Vital Signs (1990) Movie Script
- Race? - Sure.
Up and back.
- Steroids.
- Yeah, right.
Mike Chatham, third year.
- I can't seem to find your name.
- You can't find it?
Guess I'll have to give up being a doctor
and take you out to breakfast instead.
Save the bedside manner
for someone else.
Chatham, group eight. OB-GYN.
- How about a rain check on breakfast?
- Lucky me.
Never rains in California.
Chatham!
- Hayes!
- What are you?
- Eight. What are you?
- The same.
- All right. Great.
- Great for you. I can kiss Honors good-bye
with you in my group.
Hello, Michael.
- Julie.
- Unbelievable!
- You and Julie?
- Not anymore. How was love in Denver?
There's this lab assistant.
She's, like, naked under her coat.
- No, she works like that?
- Every day.
Try to keep your beaker
steady with that in the room.
Hayes, you tell that story
to one more person...
- Suzanne.
- Hey, Michael.
Hey. Tell me it's not too
late to quit med school
and come away to Paris with me.
It is, Michael. I already
paid for this year.
Children.
Out of the 98 available
male third-year students,
how come I get the one guy that
I've roomed with for five years?
- What did I do to deserve this?
- You? What about me?
- Group eight?
- Verily.
- Hey, Hayes. How's it goin'?
- Great.
- Suzanne. Chatham. You're in this group?
- Hi, Kenny.
That's good. That's good.
Two surgeons. Great. Maybe I
can skip surgery rotation altogether.
- Nobody'll know I'm missing.
- Yeah.
Hayes passed out last Thanksgiving
when I asked him to carve the turkey.
Completely untrue.
Absolute slander.
- Gina. Hey. - Hey!
- Hi, Gina.
- Michael.
Kenny. How's Lauren?
Don't faint.
We got hitched this summer.
You were the one who always
said marriage made you soft.
Yeah, well, it turns out
it makes you sharper.
- Hey, Mike. Guys.
- It's Gant.
You can always tell
it's the first day of the year.
- Gant's nose isn't brown yet.
- What you guys got?
OB-GYN.
Save my seat there, partner.
Thanks.
I got Redding first. Surgery.
- Lucky you.
- That's easy for you to say.
Redding is a killer. He's the dean of
third year. He's gonna bust my balls.
Mike, what say we share
notes again this year?
You take mine, you mean?
Michael! Suzanne.
- Beautiful.
- Forget it, Gant.
- Here you go, partner.
- Thanks.
I'm Dr. David Redding, dean of
third-year studies and Chief of Surgery.
You know, every year I look
out at the group assembled here,
and I ask myself
the same question:
Why would anyone knowingly
do this to themselves?
For the next year,
your days will not end.
The work will never stop.
Your rank will command
absolutely zero respect.
And, worst of all,
after it's over,
you will be faced with
the horrible realization
that there is nothing
in your medical career
that will ever be as rewarding
as third year.
Third year is like
being an 18-year-old rookie
and being called on to pitch the
seventh game of the world series
blindfolded.
Doesn't get any tougher.
Just remember though that
none of you would be here
if you weren't pretty good
rookies to start with.
Now, for survival purposes, you
have been divided into small groups
that you will stay with all year
through each of your rotations.
The very best in each specialty
will be selected to enter
residency in that area.
There are three internships
in Pediatrics,
two for OB-GYN,
two for Internal Medicine,
and one and only one
for Surgery.
That's my little
neck of the woods.
Your future will depend on how
many honor grades you accumulate
during the course of the year and
whether or not you honor in your specialty.
- Size.
- I know that's very important to you.
For me, the only thing
that really matters
is making you into
the best doctors possible.
Because it is hands-on from this moment on,
people, for the rest of your professional days.
Well, doesn't everybody
look official?
I'm Bobby. I'm Dr. Redding's
physician's aide.
It's my job to show you people
how little you really know.
And... I love my job.
Every morning, you will be at the
hospital an hour before the doctors
to check on your patients'
primary care.
Then the entire team with your
resident will make the rounds.
- During these sessions, you will be pimped.
- Pimped?
Pimped... questioned, probed
and humiliated by the residents,
for interpretations,
diagnoses, complications.
Cases that are really juicy will
be reviewed in grand rounds,
which is the same as regular rounds except
that everybody in the house is there.
If you intend to make Honors, you'd
better know your shit on grand rounds.
I've been in this place
a long time,
and I've never seen anyone
screw up grand rounds
and come out
with Honors. Nobody.
Daily summaries are on green paper,
permanent summaries are on red paper.
Please observe the following
demonstration closely.
Unlabeled blood specimens received
in the specimen receiving room
will be processed as follows.
Nurses... heads, R.N.s,
L.V.N.s, nurse's aides...
It is easy to confuse them.
Don't.
Hi.
- Hi.
- Talking's allowed.
I'm glad you're enjoying
the privilege.
Seeing as how we didn't do
too much of it our first two years,
I thought now that we're in the same
group, we could make up for lost time.
Michael, you've convinced me.
You're very charming.
- Thank you.
- But I'm afraid you've got it.
- Got what?
- Surgeon's ego.
- What is it? A disease? What?
- You look to be a classic case.
- Your personality already fits the prototype.
- And what's that?
As a group, they're narcissistic,
insensitive, chauvinistic,
and their only definition of
success is to win at all costs.
I'm Dr. Margaret
Kennan, chief resident of OB-GYN.
You will begin the first of
your rotations in my domain.
The patient is a 23-year-old gravida
1, para 0, ab-0, 40 weeks gestation,
noted one week ago to have
frank breech presentation.
External versions
attempted two times failed,
so she's been admitted
for elective C-section.
- Buenos das, seora.
- Ola.
Dr. Hayes, why is this patient
having a C-section?
Well...
If she were well, Dr. Hayes,
she wouldn't be here.
Dr. Wyler?
Because the
external version failed.
Delivering a breech presentation might
expose the baby to unnecessary injury.
And what injuries are those?
Dr. Rose?
Nerve damage, prolapsed
cord and delay in delivery of the head.
What about the possible problems
with doing a C-section? Dr. Chatham?
Aspiration from anesthesia, bleeding,
infection, pulmonary embolism.
Good.
- I knew that.
- Some help here!
Dr. Kennan! Seventh baby.
Got hung up in Admitting.
- She's not gonna make it to delivery.
- Okay.
Get over here!
Hold her up for me. I want you to
breathe. Just breathe. Now, push.
Push! Big push. Big push.
Yeah! Don't stop.
Breathe in. Breathe in.
Here it comes. Big push.
Hey! Yeah! Yeah!
Good girl. Relax.
You have a beautiful, perfect, little baby boy.
Wow!
- A baby.
- You're here, people.
Is it too late for law school?
All right. Kenny's
patient, Mrs. Thompkins.
Twenty-three weeks
gestation noted. Hayes?
- Top left.
- Is admitted for strong labor pains.
Don't!
Hayes!
Be careful not to touch
anything. It's a lab experiment.
That you've been growing
for two years. Use mine, Gina.
So, now, what if
the ultrasound shows abruption?
Then the bleeding
will probably stop.
Okay. But what happens
when she begins contractions?
Do an amnio on her.
Determine the baby's age
in case she needs a section.
There's no need to do
a tap on her this soon.
Why don't you just try to stop labor and
see if you can carry her for a few weeks?
- No way. You're wrong.
- No, I'm right.
If it was an abruption, the odds
are that the bleeding will stop.
And if you can stop her labor,
she'll probably go to term.
I mean, there's no need
to risk a tap right away.
You're right.
- What are you drinking?
- Herbal tea. It's from Pakistan.
You can probably
smell it in Pakistan.
It doesn't bother Hayes.
Yeah, my olfactory cells were destroyed
when we first started rooming together.
What do you guys do when, you
know, one of you brings home a date?
What's a date?
In med school? When was the
last time I had a date, Hayes?
I believe the year was 1922.
Woody Wilson had just
taken office, and...
Come on in. It's open.
- Hi.
- Lauren. I thought I was gonna call you.
I thought you were too.
Everybody, this is my wife.
- Lauren. Um, you know Gina.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- This is Michael.
- Hi.
- And Suzanne.
- Hi. - And Hayes.
- How do? - Hey.
- You didn't change.
- No, I just got off work.
What... Jesus.
Look what time it is.
- Where do you work?
- She works in a restaurant.
If you want, I can come back
over when you're done.
No way. You kidding?
We're out of here.
- Um, in the morning.
- Bye.
Well, I think I'll be going too.
Bye, you guys.
Nice meeting you. Bye.
Bye, Gina.
So, how was
your first day at school?
Did you play nice
with the other kids?
I figure there's five guys seriously
in contention for the internship.
Chatham's the one. The other
guys I'm not so worried about.
