and over again.
Why Black Women Fear Hospitals — And Why They Are Right
Black women avoid hospitals because:
- they’ve been ignored
- they’ve been harmed
- they’ve been dehumanized
- they’ve seen too many preventable deaths
- they’ve had to beg for care that should have been automatic
Every Black mother I have ever cared for has said some version of:
“They don’t listen to us.”
And the Mesquite video proves exactly that.
What Must Change — Right Now
- Independent investigations, not internal cover-ups
- Real discipline for nurses who ignore Black patients
- Federal protections for Black physicians who report unsafe behavior
- Transparency about nurses and physicians with repeated complaints
- Mandatory, recurring anti-racist training tied to real accountability
- Whistleblower protections for physicians who report dangerous care
- Public reporting of maternal-near-miss events and birth-related injuries
Conclusion: The Video Is the Symptom — The System Is the Disease
- The Dallas video did not surprise Black women.
- It did not shock Black physicians.
- It did not reveal anything we haven’t been screaming about for decades.
- A Black mother in obvious labor was ignored.
- Twelve minutes later, she delivered.
- She could have died.
- Her baby could have died.
And to San Antonio Regional Hospital and Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center:
- You are not exempt.
- You are not invisible.
- You are not innocent.
- You are part of the problem.
- And you will be held accountable.
- This is not a Dallas crisis.
- This is an American crisis.
- Black mothers deserve better.
- Black physicians deserve better.
- Our communities deserve better.
And we will not be silent.
https://blavity.com/dallas-regional-medical-center-video-goes-viral-black-mother-labor
About the Author
Dr. Shawanda Renee Obey, MD, MPH, is a board-certified OB/GYN and public-health practitioner with extensive experience caring for diverse maternal populations in Texas and California. She holds a Master of Public Health (MPH), which informs her work at the intersection of clinical medicine, structural inequity, and maternal-health policy. Dr. Obey is the founder and Medical Director of Summit Women’s & Wellness Medical Group and is nationally recognized for her advocacy in Black maternal health, obstetric safety, and equity in healthcare systems.