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International Women's Day & Dr Suzanne Humphries
Created on: 2025-03-08
On International Women's Day, I'm going to name a woman who is truly inspirational. There are many contenders past and present, but this year, my vote goes to:
Doctor Suzanne Humphries
Dr Suzanne Humphries
A brief biopic: born in '64, she became an MD in '93. She went on to specialise in nephrology, i.e. kidneys. While working as a consultant at a major hospital, realised that her patients were receiving routine vaccinations on arrival, before she'd even seen them.
As a kidney specialist she was aware that this created risks (e.g. increased bleeding following biopsy) and confusion when it came to diagnosis, and therefore she requested her incoming patients - some of whom were already very ill - not be routinely vaccinated before she saw them.
As Dr Humphries points out, if she had concerns about any pharmaceutical drug having a side effect on her patients, and did not want it administered to her patients before she had seen them, that would have been accepted without question, as normal practice.
But that didn't happen. She had questioned the holy of holies, vaccines, and this was the beginning of her conflict with her colleagues.