Sophie Currier wins her appeal

in Uncategorized | 24 responses

Surprising. The breast-feeding mother who sued the NBME for extra time during her board exams finally gets a decision in her favor. The squeaky wheel really does get the oil:

A Superior Court judge last week rejected Currier’s request to order the board to give her an additional 60 minutes of break time. Appeals Court Judge Gary Katzmann overturned that ruling, finding that Currier needs the extra break time to put her on “equal footing” with the men and non-lactating women who take the exam.

The medical community response doesn’t seem to support her at all.

Update:
Neither does the public at large, judging from the comments here and here.

Comments

Anonymous
The Appeal Court’s decision, in my opinion, sucks.
Anonymous
The court’s decision is another proof that this country is really the land of milk and honey.
Anonymous
Am I the only one who has noticed that the father of Ms. Currier’s children is an MIT professor?
I think that answers the question as to how she was able to graduate from MIT with so much extra help, extra considerations and extra attention paid to her at all times.
Anonymous
You have to give Sophie Currier a lot of credit. She certainly knows how to masterfully sue the system. Maybe she can now pass the re-take of her exam.
While I have some concerns how she will ever survive the rigors of a pathology residency and board exam, I am sure she will sue her way to success.
I then predict a hugely lucrative career as an professional expert witness for-hire in the service our nation’s fine trial lawyer industry.
Tiny Shrink
Ridiculous. She already had extra time for her “disabilities”. There’s no reason she can’t delay pumping for the few hours of the test each day. All she’d need to do is pump a little extra for a week or so prior to the test and she’d be good to go. I think it’s telling that she didn’t pass it the first time with extra help while NOT lactating (although 8 months pregnant). If she doesn’t pass it this time, who will she blame?
Anonymous
Attack of the killer IEPs (individualized educational plans). A new generation of entitled individuals who do not have the innate ability to succeed at the career path chosen by their parents.
Wouldn’t people ultimately be happier and more successful finding careers that complement their particular range of skills, rather than demand that the world ‘accomodate’ their every whim.
She may find that with lawsuits she can bully corporate entities, but ultimately she will need buy in from her co-workers. Individuals don’t have to provide accomodation. Though they do have to support mandates made by their employer to accomodate a co-worker, there are ways to make life hell in return.
Anonymous
A Harvard graduate, “learning-disabled”, wins permission for extra testing time for learning disability now wins even more time to milk herself.
Why didn’t she hire someone to take her “test” for her? It hardly seems to matter since she can’t properly be compared with the other testers who are taking the “standardized” boards.
Will her residency specialty board be that accommodating? Will she want extra time for her in-service boards and her specialty certifying boards, too? (Fire up that milking machine, need some extra time.)
I bet she was a joy to have on clinical clerkships, the makings of a real no-load. (“Slow down that code, I need time to remember the names of the drugs.”)
One would think someone able to get into Harvard Medical School would have by that point in life mustered enough study skills to learn how to prepare for a timed test (Did she not take the MCAT?) To demand accommodations of this kind for a test that ought to inspire some form of confidence in the testing process when she is already coming from one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world ought to be embarrassing. She must think herself very privileged indeed.
I sure wouldn’t want her reading out any of my specimens.
Anonymous
The NBME has appealed the judge’s decision.
Anonymous
Sophie Currier is one clever cookie indeed. She is already getting 2 days to take a 1 day exam and is getting some extra perks on top of that. She really knows how to milk the system as well as her breasts.
Meadow the Lawyer
This decision will not stand up on appeal. I just finished reading the decision and it reads like a decision written by someone in the La Leche League! I cannot believe that someone who had to pass a bar exam would allow someone like this woman to get away with such a scam! No one guarantees that you will be able to take these exams – pain and discomfort free. I hope the NBME is able to get the hight court to hear this case before the exams next week because this decision is certainly not a legally sound one.
Anonymous
Some facts:
1) She failed the same test in April.
2) The NBME already went out of their way to accommodate her. They are giving her twice the time to complete the test and a private testing room. Try taking a 9-hour intense exam with other people taking typing tests around you like the other 3000 of us did.
3) The USMLE is a STANDARDIZED test to assess a minimum competency to assure that you have enough base knowledge to practice medicine and not harm your patients. If you don’t pass, then the exam is doing what it was intended to. Preventing somebody without a core knowledge of medicine to practice medicine on people who’s lives depend on your knowledge.
4) This test can be taken anytime during your 3rd and 4th year of medical school. You schedule when you take the test. Students have 2 years to schedule it and fit it into their “mom” schedule. She chose to procrastinate until it left her in this predicament. Most students take it during the end of their 3rd year to avoid this exact problem. Failing and not being able to start a residency in July. Yes, most residency programs start in July, not November. Did MGH already accommodate her by pushing her start date back by 4 months?
