The University is conducting an internal review of anesthesiologist Dr. Robert Greenberg after a Facebook post by Aishah Bahiyyah went viral on Sept. 11. The post detailed an incident in which Greenberg made racially charged comments towards Bahiyyah’s son and made him urinate into a bottle instead of using the bathroom The post has been shared over 39,000 times.
According to the post, Bahiyyah took her son to the children’s emergency room at the Hopkins Hospital after he suffered a basketball injury which he would need surgery for.
“The anesthesiologist, Dr. Robert Greenberg, grilled us on what we did for a living as if he wanted to make us the butt of his joke to his colleagues,” she wrote in the post. “Upon learning we were professionals he then rushed my son and I to the OR telling us to hurry up.”
Bahiyyah went on to explain that Greenberg did not allow her son to use the bathroom before his operation. Instead, she wrote, Greenberg gave her son a bottle to urinate inside in the hallway of the hospital.
“When my son commented that it was weird urinating in the container, Dr. Robert Greenberg commented, ‘Don’t worry you’ll get used to it in prison,’” Bahiyyah wrote.
Bahiyyah said that she reported Greenberg to the Hospital and recommended his termination.
She expressed her discontent with having Greenberg involved in her son’s surgery after the incident.
“I didn’t want him involved in my son’s surgery but had no choice being that it was an emergency,” she wrote. “How many other black families has he insulted in this manner?”
Bahiyyah included the phone number and email address of Tracy Thompson, program coordinator of Hopkins Hospital Service and Patient Relations, in the post. She urged people to contact Thompson and call for Greenberg’s removal.
Bahiyyah added that other patients of Greenberg have inboxed her, saying that he has made racist comments to them too.
In a statement to The News-Letter, Director of Public Relations and Corporate Communications for Hopkins Medicine Kim Hoppe confirmed that the Hospital is conducting an investigation of Greenberg.
“Our goal and expectation is for every employee to provide a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment for our patients, their guests and loved ones. We take this type of allegation very seriously. It is important that we be thorough and fair and respect the interests of all involved while the investigation continues,” she wrote.
Greenberg did not respond to The News-Letter’s questions by press time.
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