Kenny, I've known you
since you were 12.
You've gotten everything
you've wanted, including me.
Well, you were easy.
How's the restaurant biz?
Let me put it this way. Get your
M.D. fast, and get me out of there!
- Hi. - Hi.
Need a ride?
No, somebody's gonna pick me up.
It's late. Why don't
you come in and wait with me?
My house is right there.
Michael, I was raised on a military
base. I know how to take care of myself.
This place is a little more like the front
lines at night, if you know what I mean.
I'll just wait out here
with you.
That's a very nice gesture,
and I appreciate it,
but, thanks, no.
Okay.
- Good night.
- Good night.
Look, I'm sorry.
I won't stay out here.
Just do me a favor, will ya?
Hold on to this for protection.
I don't need this, Michael.
No, it's not for you.
It's for me.
You think anybody's gonna attack my house with
you standing in the street holding this thing?
That was nice of you to come
out. Thank you for waiting with me.
It's...
Hey. Batting practice?
See you later.
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Dr. Rose.
So were you able
to sleep through the night?
Great. Your blood pressure looks good.
We'll do an ultrasound next Tuesday.
You seem to be doing pretty well.
- Gina. - I'm late.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Late night?
- Yeah.
Gina, who is this guy?
His name
is Donald Ballentine.
He's Redding's surgery resident.
No kidding?
This may be none of my
business, but... is it serious?
- Would it matter to you if it was?
- No.
I didn't think so.
- Our first baby.
- It was incredible.
I'm so proud.
After what we just saw in there,
I'm not so sure I want children.
- I do, definitely.
- A little Dr. Ballentine?
On second thought.
Sometimes, he's great. He takes this
surgeon-messiah thing a little too far.
I mean, the sex is good,
but I don't think it's worth it.
No. It's worth it. Trust one
who hasn't had it in a while.
- What, nothing?
- Well, who has time to meet anybody with this job?
- Single guy alert.
- Ladies.
Blue is definitely your color.
I need a man, not sleaze.
- What about Hayes?
- Hayes?
Hayes is like my brother. It
would be like committing a-a crime.
But I always thought
you'd be great together.
- Well, we are as roommates. Anyway, he's not my type.
- What is your type?
Well, you know. The kind of guy
you meet, sleep with immediately,
carry on a horrible relationship
with for two or three months
while they make you feel
really shitty about yourself,
then break up with
and never speak to again.
- I know that type.
- Yeah. Bye.
Bye.
- Dr. Chatham.
- Rose.
Thanks, Larry.
You shootin' for
the surgery internship?
Thinkin' about it. You?
Thinking about it.
I guess we're both
thinking about it.
- You know the guy?
- Redding? No. Never met him.
Thought you would have, your
father bein' a surgeon and all.
What, because my father should
know him, I-I would know him?
Yeah. Ain't that
the way it goes?
Chatham? Order's up.
Thanks, Larry.
Breathe. That's it.
Come on, now. Breathe. Breathe.
- How long has it been?
- Sixteen hours.
Sixteen hours?
Prepare for a C-section.
- No!
- Sir, can't we give it a little longer?
It could take five more hours
for that baby to come down,
and I've got 10 more
like her waiting.
- Prepare for a "C."
- I'll wait with her.
How many of these have you done?
Including this one? One.
- Your first.
- Yeah.
Only a third-year
would offer to do this.
So, wait with her.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Breathe.
- Hey! - Hey.
- Sorry I'm late.
- I never thought we'd have a date in the lobby of a hospital.
We had this amazing
triple aneurysm.
We tried to lock him off above
the knee, but we couldn't get it.
So we had to go in
through the other side.
It was amazing.
It's... It's hard to explain.
I delivered my first baby today.
- Really? - Yeah.
That's-that's-that's great.
It must be exciting?
It was a little scary,
to tell you the truth.
You'll get used to it. You'll
be able to do it in your sleep.
God, I remember OB-GYN,
and I thought it was tough.
Now it's like
a walk in the park.
It didn't seem like
a walk in the park to me.
No, you'll get used to it.
I promise.
I gotta get back up there.
This was great. It's the
cheapest date we ever had.
Doctor.
Give me Miss Wilson's chart
in 1217, please.
Thank you.
- Gina. - Hi.
Hi. How'd it go today?
Good. Really good.
How's Rita?
Did she ever deliver?
Yeah. A boy... for 23 hours,
14 minutes and 10 seconds.
Voom! She's out like a light.
And I'm a wreck.
When I was a little girl, I used to
always dream about becoming a doctor,
and doing something
like delivering a baby.
Now you're here doin' it.
- Yeah.
- It's kind of incredible, isn't it?
Congratulations on your
first delivery, Dr. Wyler.
Thank you. You too.
Thanks. See ya.
See ya.
Lauren, hey.
Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't call.
I couldn't find any time.
Hey. Hey, say something.
Come on. I can't stand it
when you don't say anything.
I've been in
a four-hour delivery.
I couldn't get a break to take a
piss, much less give you a call.
I'm sorry. Me too.
How was your day?
Paging
Dr. Rose, Dr. Kenneth Rose.
Well, that's good.
Look...
Look, I gotta go. Yeah, I
know. I'll call, I promise.
I... promise.
Yeah.
Yeah, bye.
A gift from Redding, people.
A list of 30 emergency
drugs. Know them by Friday.
- When's Friday?
- In about eight hours.
Maybe you'll absorb it
by osmosis.
- Who's up? - I am.
- Me too.
- E.R., stat.
- Where's the stomach puncture?
- This one here.
Prep. Come on, you two.
Come on over here and help me.
Dr. Rose, start an I.V.
and hang a unit of plasma.
Dr. Chapman,
I need four red tops.
Damn. What did they use
on this guy, a machete?
Chatham, how do we know if we
need to send this patient to the O.R.?
- Peritoneal lavage, sir.
- That's right.
Okay, let's set up
a peritoneal lavage.
Can I have the otoscope, please?
So, Rose, I understand
you're from Chicago.
Yes, sir.
My folks still live there.
What am I looking for here,
Rose?
- Blood behind the eardrum. Possible skull fracture.
- Right.
Can we drape him, please? Rose, I
need you to infiltrate with Xylocaine.
What do they do... your folks?
My father's in the
restaurant supply business.
Scalpel.
- Chatham, make a small incision there.
- Yes, sir.
Retractor. Rose, hold this retractor,
please. Keep your eyes on it.
So why didn't you get
into the family business?
I always wanted
to be a doctor, sir.
Yeah.
Feed this tube in here, Chatham.
So what about you, Chatham? You
wanna be a doctor like your old man?
Sir, when I was six, I actually thought
about becoming one of The Temptations.
Really?
You didn't pursue it, then?
No, sir. The position's filled.
Keep your eyes
on this tube, please.
- What made you decide to become a doctor?
- Helplessness, I guess.
I'd been marching with
some farm workers in Florida.
I'd been talking to this guy.
All of a sudden, he drops in
front of me with a heart attack.
There I was. I was trying
to save the ills of the world,
and I couldn't even save a guy
who was dying in front of me.
What do you got
in that tube there, Chatham?
Clear solution, sir, indicating
no internal bleeding in the patient.
Good. All right.
Let's stitch him up.
Gentlemen, you know, I think
you're both very promising doctors.
I want you
to remember something.
Who we are and where we come
from, it's really good for chitchat.
But in my program, the only thing
that really matters is how good you are.
All right. Finish up here.
Chatham.
Kenny! Hi.
What's wrong? Are you okay?
Chatham got the Honors
in OB-GYN.
Sweetie. Well, why
didn't you come inside?
How long have you been out here?
- I don't know.
- Come on.
You'll make Honors
next rotation.
Okay?
I can't let this guy beat me.
Not now. I've come too far.
- Good night, Lauren.
- Good night.
George, Nell. I want you
to meet Kenny, my husband.
These are the people I was tellin' you about
that make this place bearable every night.
You're the reason Lauren
has to work in this joint?
- You got a girl with a heart of gold.
- Lucky guy.
Come on. Good night.
Kenny?
It's no big deal.
Yeah.
I gotta go home.
I gotta study.
A full day off. I can think of
about a million things I wanna do.
- What do you think of?
- Women.
Really? That's fascinating.
"Really? That's fascinating."
What? You asked me, I told you.
Will you go get my tofu?
Tofu? No, I don't want...
That stuff looks like-like...
Like tofu. Go get it.
Thank you, ladies and
gentlemen. I'll be back in a few minutes.
So I'm all ready to
do an open-heart on this guy.
And then I look at his chart, and
he's here to get a cleaning and flossing.
I don't know. I tell ya,
I can't get no respect.
Guy walks into a doctor's office. The
doctor says, "I've got some bad news... ".
- How are ya?
- Good.
- How are you?
- Real good. Nice to see you.
