Peoria welcomed famed neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson to the annual King day luncheon today.
After the King Freedom March, Peoria native Dr. Tim Connor-Garcia will give the keynote address at a commemorative service at Bethel Church.
On any given day, these two doctors will see numerous patients with a variety of ailments. It is perhaps fitting that when they talk about the healing profession, there are a variety of subjects and complications.
Topic number one: gun violence. It's not just a crime...with homicide being the number one cause of death for young black men, it's a health issue.
"Not only are we dealing with mortality, but also with long term health complications as a result of violence, whether it be paralysis," said Whitty.
"There's also a lot of psychological implications," said Connor-Garcia. "If someone is shot and killed, what about those who are left behind, significant others...parents, children...if they do survive, are they having any kind of emotional or mental stress that is ongoing that they need to deal with."
The doctors say mental stress from living in poverty can affect a number of things, but even middle and upper class black women have health problems, especially when it comes to childbirth. Why?
"Even when these women are at a high level education, good socio-economic status...stress is not only in the home, but stresses that these women may encounter in the work environment for potentially being the only African American that is in the workplace...and whether there is overt or covert racism going on in the workplace itself, there are certain stresses that a person undergoes by being the only African American in the work environment," said Connor-Garcia.
Some health risks are more manageable, like poor dietary choices. But again, the doctors say sometimes people don't have good choices.
"If you go somewhere and the lettuce looks likes it's ten days old, versus getting for that is fried or has a lot of preservatives, then what are you going to do?" said Whitty.
The doctors say they are well aware that some people have little compassion for the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. But are undaunted in their efforts.
"That's not acceptable to me that you have compassion fatigue, like i've reached my quota for this month," said Whitty. Thembi and I could have compassion fatigue, and say 'well you know what, we're not going to take on any more patients, cause i've just had enough...that's not acceptable to me. And if it's not acceptable for us to do that, then it's not acceptable for the general population to just feel like they don't have to care."
"Well, you don't have to care, but that doesn't mean that we're not going to continue to try and educate patients and educate the general population on what needs to be done to make themselves healthier, because when the patient gets healthier and changes their lifestyle, then the burden on the community goes down," Whitty said.
"I reached my goal, so i'm just trying to give back to the community to help other people reach theor goal and their potential as well," said Connor-Garcia.
Twitter
Connect With Us