A physician with Pulse Cardiology in San Bernardino, California, has been accused of racist behavior after allegedly criticizing a patient for not speaking English, Yahoo Finance reported Nov. 6.
The incident stemmed from a question patient Maria Ramirez asked when she stepped into the office of Paul Ryan, MD: Did the cardiologist speak Spanish?
“That was all it took for him to snap and start insulting her about speaking Spanish, being in this country and not knowing his language,” Yuset Galura, Ramirez’s daughter who accompanied her to the appointment, told Yahoo.
In phone footage filmed by Ramirez’s family, Galura can be heard offering to translate for her mother, who isn’t a fluent English speaker.
“You don’t need to do nothing but to tell me what’s wrong with her, if she’s okay, if she’s not,” Galura said to Ryan. “Then I’ll translate it to my mother. You don’t need to tell me that she needs to learn English so you can communicate. Communicate through me and I’ll let her know.”
“It’s not the same,” Ryan responded, asserting continuously, “I”m not offensive.”
A spokesperson for Pulse Cardiology said Ryan isn’t currently seeing patients at either of the practice’s clinics.
“The reported incident does not reflect the values of Pulse physicians, assistants and administrators,” Pulse said in a statement.
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After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.