So when the surgeon can’t get a pathology report on the margins of a cancer they are resecting and the patient dies on the table, who is going to be supporting her when her excuse is “I needed to breast feed at that moment, otherwise my engorged breast would hurt and I could get mastitis.”
ANONYMOUS
Believe me, the pathology board exams will never accommodate her. I just passed the exam which has a 25% fail rate. I was suffering from food poisoning during my recent subspecialty exam and no exceptions were made for me. I was not even offered an alternate test date or any time for bathroom breaks. I would be very concerned that she failed the USMLE–I don’t even know anyone who has failed…and a Harvard student? Shows that they really know how to pick em. Aren’t there any standards for future doctors anymore?
Her Sister
Being the only person to post a comment who actually knows Ms. Currier I would like to say you are all sadly mistaken about who you seem to “think” she is. She is no “entitled individual” riding her way though medical school. Her husband has absolutely nothing to do with her relationship with MIT. She is not one of these people who can sit down, study for a few rigorous weeks, and pass (obviously). This is a person who has ADD and Dyslexia and is NOT taking any medication to place her at an equal level playing field with the rest of the test takers (since she has been breast feeding and pregnant for nearly two years). However, her LD has absolutely nothing to do with her breast feeding. In-fact it makes it even harder and more challenging for her to endure TWO days of 9 hours without breast feeding as opposed to one.
Unfortunately our society has long been a male society where women must adhere to their rules and ways of doing things. When Sophie steps up and attempts to fight for something that is good for her as a mother, good for mothers as a whole, and good for their babies it is so sad that there is such an overwhelming lack of support. Sophie is not asking for anything that would cause her “alter” the standardized test. Her lawyer fights for an hour but this is simply a bargaining point (which I am sure the lawyer bloggers know of). Even an additional 15 minutes would enable her comfort and reduce her risk of infection while she took the exam.
As far as her timing goes, it is unfortunately never a good time to have a baby. Women want to have careers, children, husbands/wives, and the whole package. Sophie has been determined to breast feed both of her children for a full year. Something which I am sure less than five percent of the female bloggers have committed to doing with their own children. So yes, Sophie’s timing may have been off, but she has, thus far, committed nearly two years of her life to breast feeding both of her children. This is something to be applauded, especially since she has been doing it while studying for her exam, finishing medical school, taking care of her family, and having to live with the severe disadvantage of ADD.
Anonymous
Guess what? I breastfed two of my kids, have epilepsy, and a brain tumor and have to pass my nursing school tests just like everyone else. This is stupid. She is milking the system–literally. I’m embarassed to be a woman right now.
Anonymous
I also know Ms. Currier personally, and I couldn’t agree more with “her sister”‘s comments. I am appalled by many of these other comments.
A hundred years from now, people will look back in complete disbelief at what some ignoramuses have said, “Kevin, M.D.” included. How a medical licensing board would refuse time for a woman to pump breast milk is beyond me.
Anonymous
I do not know Ms. Currier personally, and I’m certainly glad I don’t. I’m not a big fan of people riding the entitlement train.
Those of you who do, just answer one simple question — how can a “scholar” who CANNOT EVEN SPELL THE NAME OF HER OWN BLOG CORRECTLY be trusted with minute medical data? Back when her blog was actually up and open to public viewing, EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE SHE WROTE had a grammatical or spelling error.
I cannot believe that anyone would be able to progress so far in a career that requires attention to detail and be unable to spell or write at the level of a middle school student.
Anonymous
Charles Krauthammer got through Harvard Medical School and a psych residency, paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident freshman year at Harvard Medical School.
The same Charles Krauthammer that took his life in another direction after the psych residency. You’ve probably seen his publications if you read Time or the Washington Post. Or see him in the wheelchair on Fox News.
He did need “accomodation” in the form of having someone help wheel him from patient to patient.
I’m sorry this lady’s breasts are sore. I bet Krauthammer would have been happy to trade afflictions.
“Male society”…..sheesh.
Cremina87
Many posters seem to missing the fact that Ms. Currier applied for (and won in the 2nd ruling) more BREAKtime, not more test time, for pumping. When she goes out for a break, she can’t come back and change her answers. And she doesn’t get more time to take the test (just the ability to stop the clock while she pumps). Pumping isn’t going to make her any smarter, just more comfortable, and as the judge ruled, put her on an even playing surface with the men and non-lactating women taking the exam.
In response to meadow the lawyer:
