Angelina Jolie he is addressing the health inequities he sees when it comes to race.
He actor and humanitarian published an opinion piece for the american journal of nursing on July 5, in which she touched on new technology that detects bruises in darker skin tones when dealing with survivors of domestic violence. Jolie, 48, began by writing how many medical research, imaging and training centers focus on white skin, and as a result, medical professionals «often overlook injuries based on race and ethnicity.»
“As a mother of children of multiple races, I have seen my children of color misdiagnosed, sometimes in ways that endangered their health,” Jolie, who is the mother of six childrenwrote.
Jolie adopted her eldest son, Maddox, from his home country of Cambodia. his adopted daughter Zahara he is Ethiopian, while Pax was born in Vietnam. Jolie also shares three biological children with her ex-husband Brad Pitt; daughter Shiloh and twins Knox and Vivienne.
Jolie went on to discuss bruises on darker skin colors and how bruising is harder to spot and document without the proper tools. While the actress is focused on helping survivors of domestic abuse, she shared a personal story about her own experience with her children.
“On personal reflection, when my daughter Zahara, who is from Ethiopia, was hospitalized for a medical procedure, the nurse told me to call her ‘if she turns pink near the incisions,’” Jolie recalled. “I just stared at her blankly, not sure she understood what was wrong with what she had said. As she left the room, I had a conversation with my daughter, both knowing that we would have to look for signs of infection based on our own knowledge, not what the nurse had said, despite her undoubted good intentions.
Jolie added that even though her family has «access to high-quality healthcare, simple diagnoses are overlooked due to race and the continued prioritization of white skin in medicine.»
He added that on a societal level, racial disparities in health care affect outcomes for millions of people. “From technology to improving diversity and representation in medical research and education, it’s time to embrace new solutions,” she concluded.
In 2020, Jolie revealed that Zahara and Shiloh endured «medical challenges» in a first-person essay for time magazine in International Women’s Day.
«I’ve spent the last two months in and out of surgeries with my oldest daughter, and days ago I watched her younger sister go under the knife for hip surgery,» Jolie wrote at the time, without specifying what type of surgeries she underwent. Zahara.
“I have seen my daughters take care of each other,” she wrote. “My youngest daughter studied nursing with her sister and then helped out the next time.”
Jolie, herself, has had her own medical challenges. In 2013 she revealed that she underwent a preventative double mastectomy to reduce your chances of developing breast cancer after your mother, Marcheline BertrandShe died in 2007 of breast cancer at age 56. His aunt and grandmother also died of the disease.