- You too.
- Well, everything's set.
We've agreed to renew
the same student loan option
that you've had
for the last two years.
Full tuition.
So if you'll just sign
right there and there.
Sure.
May I ask you a personal
question, Mr. Chatham?
I know your father's a doctor.
These loans are gonna weigh on you
for a good 10, 15 years of your career.
Why don't I just get my dad
to pay for it?
We don't have
that kind of relationship.
It doesn't work that way.
There's something about
a hospital serving liver.
Suzanne, baby, I am desperate. I
need your notes on OB "D" and "C."
"Kennan"? Gant, you're picking
up your resident's laundry?
- Well, she asked me for a favor. She's a little busy.
- "Please, Dr. Kennan.
God, please let me do you
a favor and pick up your laundry!"
Come on, guys. Give me
a break. I'm not that bad.
- Give me a chili dog, will you?
- Excuse us, ladies and gentlemen.
Dr. Gant, you got
anything in there for me?
No, sir. But if you'd like me to
pick anything up or go get anything...
No, no. I'm... I'm just kidding.
All right, George,
don't shit me now.
Is this liver on the up and up
here, or do I go for the regular?
Happy Thanksgiving.
- Dr. Chatham?
- Yes, sir?
Henrietta Walker.
Interesting case?
Yes, sir. Cancer patient.
I'm gonna put her
on grand rounds for Monday.
Hello, Mrs. Walker. I'm Dr. Michael
Chatham, your student doctor.
Just wanted to come introduce myself.
I've had some blood work ordered.
A nurse will come up here
shortly and take some samples.
It might hurt for a moment,
but it'll go away.
I see you're a... an elementary
school teacher. What grade?
Mr. Chatham,
I realize this is
a teaching hospital.
But since I do not want you
practicing dramatics at my bedside,
please drop this transparent act
of the concerned doctor.
You will find this infinitely
easier on both of us
if you'll concentrate on being
direct, accurate and to the point.
I know what I have,
and I know why I'm here.
I don't need hand-holding.
Is that understood?
Yes. Yes.
Drink.
Hayes. Thanks, buddy.
Listen, why don't you take a break in
about an hour? We'll grab some dinner.
You gotta eat, or you're gonna be
worthless for grand rounds tomorrow.
I can't, man. I gotta check
on Miss Walker in an hour.
- I'll get something later.
- Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say.
So, from Suzanne.
- Tell her I said thanks.
- Yeah.
Gina's contribution.
I think you're makin'
real headway with that girl.
Get outta here.
- Are you gonna eat that sandwich?
- Yeah.
- Just checking.
- Right.
- Any time, Dr. Chatham.
- Yes, sir.
The patient, Miss Henrietta
Walker, is a 49-year-old female,
presents with sharp, epigastric
pain, nausea, although no vomiting.
- This has been increasing in the last three months.
- Physical findings?
Distended abdomen
with diffused tenderness,
shifting dullness, and a fluid
wave sign indicating ascites.
- What workup was done?
- CAT scan shows a mass in the area of the stomach.
Endoscopy and biopsy test
positive for gastric carcinoma.
Well, what's your assessment,
Dr. Chatham?
A large gastric carcinoma with
possible spread to the greater omentum.
All right. She's your patient.
How would you treat her?
- Give her several courses of chemotherapy.
- What else?
- Wait for significant improvement and attempt surgery.
- All right.
Let's take a look
at the patient.
- Henrietta.
- Dr. Redding.
I have some friends
with me here.
Let's take a look.
Tell me if I push too hard.
Don't worry. I won't hesitate.
I'm sure you won't.
How are the cats?
Splendid.
Any new additions?
None since the Siamese.
I've decided it's time
to put my house in order
in case I don't come home
this time.
That's an admirable thought,
but one I think
you could put off,
for the immediate future.
All right.
Well, I think Dr. Chatham's
assessment's on the money.
Questions?
I have a question, sir.
- Yes?
- Dr. Chatham,
what if there's intestinal
blockage secondary to metastasis?
Tests haven't revealed that.
What tests?
CAT scan, liver and bone
scan, L.F.T.s, SMA-12.
Those wouldn't necessarily
reveal intestinal obstruction,
or possible pleural effusion,
which, from your presentation,
could be included in this assessment.
That's a good point, Dr. Rose.
All right, let's order an upper
G.I. series for Mrs. Walker.
Thank you, Henrietta. Doctors.
Are you all right?
I was expecting to be attacked,
but not by someone in my own group.
Well, Kenny's a fighter. He's
probably had to fight all of his life.
You know, it's funny. When
Kenny's a tough-ass competitor,
everybody says, "It's all right. It's
okay. Look where he's come from.
He's had it tough. So what
if he's an asshole about it?"
Gina, if I had pulled a stunt like he did
today in there, I'd have been crucified for it.
Why? Because your father's
a surgeon?
- Michael...
- Look, it doesn't matter, okay? It's not important.
All that matters are end results.
Who's the best. I don't like to lose.
Kenny may have fired the first
shot, but I'm gonna win this war.
Michael.
The tests suggested by Dr. Rose
have all been run on the patient.
All prove negative, thus
supporting my initial assessment
that the patient,
Miss Henrietta Walker,
begin a prescribed chemotherapy
regime beginning in two weeks
continuing for
six concurrent weeks.
Thank you, Dr. Chatham.
Good follow-up. Questions?
Finish up with your patient,
Dr. Chatham,
- and then meet up with us in rounds.
- Yes, sir.
Well, I think
that is what is referred to
as a hollow victory.
I'm sorry. I guess sometimes
we get carried away.
It's the competition.
It... I'm sorry.
No need to apologize.
It's entertaining.
You know, I could have gone
to a private hospital.
Pension and disability
are pretty generous
when you've been a teacher
for 25 years.
I chose to be here.
- Why?
- Because this is a teaching hospital.
And being a teacher, I relate to
the process going on around me.
It... It makes me feel less sick,
like I'm back in my classroom.
So how am I doing, Teach?
You're doing pretty well,
Dr. Chatham.
Just don't concentrate
so much on the facts.
Facts are pretty important
around here.
So are people, Doctor.
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Michael, Michael, Michael.
You let me down.
Blowin' Honors this rotation.
Very embarrassing.
Listen, I think you should think
about going to another medical school.
- Perhaps, Walla Walla.
- Got an address?
Next time, kimosabe.
Suzanne. You look great.
Care to dance?
Look at Gant. That snake.
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door get on the floor,
everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
That's it.
I'm gonna do something
about that guy.
So we go in through the fourth and fifth
ribs, and it looks like it's gonna be routine.
Then it turns out the guy has a
mediastinal mass obstructing the vena cava.
I mean, you wouldn't believe the size
of this thing. Humongous. Incredible.
Are you going
for Surgery too, Gina?
No, um, Pediatrics or
Medicine. I haven't decided yet.
There aren't
a lot of women surgeons.
Why?
Yes, why is that, Donald?
Seems kind of obvious.
Surgery takes a lot of dedication.
It's not the kind of thing
you do for a couple of hours
and then go home
and be with the kids.
And, besides, the things we talk about
in there... tough for a woman to take.
I see. You'd have to
clean up your locker-room talk.
That's bullshit.
What's the problem here? You're
not even interested in surgery.
Well, lucky for me that I'm not.
Excuse me. Bye.
- Hey, where are you goin'?
- Home.
Lauren, it's not your fault. You
didn't know any better. Come on.
- Come on. It's okay. They're our friends.
- No, they're your friends.
If I'd asked you to come spend tonight
with my friends, you would've said no.
Hey, these people
are where our life is.
Where your life is, not mine.
I'm tired. I'd like to go.
I'm stayin'.
Do whatever you want, Kenny.
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody kill the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody kill the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody kill
the dinosaur...
Hi, Mike. It's Gant.
Listen, I wonder if I can buy you a
beer, and maybe talk over some notes...
Michael, this is your father.
Your mother gave me your
number. I just wanted you to know
that I'll be coming to scrub
with Redding next month,
and I thought you
might like to know, and...
Well, I'll see you there perhaps
if we get a minute, okay?
Have a nice holiday.
Hayes.
Good morning.
Good morning.
- God!
- What time is it?
- 6:30. - 6:30?!
Listen, can I, take the
top one? I'll bring it right back.
- Yeah.
- You're sure you don't mind?
- No. - Good.
I'm gonna use my bathroom.
It's got all my stuff.
Okay.
My God! What have I done?
My God.
Well, Hayes.
You have done it this time.
- Hi. - How are ya?
I'm great. I'm just...
I'm great. And how are you?
Great, great.
I'm great too. Me, I'm
great. Thanks for asking.
See ya.
What's goin' on, Hayes?
Okay, Hayes, you wanna tell me
what's goin' on here?
Me and Suzanne...