Other test takers are allowed adequate time and privacy to excete their bodily fluids. Lactating women deserve the same accomodation that other students get for their physiologic needs. The NBME does not make test takers use glass-walled toilets. “Accomodating” Ms. Currier by making her pump in a glass-walled examination room is offensive and wrong.
To all the people making such clever “milking it” puns: maybe you should attach your name to those posts so that the Onion and the Daily Show can contact you if they need writers. Oh, was that a personal comment–after reading your pained and angry Sophie-has-done-me-wrong-she’s-so-entitled blah blah blah ANONYMOUS comments: you sound like a bunch of angry petty people.
For the person with stomach flu during the boards, I’m sorry you had that experience. It must have been uncomfortable. But, do you really think other people should have to suffer because you did? The big reason NBME is going to fight this tooth and nail is they currently make no accomodations for any condition that is not directly covered by the ADA. If Ms. Currier’s case stands, it will be the tip of the iceburg for them. And that will be a good thing and not a “danger to the American public” They will have to show the same compassion toward students that we as a medical profession show patients. What a novelty! The American Board of Family Medicine allows untimed pumping breaks for nursing moms (in addition to the scheduled lunch break everyone gets).
To anonymous who posted on MassachusettsMom site: your clinical example is absurd. If a cancer patient dies on the table it’s not because of the pathologist. This is the same type of inflammatory arguement the NBME is trying to make when they say they need to protect the safety of the American public. The USMLE is just one part of the checks and balances in place to moniter a student’s performance and to assure competency.
As I wrote in my response to that post, many work places accomodate lactating physicians without difficulty, and in such settings, women are able to plan ahead, pump at appropriate times, and make coverage arrangements with colleagues, who will hopefully be more compassionate and understanding than this web community is.
To tiny shrink: you obviously know nothing about breastfeeding. Could you pee extra today so that you don’t have to pee on Saturday? Ok and then on Saturday (after you’ve done all that peeing ahead of time), why don’t you drink a bunch of water and then “delay (peeing) for the few (that’s NINE) hours of the test each day.”
About a career in pathology: reading a slide or looking at specimens is really different from reading a book. Being a slow reader doesn’t make someone dumb — it should be pretty obvious that Ms. Currier isn’t dumb – considering that she got into 2 of the most prestigous schools in the country and got a combined MD Ph.D in 7 years (especially since most Ph.D’s take 5-6 years, see NY times article 10/2/07). People want the best/most accurate cancer diagnosis, not the quickest. People who like to make split second decisions go into emergency medicine. The rest of us pick specialties where we can take the time we need to make the best decision possible for our patients.
Anonymous
So l’il sister, are you saying Ms Currier and her attorney “overstated” her case to the court, the press, and the public when they claimed she needed an extra hour of break time or she’d risk painful engorgement, mastitis, and loss of her milk supply? False testimony used to be called perjury. Guess for some folks its just “bargaining.”
asmartwoman
Some of the responders on this blog are very closed-minded and unenlightened. Dr. Currier has the right to appeal based on her situation. Criticizing her accountability based on her learning disability accomodation is ridiculous—she has an MD/PhD which is more than most of you writing I am sure. It is pretty obnoxious to see individuals who frankly are probably jealous of this woman’s intellect or equally accomplished, but bitter/obnoxious be so critical. I love the intellectualization of gender-bias and conservative learning systems through the use of the term ‘individualized educational plans’. Lovely, lovely…
We are lucky that there are women out there like Dr. Currier, who continue to push the envelope and will continue to do so, much to your chagrin.
-An Ivy-league trained woman
Lyn
The writers who are making excuses for this woman are ignorant in every sense of the word. I have 4 women in my immediate family that have PhDs. 3 of them have children and the one who doesn’t is waiting until she has time to do so.
Cremina87: Your bathroom argument is as senseless as the people who are trying to claim she has a disability. YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE A BABY. You choose to breastfeed that baby. I have to use the restroom and I doubt seriously that most disabled people chose their lifestyles either.
As for people being compassionate by rearranging their schedule around lactating physicians-this idea that you have to accomodate pregnant women is so pitiful. They do not have diseases or disabilities. They may get ill and should be treated like everyone else who falls ill. But show compassion for a person doing something women have been doing since the beginning of time? That’s absurd. We know the risks of pregnancy and you have to arrange your life around a baby not everyone else arrange things around you and your baby.
As a medical student pointed out she could have taken her test many times. She should not be applauded. Possibly commended if she did all of this without asking for special treatment. The fact that she chose to breastfeed her children for a year may be something she’s very proud of. Fine, no one has said yet what that has to do with the school and other test takers.
And if her child is 4 months old that means she knew for nearly a year that she would be breastfeeding during the test. Seems like better planning was in order.
