You would think that some things are just common sense, but sadly some of them aren’t.
For example, as I joke to my wife I am getting to the age now where the doctors are the same age as us more often. That still doesn’t stop me from calling them doctor whenever you are getting treated because they worked damned hard to be called that.
Also, some things are to generally be expected during a doctor’s visit. Whenever I go to the doctor, I wear clothes that if I had to remove them for some kind of treatment I can do it relatively easy because there is only so much a doctor can do by looking at someone and nothing else. If your hand hurts, they can’t do much if you are wearing gloves.
While a doctor was treating a Muslim woman, he asked her to remove her veil. Because the woman wears the veil for religious reasons, the doctor overstepped his grounds as a medical provider by confronting her over the issue during a hospital visit.
Now Dr. Keith Wolverson is “rather fearful of the consequences” because he understands that the way he handled the situation was not good at all – and now his medical career could be in jeopardy.
When the Muslim woman came to the clinic, wearing a full-face veil, she asked the doctor to treat her five-year-old daughter for a sore throat. She was not asking for treatment for herself and therefore, should not have needed to remove her veil.
However, Dr. Wolverson said that he was unable to understand the woman. Because he said the veil muffled her words, he needed her to clarify what she was saying so he would know what the problem was. In an effort to understand her better, the doctor asked the Muslim woman to violate her religious beliefs and remove the veil.
The woman complied with the doctor’s request believing, apparently, that it was what needed to happen to make sure her five-year-old daughter received the best care possible. Dr. Wolverson treated the child without incident, and as far as he was concerned, the problem was resolved.
However, the woman’s husband learned that she’d removed her veil in the presence of another man. That’s when the woman realized that the doctor had put her in a difficult situation. She filed a complaint against Wolverson, explaining the issue and framing it as an incident of discrimination.