We did the wild thing.
You slept with Suzanne?
I thought you guys
were just friends.
We are. We... Well, we were.
Now I'm not so sure.
- Well, have you talked to her about it?
- Not exactly, no.
- Hayes, you've gotta talk to her.
- I know. I know.
All right,
look, don't be stupid.
This could be the greatest thing that
ever happened to your relationship.
Okay, maybe not.
How... How was it?
Well, that's the problem.
See, it-it was really good,
but it wasn't great.
- How about for Suzanne?
- That's the worst of it.
See, for Suzanne,
I think it was,
unbelievable.
It was okay.
How was it for Hayes?
He thought it was incredible.
- Why are you here?
- I came to check up on things.
Haven't you graduated, or whatever
they call it, from this rotation?
You don't exactly graduate.
But, yeah, I'm in Pediatrics now.
I just came down to make sure
you weren't scaring anyone.
You seem to be doing better.
Your weight looks good.
Why don't you ask me if I am
doing better? Or is that taboo?
I'm sorry.
How do you feel you're doing
with the treatment?
Fine. Thank you.
Good.
The important thing
is for you to ask.
Now, how is your
competition progressing?
Fine, I guess.
- Don't you know?
- I just didn't know you were interested.
I simply like to know that whoever's
working on me is competent.
That's all.
Good morning, Dr. Chatham.
Dr. Redding.
- How are we looking there, Dr. Ballentine?
- All set, Doctor.
- All set to go?
- Yes, sir.
- We're ready, Dr. Chatham.
- We'll go in between the fifth and sixth ribs.
- Give me a scalpel, please.
- Scalpel.
- I need the rib spreader.
- Rib spreader.
- Sponge. - Sponge.
- Have a little bleeding present. Cautery.
- Cautery.
Mayo scissors.
Dr. Chatham,
it was great working with you.
- It's a pleasure working with you.
- Thanks. Good to meet you.
So you're doing well here?
Honoring?
Well, so far in everything but
Medicine. There's some stiff competition.
You're in one of the best med schools
in the nation. What'd you expect?
I remember when you were in the
national 14-and-under tennis finals.
You breezed through the first
four rounds without dropping a set.
Then you came up
against that kid, Gomez.
- You remember?
- Yeah.
He beat you the first set,
and then you let down.
You were better. You were
much better than he was.
But when you let down, he took advantage
of you and he beat you three straight sets.
Afterwards, I never saw you drop
your guard again. Don't do it now.
That was 10 years ago. How'd
you remember that kid's name?
It was a pivotal moment.
You always remember
the pivotal moments.
- Good to see you, Son.
- You too, Dad.
- Draft, please.
- Sure.
Hi.
Mind if I sit?
Meeting someone?
- No. - Sure.
- Here you go.
- Thanks.
Sure.
Why is it that when a guy comes
into a bar to be alone with his drink,
no one thinks twice about it?
But when a woman comes in alone, everyone
assumes she's waiting to be picked up?
- Why is that?
- I have no idea.
You know, your father
really is a terrific surgeon.
I guess you've heard that
a million times.
Yeah. About a million and one.
You know, I was eight
years old before I found out
his first name wasn't "Doctor."
All the time
that he lived at home,
I used to go to the hospital
and make rounds with him.
I loved the way people
there treated him. They...
Like he was royalty, you know?
"Dr. Chatham, we need you for this.
Dr. Chatham,
we need you for that."
It wasn't long before I realized those
people knew him better than I did.
And I wanted to be just
like him and as good as him.
I mean, so that
he would talk to me too.
What gets me
worse than anything,
even now,
like today when I see him...
Yeah.
I feel exactly like I felt
when I was eight years old.
I'm still trying.
I'll leave you by yourself.
What do you recommend,
Dr. Hayes?
Well, given the little
girl's allergy to penicillin,
I recommend we start her
on erythromycin.
- Sounds good.
- Here you go, sweetheart.
We'll have you feelin' better
in a flash. Bye-bye.
Thank you, Doctor.
Be well.
For your cough, all you need
to do is when you go home,
grind up about seven or eight
peppercorns and mix it with some honey.
It'll take care of your throat.
- Really? - Yeah.
- I'll try it.
- Okay.
Peppercorns and honey?
Is that some new combination
they taught you in pharmacology?
- Well, I...
- What do you suggest after that?
Eye of newt?
Three eagle feathers?
Jump up three times
and bark at the moon?
It's sort of a secret
family recipe, actually.
Well, I suggest that you keep it
just that, Dr. Maloney... a secret.
You see, when a patient
receives information from you,
they perceive it
as coming from a doctor.
And you are not a doctor.
What specialty
are you heading for?
Well, I was hoping Pediatrics.
Good luck.
Let me tell you about
the stars in the sky
And a girl and a guy
- And the way they kiss
- Hayes?
- On a night like this
- Hi.
- Do you need some help?
- No, no.
I've got it all under control.
Boy. Um...
So they brought this guy
up from Psych for X-ray.
A swallower. Pencils,
pennies... you name it, he'd eat it.
Unfortunately, nobody
bothered to tell me that.
What I got is that
this guy's ready for release.
- No, Hayes.
- Yeah.
- He had the form and everything.
- You didn't release him?
No, no, no, no. He ate my pen
before I got the chance to sign the form.
I'm sorry.
I'm really tired.
- Maybe we should just go to sleep.
- Okay, you're right.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Are you comfortable?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
Okay.
Hey, Billy, your blood is tired.
We're gonna give you a
transfusion to make you feel stronger.
Will it hurt?
Well, it might sting a little when I first
put in the needle, but I'm pretty good at it.
After that, it won't hurt a bit.
Okay, relax.
Dr. Kelly said to go ahead.
The tests are fine.
Great. A little alcohol.
It feels cold.
All right. Now, that
didn't hurt a bit, did it?
Okay. There you go.
- Want me to connect the tubing?
- Yeah, I'll take it.
There you go.
Now just relax.
Take a deep breath.
That's good.
What's happening?
My God! Get help!
Get some help in here!
Suzanne, go get some help!
Code blue! We need some
help here, stat! Dr. Redding, 213!
Get his head up!
What's happening?
- What happened?
- Convulsions. I don't know what happened.
All right.
Let me get in here. Come on.
There's no pulse. All right.
He's coding. Get the cart in here.
Come on.
We need to get him intubated.
Let's get that monitor on.
Get the board under him.
Lift him up.
All right. I'm starting
compressions. Ambu-bag.
One amp bicarb, one amp epi.
Can I see a rhythm strip?
Was there any seizure disorder
on the chart?
No, none.
- How long has he been like this?
- Two minutes.
- What was his diagnosis?
- Anemia.
All right. Let's get ready.
All right. We're charged here.
Ready for defib. Stand back.
There's no response.
Again. Stand back.
Nothing. All right.
I'm going manual.
There's nothing on the
monitor. We're losing him.
Bretylium.
Isuprel.
All right.
Let's defib him again.
All right.
We're going again. Stand back.
We're losing him here.
Come on, kid. Come on.
- Come on.
- Damn it!
Come on, kid. Come on.
Stand back.
Still nothing.
I'm gonna go back to manual massage.
Come on. Come on.
We're not gonna lose you here.
Come on.
We lost him.
- Time? - 11:58.
No, I already
left a message.
Look, when does Dr. Ballentine
get out of surgery?
He already got out?
Great. When did he
get out, please?
All right. Thank you.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Come on in.
- Why don't you come out?
Is this really
out here every day?
Nah. Only when we're working.
Go ahead. Say it.
Get it over with.
You don't think it was my fault...
what happened in there today.
Gina, come on. For every 10 things you
can test for, there's 100 that you can't.
He was my patient.
Gina, there probably
isn't a doctor alive
who hasn't felt responsible
for a patient's death.
I mean, you do something, and
in spite of all your best knowledge,
it goes wrong.
It's not your fault.
Don't beat yourself up for it.
I don't know if I
can go back in there.
I don't know if I'm strong
enough to go back in there.
You are. I know you are.
I don't know if
I'm strong enough.
You are.
What are you doing here?
I got two urgent messages.
I thought there was
something wrong.
I guess I made a mistake.
If you were so worried, why didn't you
call right back when you got the messages?
I don't call you right back, so then
you run off with the next best thing?
Come on, Gina.
God. Donald,
you are a terrific surgeon.
But what I need right now is
somebody who cares about the way I feel,
and you're just not good at it.
I'm sorry.
Shit.
This is surgery, folks,
not a picnic. Get 'em clean.
Your hands, Dr. Hayes.
- Go ahead.
- No, you, please.
No, really. You were first.
Hi.
- You gonna be all right?
- Yeah, I'll be all right.
Congratulations on Honors
in Pediatrics. Way to go.
You too. Double Honors.
