Searching for Healing and Understanding in a Time of Anti-Asian Violence

Searching for Healing and Understanding in a Time of AntiAsian Violence

By Kevin Hon, DO on behalf of the SAEM Wellness Committee

On Feb 16, 2021, a 52-year-old Asian woman presented to our emergency department (ED) with a laceration to her forehead. She’d been violently lifted off the ground and thrown at a metal news rack and was now in our emergency department being treated by our residents. . She was treated by my coresidents without a second thought. Even on her worst day, she insisted that we accept her Chinese New Year red money packet to thank us for treating her. As my PGY-1 year progressed, attacks like these became more frequent and, as an Asian-American doctor, painfully more personal. An elderly Korean lady presented to our emergency department (ED) after being harassed by a group of teenagers and pushed onto a parked van. A man presented to the ED with a subdural hematoma after being assaulted in the face and found in a ditch. Was he targeted for being Asian? Not long after an elderly Filipino woman suffered severe injuries following an unprovoked attack in Manhattan while walking to church, I treated a patient of similar demographics who sustained facial trauma from a fall while walking home from church. Was she also a victim?

My heart sank when I heard about the six Asian women who were killed on March 16, 2021, in the Atlanta spa shootings. I thought of our residents, faculty, and nurses — the people I see every day, many of them of

“The most fruitful reward of the forum was the opportunity for our nonAsian residents to hear from us and gain understanding about our fears and how we had been affected by the uptick in violence against Asians. That simple action of allyship allowed us as residents to heal together and contributed to lessening our burnout and enhancing our well-being.”

Asian descent. Was it safe for them to commute home? Hospitals across the country came out in force for “White Coats for Black Lives” only a year prior, but where was the outcry now? Hate crimes against Asians were on the rise, yet we seemed invisible. Our hospitals and administration remained silent. I felt helpless and alienated in my own community and wondered how our other Asian residents felt and whether my nonAsian fellow residents were even aware.

In my despair, I drafted a statement to bring awareness to Anti-Asian violence in my community. With the support of my fellow residents and attendings, the statement reached our program director’s desk and then the graduate medical education department and eventually our hospital’s chief medical officer. From there, our hospital organized a moment of silence for the Atlanta victims. Residents and faculty spoke out about their experiences of Asian violence. Soon, other hospitals within our system held similar events at their campuses.

Yet none of these events, while all positive, really confronted how lost we Asian residents were feeling. To address this, our faculty held an open forum/ wellness discussion. For our Asian residents who are female and therefore (given the trend) the most likely to become potential victims of assault, this was a platform to express their fears and discuss safeguards. However, the most fruitful reward of the forum was the opportunity for our non-Asian residents to hear from us and gain understanding about our fears and how we had been affected by the uptick in violence against Asians. That simple action of allyship allowed us as residents to heal together and contributed to lessening our burnout and enhancing our well-being.

An important reminder: While we have a strong Asian representation here in our residency, Asian residents elsewhere may be feeling alienated on the job and among their colleagues. Let’s remember that in times of collective social crisis, our personal wellness can benefit from a little help from above and from each other. Even if you’re the only Asian resident in your program, you can make a difference. A simple statement can go a long way toward helping others learn more about each other and supporting each other through difficult times.

The author would personally like to thank Drs. Anika Nichlany, Saumil Parikh, and Cynthia Pan for their support during these difficult times and for making it possible to address these issues. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Hon is a PGY-1 at NewYork-Presbyterian, Queens. He received his medical degree from Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine and his undergraduate degree from the University of California San Diego