This is her decision as an adult and a woman. It was her decision to get pregnant and hers to breastfeed.
asmartwoman
Lyn,
I’d be curious in what sense of the word “ignorant” the writers that are critiquing individuals claims that Dr. Currier does not have these rights are. “Ignorant” indicates that one has not closely examined the issue or have an understanding of the legalities at play.
Additionally, the fact that you have 3 women in your family with PhD’s and children is wonderful but irrelevant.
The legalities of the case based on the court proceedings are:
(1) whether breastfeeding women are legally entitled to a level playing field with men and non-breastfeeding women when taking an exam that controls entry into a profession.
(2) if they are, how much additional time makes the field level.
The appeals court decided that:
(1) discrimination on the basis of lactation is sex discrimination prohibited by the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment (the Lone Star state may not have Equal Rights, I have not researched it)
(2) Currier offered three experts who agreed on the amount of time necessary for the average women (not you, me, or Currier) to pump while the Board offered NO experts saying a woman could do it in less time. The Board offered NO experts at all on the issue of how much time was needed to pump.
Argument 1: The fact that Currier got extra time because of her other disabilities is irrelevant. That issue is a separate one around her disabilities and legally it must be assumed that she needs all that time for other reasons. With the test being 2 days long at 9 hours a day, it would require at least 3 pumping breaks (assuming I could pump immediately before and immediately after). At 20-25 min/pump, she would most likely need over 45 minutes and has argued that she does.
Obviously, not all women produce milk the same. Some can pump less often and others must pump more often. Some can be done in 15 minutes, while for others take up to an hour to empty. I have not seen anyone provide data that shows what the mean and covariance are on pumping times for women, but that would be important in creating policy–the experts in the case were present to discuss this issue.
This decision will affect all future pumping test-takers, most of whom will not have the extra time due to the disabilities. The fact that some people may have time in the breaks given to all to also do this extra thing she has been found to be legally entitled to do is irrelevant. She has an additional thing she must do and is legally entitled to the extra time needed to do it.
Argument 2: The break would be between sections of the test and that they would simply be longer so that she could pump. Therefore, she would not be able to read notes, think about questions, etc. She would just have time to get the pumping done and then go back to test taking.
Argument 3: Lactation is a physical issue of leaking and engorgement that can’t be controlled. I doubt that pumping is so relaxing that it would give a mother an advantage. I think that pumping during an exam would be stressful, something else to attend to and therefore not an advantage.
Argument 4: Given that medical field training is long and extended and often occurs during prime female reproductive years, the pumping accommodation should be made. Why should she delay having children or chosen not to breastfeed?
For professional women, there is no good time to have children. So the argument that she should have waited to have kids at another time is ignorant and inappropriate. If women wait until their training is completely done in their 40’s, they have serious fertility issues to deal with amongst other things. Suggesting that there are jobs that are incompatible with motherhood/breastfeeding deprives our society of some very talented contributions.
As a woman, I believe that I should be able to both pursue having a family and be a talented doctor. Dr. Currier’s efforts are leveling the playing field I would argue.
-asmartwoman
Anonymous
This whole situation is an abomination! What about the people who are competent and CAN pass the board examination? Why should this incompetent person even be in medical school in the first place? There are many qualified and capable people out there who are more qualified and deserving fair and square. I’m less concerned about the breast-feeding than I am about the extra time for ADD and dyslexia. This woman gets I blieve 3 TIMES as much time as other taking the test! If she’s not smart enough to be a doctor based on the standards the state has set up, and apply rigorously to everyone else, SO BE IT! What do you people say to those who are more competent and capable than this Currie person who were denied opportunities to become physcians and make a real contribution to the profession instead of just exploiting for personal gain?
Anonymous
To the person who suggested that the breastfeeding mother pump extra milk the weeks before an exam, you are obviously ignorant of the reasons why a lactating mother needs to pump in the first place. It is not because the baby has no other source of nutrion–we all know that formula is a well-accepted, healthy alternative if the breastfeeding mother is away–it is because a breastfeeding mother’s breasts become engorged if she does not either breastfeed or pump in certain intervals, usually 2-4 hours, depending on the age of her baby. Is it really fair to expect a lactating mother to take an 8-9 hour exam with engorged breasts, leaking all over the place, or can we just be REALISTIC AND ACCEPTING OF MOTHERHOOD, and not discriminatory against women who choose to breastfeed, and allow the breastfeeding mother additional time for breaks in which she can pump?