Good Morning: First female African American transplant surgeon in U.S. earns Delaware History Makers Award

By Rachel Sawicki
Posted 8/4/21

PIKE CREEK — Dr. Velma Scantlebury became the first female African American surgeon to specialize in transplant surgery in the United States in 2002, and now, she has been honored locally with the Delaware History Makers Award.

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Good Morning: First female African American transplant surgeon in U.S. earns Delaware History Makers Award

Posted

PIKE CREEK — Dr. Velma Scantlebury became the first female African American surgeon to specialize in transplant surgery in the United States in 1989, and now, she has been honored locally with the Delaware History Makers Award.

The only female African American to have been named a Delaware History Maker, Dr. Scantlebury has also been placed on the “Best Doctors in America” and “Top Doctors in America” lists multiple times throughout her career.

She said it was an honor to be selected for the Delaware award and to join a distinguished group of previous winners, including President Joe Biden.

“I feel like I don’t really belong in this unique league of folks, but I’m grateful and honored to be selected,” she said.

Dr. Scantlebury described a similar feeling when she moved from Barbados to Brooklyn, New York, with her parents at age 15.

“In high school, whether it was my accent, the way I dressed, the way I looked, … I wasn’t seen as someone who was going to make a profound influence in history,” she said. “My high school counselor didn’t see me as someone who was a candidate to go to college. So it certainly was a struggle, being seen and heard.”

Dr. Scantlebury attributes much of her motivation to her parents, who moved to America hoping to give their daughter the best education possible.

“My mom was a very determined woman and grew up in a culture in Barbados where education was paramount,” she said. “It was never a question about whether I was going to college or not. It was just a matter of where.”

She was awarded a full scholarship to Long Island University in Brooklyn, close to home. She was then accepted to Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, also in New York, for medical school, which preceded a residency in general surgery at Harlem Hospital Center. She completed her fellowship training in transplantation surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, then joined the school as an assistant professor of surgery.

Dr. Scantlebury said she thrived in college and medical school, earning dean’s list status every semester and working as a tutor on the side. However, her studies did not come without anxieties, the “diversity recruitment” notion always in the back of her mind.

“My acceptance to medical school was viewed as the ‘token Black’ acceptance,” she said. “That was disappointing, but it allowed me to see that, as a person of color, you’re not seen for your potential but just the color of your skin. Folks will undermine your potential just because of their ignorance.”

Dr. Scantlebury joined ChristianaCare in 2008 as the associate director of the Kidney Transplant Program. She has worked with many patients in various stages of kidney failure but emphasized that her job isn’t just about getting patients on a transplant list and finding them a new organ — it’s also about understanding their condition and educating family members.

“I think, as a person of color, I’m a bit more sensitive to issues that keep other people of color from navigating the system, whether it’s for understanding the health care system, distrust of the health care system, not having the appropriate insurance or even not being able to read,” Dr. Scantlebury said.

Even though the longtime doctor retired from ChristianaCare in 2020, she got to work combating COVID-19. She is working to dispel false information and hesitancy about vaccinations in low-inoculation areas and groups and address the many health disparities exacerbated by the pandemic.

“When it comes to those that were affected by COVID-19 and those that were dying from it, there are barriers that exist for getting people vaccinated or even just tested, as we saw earlier in the pandemic,” she said. “You needed an appointment to get tested or had to drive through to get tested.”

Dr. Scantlebury added that senior citizens without friends or relatives to help them navigate online signups had trouble receiving vaccinations early on. In addition, a general lack of access to the internet made it difficult for many in underserved communities to find reliable information about testing and shots, she said.

She commonly saw misunderstanding of terms like “Warp Speed,” which led people to think the vaccine’s development was rushed and therefore untrustworthy, she said.

“Once our communities got the right information and heard from people that they could trust, physicians and health care workers, who could really explain the process and explain things that made people hesitant, they were then willing to get vaccinated,” she said.

And now that many vaccination sites have walk-in availability, people in low-access areas are able to get vaccinated more easily.

Dr. Scantlebury noted that cultural sensitivity, like understanding each patient’s daily struggles and looking at social determinants, is important in her work, as well.

“Don’t see it for what it is but dig a little bit deeper into understanding what this person is going through,” she said. “Instead of saying, ‘So-and-so didn’t show up to his appointment. He’s not compliant,’ maybe he missed his bus or didn’t have the money to pay for his bus ticket.”

Regarding her specialty, she said people of color are disproportionately affected by kidney disease. Minority populations have much higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and heart disease, all of which increase the risk for kidney disease, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Most of these issues are perpetuated by lack of access to health care and affordable healthy-living options, she added.

Helping patients figure out how to cover medical costs is also a tough part of Dr. Scantlebury’s job. A social worker or financial consultant is called to handle the specifics, but the challenge is determining when a patient needs those services.

“One of the things we find is that a lot of patients will be reluctant to even want to voice the things that they lack,” she said. “It’s about getting those patients to understand that we are here as physicians and as a transplant center to offer you help, (but) we just need for you to trust us. We can at least get you on a path to better health by understanding your disease process and your risk factors and what you can do to do a better job taking care of yourself.”

Dr. Scantlebury’s vast empathy doesn’t stop at work. She and her husband have two biological children, but she said she really has many more that they’ve taken under their wing over the years.

“When I was in Pittsburgh, I was introduced to a young student who was from South Sudan, who was going to college and didn’t have any family here, and she wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “We became her American parents so-to-say, and she stayed with us for summers. Then, when she was out of college, we babysat her kids, and she just sort of became our other daughter.”

She met several other students through her husband, an international studies professor, and recounts several for whom she stepped in as a mom.

In her time at home following retirement, she pulled out her sewing machine to sew masks for friends and family at the start of the pandemic. She also found a “tremendous source of stress relief” when she started hiking and exploring nature trails around her home.

But the trials and tribulations of her journey are no match for the difference she has made in so many lives.

“It feels so good when I see someone that I did a transplant for post something on Facebook or reach out to me on Messenger to say that they were looking for me, and they’re glad I’m still around and that their transplant is still doing well,” Dr. Scantlebury said.

The Delaware History Makers Award will be presented Oct. 7 at the Delaware History Museum in Wilmington. Tickets are available for the dinner presentation here.

This article has been updated to correct the year Dr. Scantlebury became first female African American surgeon to specialize in transplant surgery. It also corrects the position she held at ChristianaCare.

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