Makes this the big showdown.
Good luck.
Rescue me, take me
in your arms -
- Rescue me
- Rescue me
I want your tender charm
Ladies and gentlemen,
the surgery rotation.
I need you and your
love too -
Come on. I know you've
all been waiting for this.
- Sal, you wanna get that?
- Come on, baby
And rescue me
All right, now, people.
Now, the tension
is so thick in here
that I don't know whether
to cut it or the patient.
Can we just concentrate
on the operation? Thank you.
All right. Now, today, we
have a simple cholecystectomy.
If we don't traumatize
the surrounding tissue here,
we can have this patient
going home in a couple days.
You ready, Dr. Ballentine?
- Let's do it.
- Okay, scalpel.
Dr. Wyler, I'd like you
to perform the honors.
Now, if you can just make
an incision from here to here.
Okay. From here to here?
Okay. That's okay.
It's all right.
I'll take it.
All right. The incision is made
here in the mid line from here.
At least he had the decency to wind up on the floor.
- Vivian? - Yes?
- Hi. - Lauren, hi.
- Hi, Lauren. - Hi.
- What are you doing here?
- I got off early.
I thought I'd bring something. We
could have dinner together. Is that okay?
I don't have time
to take a break.
- Not even to eat?
- I grabbed something earlier.
I asked you if it would be okay if I
stopped by, and you said it would be.
Yeah. I thought
it was gonna be later.
Yeah, well, it can't be later, 'cause I'm
working a shift tonight. You know that.
- I don't remember what shift you're working on.
- Lucky you remember anything.
- Goddamn it, I'm working.
- What do you think I'm doing every day and night?
All I want is 10 minutes with
my husband that I never see.
- I think we're gonna take a little walk.
- No. I'm sorry. Don't go.
No, it's okay. There's
things that we need to do.
- It's okay.
- It's fine.
Dr. Rose, what if we were to come in under
the bed of the ninth rib instead of the 11th?
- Suction.
- We would risk traumatizing the pleural space,
possibly resulting
in a pneumothorax.
What other approach
could we use? Hayes?
Well, the patient has
a very large tumor,
and the added exposure by going in
through the ninth rib would lead me...
- Hang in there, Hayes.
- Come on, buddy. Hang in there.
I'm fine. I'm fine. It would
lead me to... use that approach.
I think you're right.
Are we all in agreement?
- Pressure looks good.
- Two-silk.
- Suture.
- Dr. Chatham,
what if the patient were to spike tonight
in post-op and develop a distended abdomen?
- Clamp.
- Worry about intra-abdominal bleeding, check for sepsis.
What kind of workup
would you do?
Complete C.B.C. Look for
an increase in white count.
Get a blood culture,
urine culture, chest X-ray.
- More suction, please.
- Very good.
- Hemostat and sponge.
- Cut.
Damn! Vivian.
Hayes? How are you feeling?
I feel like we gotta
get out of this rotation soon
or I'm gonna end up
on that table myself.
- Redding thinks I'm an idiot.
- No, Redding thinks it's hilarious.
You know, this is the longest
conversation that we've had in weeks.
You're my best friend, Hayes.
I miss that.
Having sex shouldn't interfere
with our friendship.
- But... - It has.
- I miss my couch.
- I want my room back.
You got it.
- Suz? - Yeah?
It was nice though, wasn't it?
Yeah, I'm
telling all my friends.
So where'd you learn that technique
of pulling up through the bottom?
- Redding showed it to me.
- Yeah?
The first time
I've tried it though.
- Pretty impressive.
- Thanks.
Chatham, Ballentine wants you.
Ballentine.
- Is this your patient?
- Yes, sir.
- What's his condition?
- He's just been admitted for a workup for an enlarged liver,
a coin lesion to the lung,
needs an upper G.I.
Well, instead of disappearing into the student
lounge, maybe you better start his workup...
E.K.G, lytes, chem panel, urine
for culture, stool for occult blood.
Order an upper G.I.,
B.E. and a CAT scan.
Get the results to me stat.
You understand?
- Yes, sir. - Good.
Rick, I need these right away.
- You need these now?
- Yeah, now.
Rick. Buddy.
Pal. Putz.
Rick?
Rick!
- Cynthia, where's Dr. Ballentine?
- He's off all day.
What do you mean, "off"?
Have those two workups run tomorrow, and
we'll put 'em on the schedule for next week.
- Chatham.
- Sir, sorry I'm late. I was delayed in lab.
We were talking a bit
about abdominal masses.
Someone can fill you in.
Good luck with that, Dr. Rose.
Thank you, sir.
- What's up?
- Another case came in. It's a renal cell carcinoma.
They're gonna try to operate.
- Redding's gonna let Kenny scrub with him?
- Yeah.
That's great. I mean,
that's great. That's great.
- Your patient's in room 218.
- Thanks, Suz.
X-rays go pretty fast.
Just couldn't stay away?
If you find that entrance line
humorous or calming,
we have a major problem.
Well, you'll like
this one better.
The chemo's worked.
We shrunk the tumor.
What does Dr. Redding say?
He's got you ordered
for surgery in a week.
He's also ordered you a new
diet and some supplemental fluids
to get you up
to fighting strength.
He thinks I'm too weak to
make it through the operation.
No, it's mainly to help you
after the operation.
I told you before
I'd have none of that.
- Of what?
- Bedside lying.
Miss Walker,
you're going to be just fine.
That's better.
I almost believed you.
Now get some rest.
- Don't I know you from somewhere?
- Hey, stranger.
- Hi. - Hi.
Wait. Wait.
He's got his operation tomorrow.
Wait. Michael.
Come on.
- Where?
- Let's go.
What?
Where are we going?
Michael.
My God.
Tie this
vessel right here and
cut this.
Scissors. Cut.
What do we have to
watch for here, Rose?
Superior mesenteric artery.
Cut right here.
Scissors. Okay.
It's completely
encased the aorta.
We can't get it out without
compromising the intestinal blood supply.
Well, what did the pre-op
I.V.P. show?
The mass didn't cross
the mid line.
All right. We're out of here.
Isn't there
something we can do?
You know, Dr. Rose, sometimes
you have to know when to quit,
and hope to come back
to fight another day.
Maybe after some chemo, we
can come back in here, but...
Close him.
Two layers of nylon, please.
Shit.
Go
ahead, man. Close him up.
Suture. Pick-ups.
How ya doin'?
Look, there's no way
you can test for that.
- It's not your fault.
- Come on.
- What do you care?
- What are you talking about?
I could have tested for it.
- I should've thought of an angiogram.
- Next time.
What do you mean, "next time"?
You've got it
wrapped up, Chatham.
I'm gonna stay at Nell's.
I left the number on the table.
- For how long?
- I don't know. A while.
I just gotta get through
this year on top.
You knew that
this would be hard.
I knew you'd have to work. I
didn't know you'd have to resent me.
I don't resent you. I
Kenny, every time you walk in here
and I'm waiting for you, you resent me.
Every time I call you,
you resent me.
Every time we go out with your
friends and I don't have anything to say...
Forget it. You don't
hear, and I can take that.
What I can't take is how this
goddamn competition has changed you.
You haven't made me
a part of things.
The patient's weight is 120
pounds, hemoglobin is up to 10.7.
However, future weight gain will not be
as dramatic... falling off by 20 percent...
Therefore offsetting any advantage that
we may gain by delaying the operation.
Very good.
Dr. Ballentine and I are gonna do our little
work in the O.R. so we can get you out of here.
Well, it's about time everyone
stopped talking and did something.
I agree. Dr. Ballentine is
gonna be performing the surgery,
and I've also asked Dr. Chatham
to scrub so he can assist.
So we'll all be seeing you
in the O.R.
Okay? Spirits up.
- Are you nervous?
- No.
That was good.
I am scared.
Don't be. There's
no reason to be scared.
Everyone here is the best. You
don't need to worry about it. I promise.
- Okay? - Okay.
I promise.
Okay.
- Tie that blood vessel there.
- Debakey pick-ups.
- Suction. - Clamp.
Chatham, what would you do next?
- Go through the omentum to the lesser sac, sir.
- Right.
Dr. Ballentine, why don't you let
Dr. Chatham work in here for a little while?
Come on, Chatham.
- Metzenbaums.
- Metzenbaums.
- Hemostat.
- Hemostat.
So what's the game plan?
Chatham: Connect the
esophagus to the jejunum.
And how do you plan
to drain this?
With a long N.G. tube
and multiple drains.
Let's get all the packs out of
here and take a sponge count.
- Don't wanna leave anything in there.
- Yes, sir.
Can you wrap up here?
I got a plane to catch.
All right. Thanks very much,
people. You've been great.
- Dr. Chatham?
- Yes, sir.
- You did real good in there.
- Thank you, sir.
Why don't you
close up shop for us?
