i’m gonna be direct and say that a lot of y’all are unable to accept that you can be a healthcare professional and be disabled or have (mental) health issues. there are lines, there are limits, of course there are. but disability isn't and shouldn't make you question whether a doctor or healthcare worker is 'allowed to be there'
the show and the fandom are making al hashimi's 10 second absence seizures into a huge thing and are questioning whether she is able to work there. which, in my disabled opinion, is ableist. she has had this disorder since she was 5, she's worked with médicins sans frontières, she has worked through warzones, she has had children. all while having this disorder. not to mention she has a physician and asks for help when she feels it is necessary.
i'm disabled, i work in healthcare. i am perfectly fine. i am sick of the idea that disabled people have no place in medicine and that we somehow add a crazy amount of risk to patients. i am sick of the rhetoric that al hashimi is endangering patients for spacing out for 10 seconds. can being disabled at work give risks? yes. but if your colleagues know, and you know what could happen, you're safe.
the idea that healthcare professionals need to be healthy or perfect is not realistic nor is it disability friendly. we are able to practice medicine safely, even if there is a chance of something happening. if she spaces out in a trauma room there will always be other people there if the matter at hand really can't wait 10 seconds. i am a heart patient who can't do cpr for longer than 30 seconds. i need to sit down after i sprint up stairs to help someone. there are limits in my care, but these limits don't limit my quality of care. especially not since medicine is a teamsport and you're never alone in it.
healthcare workers are not and will never be the picture of health, and it's harmful to expect that. we're people, not gods. and we have struggles. practicing medicine is harder for us disabled folks, there are limits to our capability. but in people like al hashimi, people like me, people like caleb jefferson, people like jack abbot? we deserve to be there. and so does robby once he crosses the threshold of working safely again.
if doing our jobs safely means getting a little support here and there, then we deserve to get that fucking support and our accessibility needs met. abbot's capability isn't questioned even though he most likely has barriers at work. neither is caleb, when there are also several things he isn't able to do. but the show decides to make a point of her seizures and makes us doubt her ability, and i urge you not to adopt that same attitude.
disabled people are allowed to take up space in medicine. and lastly: if we only hired physically and mentally well people we wouldn’t have a medical system in the first place. signed, a disabled soon-to-be-nurse.
