SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Video shows a heated confrontation between a cardiologist and his patient's family after he insults their mother for not speaking English.
“I was shocked. Yeah. I couldn’t believe it,” Yuset Galura told KTLA.
Galura and her daughter accompanied Galura’s 67-year-old mother, Maria Ramirez, to her heart appointment. She said she never imagined what would happen next after her mom greeted that physician, Paul Ryan.
“As soon as the doctor walked in the room, she asked him if he spoke Spanish and that was all it took for him to snap and start insulting her about speaking Spanish, being in this country and not knowing his language,” Galura said.
“You don’t need to do nothing but tell me if something’s wrong with her. If she's ok, if not, then I’ll translate to my mother. You don’t need to tell me that she needs to learn English,” Galura is heard saying to Ryan in the video.
Galura’s daughter recorded the incident on her cell phone and posted the video on Facebook, generating numerous comments and criticism by other people claiming similar experiences with the doctor.
KTLA also found several negative Yelp reviews that detailed more allegations of Ryan’s racism toward Mexicans.
Galura, along with her mother and other relatives protested outside Ryan’s clinic Monday hoping to warn other patients about his alleged treatment of Latinos.
She said her mother, who saw Ryan for the first time last Thursday on a doctor’s referral, still hasn’t received the results from her heart test adding, for the record, that she’s a U.S. Citizen.
“I want to unmask the doctor. If you don’t like being around Mexicans, Latinos, Hispanic, or any other race other than what your race is, then you have no room in the medical field,” Galura said.
Ryan's office, Pulse Cardiology, issued a statement Monday.
"Pulse Cardiology is conducting an independent investigation into the reported incident involving Dr. Ryan, who currently is not seeing patients at either of our clinics or St. Bernadine Medical Center. The reported incident does not reflect the values of Pulse physicians, assistants and administrators. Since its inception three years ago as the Inland Empire’s premier cardiology practice, Pulse has proudly served all patients regardless of nationality with a diverse staff that is fluent in several languages, including Spanish."
