Ragland said she had been to that doctor's office several times and had good experiences, but this was her first time seeing Sweo.
“I think I blacked out after he said ghetto booty. I think my mind was just stuck on the phrase because I couldn’t believe he said that,” said Ragland.
Sweo was sent for X-rays after she described her pain. “It’s one of those things where my hip seems to slip, like it’s slipping out of place a little bit. It’s painful when you get up to go walk it kind of slips, you know,” Raglan said.
When the X-rays came back, Sweo gave his diagnosis.
After Ragland complained to an office manager, she received a letter from Sweo, in which he wrote, "I was trying to take a technical conversation regarding your lower back and make it less technical."
“It says to me that he doubts what type of intellect I have, how intelligent I am to be able to understand what he conveys to me in a medical term,” said Ragland.
The medical term for a curve in her spine is "lumbar lordosis," and Sweo's comments since the story came out only seem to be making things worse.
"What I was trying to explain to that patient is that she has lumbar lordosis, which is a fancy name for the curve of the lower spine that makes the buttocks protrude more. In trying to explain that I said that she had ghetto booty and she didn’t like that apparently. ...
I think I do understand why her feelings were hurt but I don’t understand what’s offensive about it."
"It’s not endearing. It’s not loving. It’s not a compliment," Ragland said. "It’s wrong in every aspect and it’s very demeaning."