Yes, sir.
Dr. Chatham,
report to post-op.
Dr. Michael Chatham to post-op.
Sarah, how's she doing?
I checked her last 20 minutes
ago. There's definitely a dip.
- Dr. Ballentine leave any instructions?
- No.
Thank you.
Dr. Ballentine.
Sir. Dr. Ballentine.
- What?
- Henrietta Walker's condition is getting worse.
Her blood pressure's dropping,
her pulse is thready,
and her urine output
is very low, sir.
That's just third spacing after
abdominal surgery. It happens all the time.
Sir, I know about third spacing.
I think this may be cardiac.
Dr. Ballentine, report to E.R., stat.
Dr. Ballentine to E.R., stat.
Just increase her fluids
and keep an eye on her.
Sir, I was thinking.
What about adding dopamine?
- If we did, it would increase her...
- Chatham, you think too much.
Just increase her fluids.
How is she doing?
B.P.'s way down, and
urine output's almost at 0.
What are you gonna do?
Dr. Ballentine? Excuse me. I need
to talk to you about Miss Walker.
- I can't right now.
- Sir, she's not responding.
- We have to do something.
- Do what?
She's not dehydrated, sir.
She's in cardiogenic shock.
She needs some dopamine
to increase her cardiac output.
Sir, I learned
about this in Medicine...
Look, every third-year student
thinks their patient has
what they just learned about.
She'll respond to the fluids. I'll
get up there as soon as I can.
- When's that? When she codes?
- Get the hell out of here.
Look, the best thing you can do is
just let it go and hope for the best.
- Did you try Redding?
- No, I can't reach him.
- He's on a plane somewhere.
- You're stuck, man.
It's Ballentine's patient.
He's the doctor.
- Chances are he's right.
- What if he's not?
You can't buck protocol.
They'll kick you out. You'll lose
the internship, everything. Go home.
You're beat. There's
nothing more you can do.
Stat.
Waiting on a co-signature.
Do you have any idea of the
seriousness of what you've done?
Yes, sir. Broke protocol.
You cut yourself off
from the hospital.
You challenged and overruled
a resident of mine
whose experience outweighs you
by quite a few years.
Sir, it was clear Miss Walker was not
responding as expected to the medication.
Her readouts were extremely low.
- I had to do something.
- No, Dr. Chatham.
Dr. Ballentine
had to do something.
He was also aware of the
factors affecting her condition,
and it was his studied opinion to
continue the medication as planned.
Sir, he was not aware.
Well, then it's your
responsibility to make him aware.
At the moment, I thought the patient's life
was more important than the rules, sir.
- What would you have done?
- That's not the point.
I cannot run a program
where a student is allowed
to act on his own, no matter
how good his intentions are.
I would rather accept the
responsibility of breaking the rules
than losing
a patient's life, sir.
And if your choice had
proved to be incorrect,
would you have been prepared to
accept the responsibility for her death?
Saving someone's life does not
make you infallible, Dr. Chatham.
We're human. We make mistakes.
I think you have the makings
of a fine doctor,
but you haven't even begun to experience
the complications of a human body.
Now, until you're able to understand
the limits of your knowledge,
I'm not gonna allow you
to practice in this hospital.
You're suspended from all duty
until further notice.
Yes, sir.
I don't believe it.
I counted it up. I spent 68 hours
away from this place since we got here.
That's 2.8 days.
I don't know where to go.
Hey, we need goblets on 16.
You got it.
- You doing okay?
- Yeah.
How's school?
Chatham got suspended.
- What happened?
- Broke a rule.
He went against Ballentine.
So I guess that makes you
number one.
Congratulations.
The day you left,
I operated on this guy.
We opened him up, and there
was nothing we could do for him.
I felt so helpless.
I would have done anything
to help that guy.
Michael felt the same way.
The thing is,
he saved Ballentine's ass,
but he's getting screwed for it.
I don't know
what's important anymore.
Except... I know...
that you are.
Do you think you're coming home?
- Dad. - Michael.
- What are you doing here?
- Your mother called me.
I wanna know what's happened.
I made a decision.
That's what happened.
There's a lot of people who
think I did the wrong thing.
I know I did the right thing.
I'm prepared to accept
the responsibility.
Listen. When I was starting out,
I wanted to believe that
medicine was an exact science,
but there are
too many variables,
too many random possibilities.
I finally understood
that my instinct
was as important
as my knowledge...
That actually my knowledge
informed my instinct,
and that I should trust it.
It took a lot of courage
to believe that.
But I knew that if I turned my back
on something I really believed in
that I'd never be able
to live with myself.
If you did something because
you really believed in it,
you did the right thing, Son.
Is your hearing tomorrow?
Yeah.
Come on. Let's talk about it.
Dr. Chatham, the facts of this
incident are pretty much on the table,
except for one area...
Why Dr. Ballentine didn't respond to your
request for examination of Mrs. Walker.
I can't speak
for Dr. Ballentine, sir.
Would you say that you had a close
relationship with the patient... Mrs. Walker?
- I knew her fairly well.
- "Fairly well"?
She was my patient
during my medicine rotation.
I've followed her progress
for the past several months.
And you kept up with her case even after
you had moved on to a different rotation?
Yes, sir. I was
interested in her progress.
Do you think it's possible, Doctor,
that your relationship with the patient
might have clouded your reasoning
and caused you to be unduly alarmed?
Perhaps even overemotional in
your conversations with Dr. Ballentine?
No, sir. That's impossible.
I responded to the evidence.
Michael, is there any reason
that you're aware of
that Dr. Ballentine didn't
respond to your prompting?
Dr. Ballentine is
an excellent physician.
He's been in this situation
numerous times.
Now, given that information, can you think of
any reason why he should ignore your advice?
No, sir, I can't.
Thank you, Doctor. The
board will review the information.
Dr. Redding will make a final
determination in a day or so.
- You may go.
- Thank you, sir.
Dr. Redding.
Hey, Rose,
congratulations
on the internship.
It's not official yet,
but it will be. Way to go.
It was a pleasure
working with you, sir.
Dr. Redding!
Dr. Rose.
About Michael Chatham.
I thought you should know the problem
between him and Dr. Ballentine is personal.
Michael's been seeing
Gina Wyler.
Dr. Ballentine
had been dating her.
Are you implying that Dr. Ballentine
would jeopardize a patient
because of a problem
with Michael Chatham?
I'm saying it's a factor
that hasn't been taken into consideration
in Michael Chatham's suspension.
You understand if what you're telling me
has any bearing at all on his suspension,
you're the one that has
the most to lose by it?
I guess that's why I'm here.
I'm the most credible person
you could hear this from.
- Habit.
- She's doing fine.
- Gonna be released next week.
- Yeah?
Michael.
- Hi. - Hi.
- I came by, but you haven't been home.
- I've been out.
- Are you okay?
- Yeah, I'm fine. Where are you working tonight?
Emergency. Listen, I think
that you should know,
Kenny went to see Redding
about Donald.
- What'd he say?
- Why don't you ask him?
Will you come by
and visit me later?
- Yeah, sure.
- Okay.
Kenny.
- How's it going?
- Listen, I heard you talked to Redding.
Yeah. Don't hold your breath.
He wasn't knocked out by it.
Why'd you do it? You got
the internship wrapped up.
Yeah, it looks that way.
But I wanted to win it.
In my mind, I didn't want an
asterisk up next to my name
saying, "Michael Chatham
should've won this."
Thanks.
Thanks.
Doctor, we have multiple
incoming burn patients.
- God, what the hell happened?
- A tanker truck was rear-ended on the freeway.
We've got 20 on the way.
Okay, I want everyone available
down to E.R., stat.
Everybody on the double
out here! Come on! Stat! Stat!
The E.R.'s full!
What do we got here?
Is she alert?
I got a bleeder.
I'm gonna need some help here.
The patient has no pulse.
We got a code blue.
Give me one amp epi,
one amp bicarb, stat.
We're gonna give you something
for the pain. Just take it easy.
- We're gonna get you cleaned up and out of here.
- Give me the three-silk.
Hayes, you all right there?
Yeah. I got it.
Let's go! Move
it! Watch your back!
- Give me a hand.
- Clear.
- We're gonna have to shock him.
- Coming through. Get out of the way, buddy.
- He's got a pneumothorax. Get the chest tube, suction.
- Yes, sir.
Get him prepped quick.
Chatham, grab that patient
and get in here.
Come on, Chatham.
Get that patient over there.
All right.
Let's get the chest tube.
Hi, my name's Dr. Chatham.
Let's see what we got here.
Xylocaine, one percent.
He's gonna make it.
Okay, let's get the next one.
- Hey. - Kenny.
Dr. Rose, Chatham,
sit down, please.
Since you two are so relaxed,
I'm gonna dispense
with the formalities
and get to the point.
