The Measure

by Nikki Erlick

Nina knew that her girlfriend, as a Black woman, was already at a heightened risk in a medical setting, that women’s pain and Black people’s pain had a long history of being misdiagnosed or ignored. And now this? The injustice never failed to astound her. Of course, Maura wouldn’t have to tell them about her string. She could lie and say she had never looked. But would they actually treat her differently, if they knew the truth? It might not be a conscious decision, Nina realized. Surely, if a doctor had to choose between saving a patient who was eight or seventy-eight, they would save the child first, right? Maybe this was the same? Help the long-stringer first? Nina was terrified by the thought that Maura might be abandoned as a hopeless cause simply because of her string. But the part that really created chaos in Nina’s orderly brain was the question that emerged from it all: Did a patient receive less care because her string was short, or was a patient’s string short because she received less care?