Who is Kira Dixon Johnson, shown in The Resident season 2 episode 20?
You can read more about Kira’s story over at the link here, and some of the parallels between what happened to her and what happened in the episode tonight are truly horrific. We’re talking about a black woman in both cases who died as a result of what Dr. Bell called on the show tonight a “never event,” something that should have never happened. Something that can be caused by neglect or bias, whether it be intentional or unintentional. The statistics presented within this episode may be startling to many, but that does not make them any less true — the United States is a dangerous country to give birth in, at least compared to others within the developed world. We are talking about a country in which there can be negligence, crowded hospital staffs, or mere oversight that gets in the way.
In highlighting Kira specifically at the end of tonight’s episode, as well as the words of her husband Charles S. Johnson IV, what The Resident did was make it clear that women all over this country deserve so much more. For the show, a solution was to have Devon push for even more care and regulation in order to make sure that these tragedies never happen. Life can be a little more complicated, but there needs to be solutions.
We give The Resident all of our respect for taking on an issue that is so real, and making sure that it is told in a way that is unflinching and never-sugarcoated. We of course rooted for Lea to live and for her husband and her new family to be able to take some steps forward, but in order for the true meaning of this story to be felt, that wasn’t in the cards. You had to feel the rage that Lea’s husband likely felt towards Dr. Stewart and the other neglectful members of Chastain, those who didn’t act quickly enough in order to help her. That anger exposes issues at the heart of the medical system, something that has been a focal point of The Resident from the very beginning.
Going into tonight’s episode, we will admit that we did not know much of the information that The Resident provided to us. It’s certainly not something that we’re going to be forgetting anytime soon. Our thoughts go out to the Dixon family, and we hope that this episode works to amplify this message so that other people across this country are as equally informed about these “never events” and how to make that word never truly stick. (Photo: Fox.)