Chatham, as of today, your
suspension has been removed.
It is the decision of the board
that your actions,
however irresponsible, were
motivated out of a set of circumstances
which fall outside
the protocols of the hospital.
Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
Now, as to your futures.
Dr. Rose,
your request for transfer to Chicago
Medical Center has been accepted.
You will complete
your fourth year there,
and I've recommended you
for the internship in Surgery.
Thank you, sir.
Dr. Chatham,
that leaves you and me.
You will finish up
your fourth year here,
and I've approved you
for the surgery elective.
I thought we'd get a jump
on that internship.
Yes, sir.
Hey, Suz, did you check that
stuff that makes the brakes work?
The brake fluid? Yes, Hayes.
Gas, gas. Did you check the
gas? Have you got a full tank?
Yes. And, you know, if I run out, I
just might be able to find a gas station.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm gonna miss you, Hayes.
I mean,
you're only going to Denver.
It's not like you're
going to Mars or something.
Why do you have to
go away for fourth year?
Because it's a better
pediatrics program for me.
How am I gonna get through this
without you?
The same way I will, Hayes.
On the telephone.
Hayes, give me a shot here.
You're taking that chair?
- That's my favorite chair.
- Here.
The only reason I agreed to switch
houses with you lovebirds is this chair.
- No chair, no move.
- Did you clean your bathroom?
Well, I...
You clean your bathroom,
and you can have the chair.
- That's what I thought.
- I'll go first.
- A lot of action...
- Hey.
Hey.
- Hey.
- Hey, Lauren.
- Good luck in school, Michael.
- You too. Kenny.
- You keep Redding on his toes.
- You bet.
- I'm gonna miss you in the O.R., man.
- Yeah, well, one day,
we'll call for a specialist at
our table, and you'll show up.
I look forward to scrubbing
with you, Dr. Rose.
- Dr. Chatham.
- Take care.
- Have a safe drive back there.
- Thanks.
See ya, guys.
- See ya, Michael.
- See you later.
- Suzanne, drive safe.
- I will. Take care of yourself.
Take care.
- Call. See ya.
- The oil!
- Suzanne, check the oil!
- Hey!
But it could leak.
The oil. She...
Rescue me
I want your tender charm
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
'Cause I need you by my side
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
Come on and take my heart
Take your love
and pamper every part
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
'Cause I need you by my side
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
or take me in your arms
Rescue me
I want your tender charm
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby
- Take me, baby
- Take me, baby
- Hold me, baby
- Hold me, baby
- Love me, baby
- Love me, baby
Can't you see
that I need you, baby
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
Come on and take my heart
Take your love
and pamper every part
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
'Cause I need you by my side
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
Come on and take my hand
Come on, baby and be my man
'Cause I love you,
'Cause I want you
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
-
-
- Take me, baby
- Take me, baby
- Love me, baby
- Love me, baby
- Need me, baby
- Need me, baby
-
can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me, rescue me
Captioned by Post Haste Digital
Up and back.
- Steroids.
- Yeah, right.
Mike Chatham, third year.
- I can't seem to find your name.
- You can't find it?
Guess I'll have to give up being a doctor
and take you out to breakfast instead.
Save the bedside manner
for someone else.
Chatham, group eight. OB-GYN.
- How about a rain check on breakfast?
- Lucky me.
Never rains in California.
Chatham!
- Hayes!
- What are you?
- Eight. What are you?
- The same.
- All right. Great.
- Great for you. I can kiss Honors good-bye
with you in my group.
Hello, Michael.
- Julie.
- Unbelievable!
- You and Julie?
- Not anymore. How was love in Denver?
There's this lab assistant.
She's, like, naked under her coat.
- No, she works like that?
- Every day.
Try to keep your beaker
steady with that in the room.
Hayes, you tell that story
to one more person...
- Suzanne.
- Hey, Michael.
Hey. Tell me it's not too
late to quit med school
and come away to Paris with me.
It is, Michael. I already
paid for this year.
Children.
Out of the 98 available
male third-year students,
how come I get the one guy that
I've roomed with for five years?
- What did I do to deserve this?
- You? What about me?
- Group eight?
- Verily.
- Hey, Hayes. How's it goin'?
- Great.
- Suzanne. Chatham. You're in this group?
- Hi, Kenny.
That's good. That's good.
Two surgeons. Great. Maybe I
can skip surgery rotation altogether.
- Nobody'll know I'm missing.
- Yeah.
Hayes passed out last Thanksgiving
when I asked him to carve the turkey.
Completely untrue.
Absolute slander.
- Gina. Hey. - Hey!
- Hi, Gina.
- Michael.
Kenny. How's Lauren?
Don't faint.
We got hitched this summer.
You were the one who always
said marriage made you soft.
Yeah, well, it turns out
it makes you sharper.
- Hey, Mike. Guys.
- It's Gant.
You can always tell
it's the first day of the year.
- Gant's nose isn't brown yet.
- What you guys got?
OB-GYN.
Save my seat there, partner.
Thanks.
I got Redding first. Surgery.
- Lucky you.
- That's easy for you to say.
Redding is a killer. He's the dean of
third year. He's gonna bust my balls.
Mike, what say we share
notes again this year?
You take mine, you mean?
Michael! Suzanne.
- Beautiful.
- Forget it, Gant.
- Here you go, partner.
- Thanks.
I'm Dr. David Redding, dean of
third-year studies and Chief of Surgery.
You know, every year I look
out at the group assembled here,
and I ask myself
the same question:
Why would anyone knowingly
do this to themselves?
For the next year,
your days will not end.
The work will never stop.
Your rank will command
absolutely zero respect.
And, worst of all,
after it's over,
you will be faced with
the horrible realization
that there is nothing
in your medical career
that will ever be as rewarding
as third year.
Third year is like
being an 18-year-old rookie
and being called on to pitch the
seventh game of the world series
blindfolded.
Doesn't get any tougher.
Just remember though that
none of you would be here
if you weren't pretty good
rookies to start with.
Now, for survival purposes, you
have been divided into small groups
that you will stay with all year
through each of your rotations.
The very best in each specialty
will be selected to enter
residency in that area.
There are three internships
in Pediatrics,
two for OB-GYN,
two for Internal Medicine,
and one and only one
for Surgery.
That's my little
neck of the woods.
Your future will depend on how
many honor grades you accumulate
during the course of the year and
whether or not you honor in your specialty.
- Size.
- I know that's very important to you.
For me, the only thing
that really matters
is making you into
the best doctors possible.
Because it is hands-on from this moment on,
people, for the rest of your professional days.
Well, doesn't everybody
look official?
I'm Bobby. I'm Dr. Redding's
physician's aide.
It's my job to show you people
how little you really know.
And... I love my job.
Every morning, you will be at the
hospital an hour before the doctors
to check on your patients'
primary care.
Then the entire team with your
resident will make the rounds.
- During these sessions, you will be pimped.
- Pimped?
Pimped... questioned, probed
and humiliated by the residents,
for interpretations,
diagnoses, complications.
Cases that are really juicy will
be reviewed in grand rounds,
which is the same as regular rounds except
that everybody in the house is there.
If you intend to make Honors, you'd
better know your shit on grand rounds.
I've been in this place
a long time,
and I've never seen anyone
screw up grand rounds
and come out
with Honors. Nobody.
Daily summaries are on green paper,
permanent summaries are on red paper.
Please observe the following
demonstration closely.
Unlabeled blood specimens received
in the specimen receiving room
will be processed as follows.
Nurses... heads, R.N.s,
L.V.N.s, nurse's aides...
It is easy to confuse them.
Don't.
Hi.
- Hi.
- Talking's allowed.
I'm glad you're enjoying
the privilege.
Seeing as how we didn't do
too much of it our first two years,
I thought now that we're in the same
group, we could make up for lost time.
Michael, you've convinced me.
You're very charming.
- Thank you.
- But I'm afraid you've got it.
- Got what?
- Surgeon's ego.
- What is it? A disease? What?
- You look to be a classic case.
- Your personality already fits the prototype.
- And what's that?
As a group, they're narcissistic,
insensitive, chauvinistic,
and their only definition of
success is to win at all costs.
I'm Dr. Margaret
Kennan, chief resident of OB-GYN.
You will begin the first of
your rotations in my domain.
The patient is a 23-year-old gravida
1, para 0, ab-0, 40 weeks gestation,
noted one week ago to have
frank breech presentation.
External versions
attempted two times failed,
so she's been admitted
for elective C-section.
- Buenos das, seora.
- Ola.
Dr. Hayes, why is this patient
having a C-section?
Well...
If she were well, Dr. Hayes,
she wouldn't be here.
Dr. Wyler?
Because the
external version failed.
Delivering a breech presentation might
expose the baby to unnecessary injury.
