The president of Indiana University Health is facing backlash following the release of a statement about Dr. Susan Moore, who died of COVID-19 on December 20 after posting detailed notes about the racism she faced on Facebook, as Blavity previously reported.

In a letter to the public, Indiana University Health president Dennis Murphy defended the hospital's treatment of Moore and criticized her, writing that the doctors treating the woman who could barely breathe were "intimidated" by her. He said that when he first heard about what happened to Moore, he thought about the people treating her. 

"I also saw several human perspectives in the story she told – that of physicians who were trying to manage the care of a complex patient in the midst of a pandemic crisis where the medical evidence on specific treatments continues to be debated in medical journals and in the lay press," he said, referencing Moore's criticism that doctors refused to provide her with additional doses of Remdesivir, a drug that has proven effective with COVID-19.

"And the perspective of a nursing team trying to manage a set of critically ill patients in need of care who may have been intimidated by a knowledgeable patient who was using social media to voice her concerns and critique the care they were delivering," he added.

Many were outraged that Murphy would write this after Moore died such a painful, unnecessary death. People online were particularly incensed that he said the doctors may have been "intimidated," by Moore, who released a heartbreaking video on Facebook where she begged for help and questioned why she was being treated so poorly. 

Later in his statement, Murphy said plainly that he does "not believe that we failed the technical aspects of the delivery of Dr. Moore’s care." He said the team of doctors and nurses "did not have the time due to the burden of this pandemic to hear and understand patient concerns and questions."

In her Facebook message, Moore said Dr. Eric Bannec gave her two doses of Remdesivir before denying her any further, telling her that she didn't need it. Bannec also refused to give her medication for the pain she said she was feeling in her neck and chest. 

"He made me feel like a drug addict," Moore said in the video. “I put forth and I maintain: If I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that.”

Murphy said he has ordered internal and external reviews of what happened, adding that Moore's horrible death would help propel the hospital as it seeks to "promote racial justice and resist discrimination of any kind at IU Health."

"Dr. Moore’s public sharing of her experience is a sentinel moment to accelerate our forward movement. This tragedy will not become a statistic in the COVID-19 crisis and it will serve as a marker of material improvements for patients of color," he wrote. 

Doctors and others blasted the statement for being callous, discriminatory and offensive considering what Moore reported in her video and on her Facebook page. 

Dr. Theresa Chapple took to Twitter to slam Murphy's letter and call out the blatant racism in his words. 

"I haven't tweeted about Dr. Moore's death, bc honestly, I'm still mourning Dr. Wallace's death. But after reading the hospital's statement, I feel gaslit. Nurses 'may have been intimidated by a knowledgeable patient who was using social media to voice her concerns and critique the care they were delivering.' So, she was supposed to shut-up and die huh," she wrote.

"We (black folk) talk all the time about how the advice to self advocate doesn't apply to us. When we do it, we are seen as aggressive, non – compliant, hostile, and now we're adding intimidating to the list," she added.