Microaggressions Cause Teen’s Tumor on NBC Medical Drama

MRC Newsbusters ^ | February 19, 2020 12:41 AM EST | Julia A.Seymour

[jmcenanly]

NBC’s medical drama New Amsterdam had an unusual diagnosis this Tuesday in the episode, “Sabbath.”

After Dr. Helen Sharpe finds her 13-year-old patient Cephas has four benign tumors growing in his stomach and that the boy has elevated levels of stress hormones, psychiatrist Dr. Iggy Frome determines the tumors were caused by racism. As the surgeon operates and removes the four tumors from Cephas, he warns the tumors could come back and might not be benign next time.

Iggy realizes Cephas feels isolated and threatened all the time after asking him a series of questions that measures a person’s level of “social resistance.” He tells the boy’s mom Cephas feels “ Like everything he's earned can just be taken away. He's disenfranchised.”

He tries to code the insurance billing paperwork with the diagnosis of racism, which gets a stern rebuke from Sandra Fall from billing. She tells him he coded the form like a “Bernie Bro” writing in their vote, but tells him to change the world after he changes the official billing codes.

Iggy refuses to change his diagnosis because “it will actually hurt patients” like Cephas.

“He's proof that racism can cause life-threatening medical issues, and no one is doing anything about it because no one is tracking the data to prove it. And do you know why no one is tracking the data to prove it? - Because the ICD-10 doesn't have a diagnostic code for it.” Iggy insists.

[KarlInOhio]

After Dr. Helen Sharpe finds her 13-year-old patient ... He tells the boy’s mom Cephas feels “ Like everything he's earned can just be taken away. He's disenfranchised.”

Disenfrachised? What evil person took away this poor child's right to vote away five years before he's allowed to vote?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Now I know why I never watched that show.

[NobleFree]

PC bullflop caused my hemorrhoids.

[Midwesterner53]

What would be his diagnosis for white folks robbed, mugged, shot and raped by “marginalized” citizens?

[dfwgator]

Just blame it on Trump.

[Carriage Hill]

“...the tumors were caused by racism...”

Bullshit.

[minnesota_bound]

The cure is do not hang out with democrats.
They are negative all the time.

[metmom]

In their dreams.

I guess all these TV shows are really insight into the liberal mind of how they wish the world would really be.

[Ratman0823]

I had high hopes for “New Amsterdam” when it first started out. Ryan Eggold was such a bad-a$$ in “The Blacklist” I figured he’d have an equally meaty role in this one. Think I lasted about 2 episodes before I realized that he was a mealy-mouthed metro-sexual wimp, and found something else to do with my hour.

Reading this plot line, looks like the show has gotten worse, which I would never have imagined. Oh, well, NBC-BS has to fill up the air space.

[Svartalfiar]

The diagnosis that the fictional Dr.Frome is looking for is 2020 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code F43.9 Reaction to severe stress, unspecified Aside from introducing a chance to add some L&O style social commentary, any further explanation is unnecessary

HA the wife and her mom were watching this as I wandered through the living room a couple times. Had to suppress a chuckle half the time I was in there from this stuff, but I did make the comment about how there's a code for everything. At some point he mentioned that he changes his diagnoses sometimes to fit a patient into insurance, and I said that it'd be pretty easy to use creative wording and describe this 'racism' as something the book already covers. Basic stress or something. And I was right :p

[magellan]

This is insane.