Photo: Cindy Ord/Getty
Mary Lambertwas already in pain when she went to her local radiology office to get an MRI of a knee injury, and the experience only left her further disappointed.
The 32-year-old singerhad hurt her knee in a skiing accident on Dec. 26, and went to Rayus Radiology in Massachusetts to get an emergency MRI, she shared on Twitter last week. Once there, she “was shocked at how unprepared they were for a fat patient,” Lambert wrote.
“I changed into their biggest scrubs (a 2X), and had half of my butt exposed, only to have the MRI coil not fit around my knee,” she said, adding that she “was asked my weight three separate times.”
In an interview withToday, Lambert said that she asked for a larger pair of pants, but the technician said they didn’t have any. And the same was true for the coil, which is placed around the injured spot to take the MRI images.
“They kept telling me, ‘We have a bigger coil. It just doesn’t work now,’ " Lambert said. “And I was like, please stop saying that, it’s not helpful.”
They made a few attempts to “squeeze my injured knee in a couple of different ways but it was really painful,” the “She Keeps Me Warm” singer said, and she had to give up and leave the facility without getting the images done.
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Rayus said that it’s their mission to “care for everyone who walks through our doors with dignity, kindness, and professionalism. We make great effort to ensure that all patients are treated courteously and receive the highest standard of patient care at all our locations. Unfortunately, we recently received feedback from a patient who did not have an experience reflective of Rayus or what our patients should expect when coming to us for medical care.”
After Lambert tweeted about her experience, Rayus contacted her and apologized, she said, and is now working with her to discuss how they can ensure that her experience is “not repeated in the future.”
“We acknowledge that this patient’s medical journey has sparked an important conversation about stigmas that exist in the plus-sized community and the challenges experienced when seeking health care,” the company told PEOPLE.
Lambert also returned to the same facility and successfully underwent the MRI.
The experience, though, highlighted “how fat people are treated in medical settings,” she toldToday.
“Regardless of whether or not fat people should lose weight or should be in the pursuit of a smaller body, fat people exist. We will always be here,” she said. “What people need to answer really is will they continue to gatekeep life-saving medical procedures from bodies that will always exist?”
source: people.com
