Terry Crews Says His Late Mother Was Ignored at Hospital Until a Black Nurse Read Chart, Highlighting the Importance of Advocacy

“My mother-in-law was fighting lymphoma, and though she was in remission as far as her T-cells, she contracted something like an infection,” Rebecca Crews tells SurvivorNet. “They did a blood panel on her and basically just let her lay in the hospital for two weeks, and unfortunately, what happened was that a Black nurse happened to take a look at her chart and said for lack of a better term, [said] ‘oh crap, this is Terry Crews’ mother.’ There’s no reason for her to have been left unattended in a bed for two weeks other than her color.”

Terry’s mother tragically passed away at Henry Ford Hospital in November 2015, which the Crews family believes was due to an infection that was left untreated. Unfortunately, this story is just one example of the huge gap in care, and ultimately outcomes, for Black Americans who get cancer.

“It does not seem to matter if these women are middle class, upper-middle class, educated, insured. They’re still dying in hospitals. They’re dying after childbirth. They’re not getting the treatment that they need,” says Rebecca.

Black Communities And Cancer: Devastating Inequality

SurvivorNet and NYU Langone Health's Perlmutter Cancer Center are collaborating to help close the racial gap in cancer prevention, cancer care, and survival rates.

A Black woman with breast cancer has a 39% higher chance of death compared to white women. There are many factors in play here, but certainly there are very few statistics in American life as revealing about inequality.

According to the American Cancer Society, Black men are 15% more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than white men, and The National Cancer Institute says Black men battling lung care are likely to die sooner compared to white men when looking at the 5-year survival rate. There are two factors contributing to these statistics, and one of them is that a study from The New England Journal of Medicine showed that 64% of Black men with early stage lung received surgical treatment while 77% of white men received surgery  a 12.7% difference.

Incredible breast cancer survivor Erika Hart is advocating for better racial representation in cancer

“There’s A Point Where We Have To Be Proactive For Our Own Safety”

The Crews family points out that many people in the Black community inherently distrust the medical field due to its racial history. These historical touchstones include The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (a study where over 600 Black men with syphilis were tested on, but never given penicillin for treatment), the case of Henrietta Lacks (whose cancer cells were harvested without her family’s permission), and the terrible experiments performed by American physician James Marion Sims on enslaved Black women.

Dr. Kathie-Ann Joseph explains the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

“There’s a point where that trust has to stop,” says Mr. Crews. “There’s a point where we have to be proactive for our own safety…You could see in the history of the United States the medical industry has not taken care of our community very well. They don’t have a good track record.”

Ask Questions, Be Your Own Advocate

Terry urges black Americans who are either facing a cancer diagnosis, or those whose family members are facing cancer, to not be afraid of asking their doctors questions. The Crews’ say that Rebecca’s response to her breast cancer diagnosis was undeniably helpful in her recovery.

“I really encourage our community to be proactive in every step, know what’s happening [by asking],” Terry suggests. “There are no dumb questions. None.”

Dr. Otis Brawley says restoring trust is crucial to improving outcomes for black Americans grappling with diseases from  COVID to cancer.

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