Role of race complexities in the US health care systems
The 2016 Mixed Match documentary has greatly expounded on the difficulties that are faced by many multi-ethnic patients who have blood health conditions. The film is directed by Jeff Stearns Chiba, who is a Canadian. There are many emotional, evocative, and inspirational features concerning the US healthcare system portrayed through the film. Athena Asklipiadis, a woman from Los Angela, a mixed marrow, initiated the director’s ideology to produce the film after approaching him. Therefore, the documentary helped spread awareness concerning the need to have worldwide donors who are multi-ethnic to offer mixed marrow hopes to the affected patients.
When a patient develops blood issues, especially blood cancer, a transplant of the bone marrow becomes an urgent need. However, patients must obtain the bone marrow from an individual with whom they share the same genetic background. As a result, individuals who have an ancestry of mixed race find it hard to have a donor whom they can rely on. Most people who have registered as potential donors for transplant of bone marrow in the United States are Whites, meaning that mixed races are in danger. By utilizing Asklipiadis, the producer and his team raised the alarm of having more mixed-race bone marrow donors.
Many people in the United States, including toddlers, suffer from a lack of a bone marrow transplant that matches theirs. As demonstrated through Santa Monica, a mixed-race lady who is young and living in California, she has a syndrome termed as myelodysplastic that requires her to find a donor to offer her bone marrow. Unfortunately, she is not lucky to find a potential donor, which causes her to acknowledge that she cannot trace one because her heritage was that of the mixed race. This was not a surprising fact because, as presented, eighty-five percent of the fifteen million people registered at the bone marrow registry are whites. Additionally, African Americans and Asians had just six percent, while Latinos had nine percent of the total donors registered as bone marrow donors.
Similarly, a white and Indian Chamberlain Maya is portrayed to be suffering seizures. The condition resulted from the use of drugs which were offered to treat a blood disorder. This indicated that she was subjected to more harm due to her mixed race. Consequently, Tung Alex is also portrayed suffering from a type of Leukemia that is quite rare because it is impossible to find a blood transfusion for a double cord resulting from his skating board activities. Hence, it is evident that many people in the United States have a painful life due to having a mixed-race that makes it hard for them to get a perfect match that would favor their bone marrow transplant.
The impact which race had on specific individuals in their attempt to receive services of health care
Notably, the film demonstrated that race has various impacts on those seeking medical attention. Although the documentary aimed to educate people on the science that surrounds the bone marrow transplant, there are various impacts associated with a race that is realized in those seeking treatment. Through the presented content, Stearns manages to awaken society on the need to encourage others and even become part of the registrant in stem cell donation. It was evident that many mixed-race patients were suffering when there was a need for them to get support from those with their similar genetic makeup.
In particular, those individuals who are multiracial experience various difficulties when seeking medical care, especially where their genetic lineage is a matter of concern. In this case, it is challenging for a multiracial patient to get a perfect match for their genetic makeup. For instance, some individuals have many ethnic backgrounds, including Egyptian, Japanese, Armenian, Greek, and Italian. It becomes challenging for such individuals to identify a person who has a similar blood type like theirs. As a result, scientists have made efforts to improve cell therapy technology to enable donors with closely matching blood to support the increasing number of multiracial patients who need different blood components. For example, unlike how it is expected that a Caucasian should only benefit from Caucasian lineage, technology has made it possible for others who cannot be termed as dominant Caucasians to support such a needy patient. However, depending on a patient’s health condition, especially where a complete genetic match must be present, race has caused most people. Some people remain in pain for a long time, while others lose their lives.