And what injuries are those?
Dr. Rose?
Nerve damage, prolapsed
cord and delay in delivery of the head.
What about the possible problems
with doing a C-section? Dr. Chatham?
Aspiration from anesthesia, bleeding,
infection, pulmonary embolism.
Good.
- I knew that.
- Some help here!
Dr. Kennan! Seventh baby.
Got hung up in Admitting.
- She's not gonna make it to delivery.
- Okay.
Get over here!
Hold her up for me. I want you to
breathe. Just breathe. Now, push.
Push! Big push. Big push.
Yeah! Don't stop.
Breathe in. Breathe in.
Here it comes. Big push.
Hey! Yeah! Yeah!
Good girl. Relax.
You have a beautiful, perfect, little baby boy.
Wow!
- A baby.
- You're here, people.
Is it too late for law school?
All right. Kenny's
patient, Mrs. Thompkins.
Twenty-three weeks
gestation noted. Hayes?
- Top left.
- Is admitted for strong labor pains.
Don't!
Hayes!
Be careful not to touch
anything. It's a lab experiment.
That you've been growing
for two years. Use mine, Gina.
So, now, what if
the ultrasound shows abruption?
Then the bleeding
will probably stop.
Okay. But what happens
when she begins contractions?
Do an amnio on her.
Determine the baby's age
in case she needs a section.
There's no need to do
a tap on her this soon.
Why don't you just try to stop labor and
see if you can carry her for a few weeks?
- No way. You're wrong.
- No, I'm right.
If it was an abruption, the odds
are that the bleeding will stop.
And if you can stop her labor,
she'll probably go to term.
I mean, there's no need
to risk a tap right away.
You're right.
- What are you drinking?
- Herbal tea. It's from Pakistan.
You can probably
smell it in Pakistan.
It doesn't bother Hayes.
Yeah, my olfactory cells were destroyed
when we first started rooming together.
What do you guys do when, you
know, one of you brings home a date?
What's a date?
In med school? When was the
last time I had a date, Hayes?
I believe the year was 1922.
Woody Wilson had just
taken office, and...
Come on in. It's open.
- Hi.
- Lauren. I thought I was gonna call you.
I thought you were too.
Everybody, this is my wife.
- Lauren. Um, you know Gina.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- This is Michael.
- Hi.
- And Suzanne.
- Hi. - And Hayes.
- How do? - Hey.
- You didn't change.
- No, I just got off work.
What... Jesus.
Look what time it is.
- Where do you work?
- She works in a restaurant.
If you want, I can come back
over when you're done.
No way. You kidding?
We're out of here.
- Um, in the morning.
- Bye.
Well, I think I'll be going too.
Bye, you guys.
Nice meeting you. Bye.
Bye, Gina.
So, how was
your first day at school?
Did you play nice
with the other kids?
I figure there's five guys seriously
in contention for the internship.
Chatham's the one. The other
guys I'm not so worried about.
Kenny, I've known you
since you were 12.
You've gotten everything
you've wanted, including me.
Well, you were easy.
How's the restaurant biz?
Let me put it this way. Get your
M.D. fast, and get me out of there!
- Hi. - Hi.
Need a ride?
No, somebody's gonna pick me up.
It's late. Why don't
you come in and wait with me?
My house is right there.
Michael, I was raised on a military
base. I know how to take care of myself.
This place is a little more like the front
lines at night, if you know what I mean.
I'll just wait out here
with you.
That's a very nice gesture,
and I appreciate it,
but, thanks, no.
Okay.
- Good night.
- Good night.
Look, I'm sorry.
I won't stay out here.
Just do me a favor, will ya?
Hold on to this for protection.
I don't need this, Michael.
No, it's not for you.
It's for me.
You think anybody's gonna attack my house with
you standing in the street holding this thing?
That was nice of you to come
out. Thank you for waiting with me.
It's...
Hey. Batting practice?
See you later.
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Dr. Rose.
So were you able
to sleep through the night?
Great. Your blood pressure looks good.
We'll do an ultrasound next Tuesday.
You seem to be doing pretty well.
- Gina. - I'm late.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Late night?
- Yeah.
Gina, who is this guy?
His name
is Donald Ballentine.
He's Redding's surgery resident.
No kidding?
This may be none of my
business, but... is it serious?
- Would it matter to you if it was?
- No.
I didn't think so.
- Our first baby.
- It was incredible.
I'm so proud.
After what we just saw in there,
I'm not so sure I want children.
- I do, definitely.
- A little Dr. Ballentine?
On second thought.
Sometimes, he's great. He takes this
surgeon-messiah thing a little too far.
I mean, the sex is good,
but I don't think it's worth it.
No. It's worth it. Trust one
who hasn't had it in a while.
- What, nothing?
- Well, who has time to meet anybody with this job?
- Single guy alert.
- Ladies.
Blue is definitely your color.
I need a man, not sleaze.
- What about Hayes?
- Hayes?
Hayes is like my brother. It
would be like committing a-a crime.
But I always thought
you'd be great together.
- Well, we are as roommates. Anyway, he's not my type.
- What is your type?
Well, you know. The kind of guy
you meet, sleep with immediately,
carry on a horrible relationship
with for two or three months
while they make you feel
really shitty about yourself,
then break up with
and never speak to again.
- I know that type.
- Yeah. Bye.
Bye.
- Dr. Chatham.
- Rose.
Thanks, Larry.
You shootin' for
the surgery internship?
Thinkin' about it. You?
Thinking about it.
I guess we're both
thinking about it.
- You know the guy?
- Redding? No. Never met him.
Thought you would have, your
father bein' a surgeon and all.
What, because my father should
know him, I-I would know him?
Yeah. Ain't that
the way it goes?
Chatham? Order's up.
Thanks, Larry.
Breathe. That's it.
Come on, now. Breathe. Breathe.
- How long has it been?
- Sixteen hours.
Sixteen hours?
Prepare for a C-section.
- No!
- Sir, can't we give it a little longer?
It could take five more hours
for that baby to come down,
and I've got 10 more
like her waiting.
- Prepare for a "C."
- I'll wait with her.
How many of these have you done?
Including this one? One.
- Your first.
- Yeah.
Only a third-year
would offer to do this.
So, wait with her.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Breathe.
- Hey! - Hey.
- Sorry I'm late.
- I never thought we'd have a date in the lobby of a hospital.
We had this amazing
triple aneurysm.
We tried to lock him off above
the knee, but we couldn't get it.
So we had to go in
through the other side.
It was amazing.
It's... It's hard to explain.
I delivered my first baby today.
- Really? - Yeah.
That's-that's-that's great.
It must be exciting?
It was a little scary,
to tell you the truth.
You'll get used to it. You'll
be able to do it in your sleep.
God, I remember OB-GYN,
and I thought it was tough.
Now it's like
a walk in the park.
It didn't seem like
a walk in the park to me.
No, you'll get used to it.
I promise.
I gotta get back up there.
This was great. It's the
cheapest date we ever had.
Doctor.
Give me Miss Wilson's chart
in 1217, please.
Thank you.
- Gina. - Hi.
Hi. How'd it go today?
Good. Really good.
How's Rita?
Did she ever deliver?
Yeah. A boy... for 23 hours,
14 minutes and 10 seconds.
Voom! She's out like a light.
And I'm a wreck.
When I was a little girl, I used to
always dream about becoming a doctor,
and doing something
like delivering a baby.
Now you're here doin' it.
- Yeah.
- It's kind of incredible, isn't it?
Congratulations on your
first delivery, Dr. Wyler.
Thank you. You too.
Thanks. See ya.
See ya.
Lauren, hey.
Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't call.
I couldn't find any time.
Hey. Hey, say something.
Come on. I can't stand it
when you don't say anything.
I've been in
a four-hour delivery.
I couldn't get a break to take a
piss, much less give you a call.
I'm sorry. Me too.
How was your day?
Paging
Dr. Rose, Dr. Kenneth Rose.
Well, that's good.
Look...
Look, I gotta go. Yeah, I
know. I'll call, I promise.
I... promise.
Yeah.
Yeah, bye.
A gift from Redding, people.
A list of 30 emergency
drugs. Know them by Friday.
- When's Friday?
- In about eight hours.
Maybe you'll absorb it
by osmosis.
- Who's up? - I am.
- Me too.
- E.R., stat.
- Where's the stomach puncture?
- This one here.
Prep. Come on, you two.
Come on over here and help me.
Dr. Rose, start an I.V.
and hang a unit of plasma.
Dr. Chapman,
I need four red tops.
Damn. What did they use
on this guy, a machete?
Chatham, how do we know if we
need to send this patient to the O.R.?
- Peritoneal lavage, sir.
- That's right.
Okay, let's set up
a peritoneal lavage.
Can I have the otoscope, please?
So, Rose, I understand
you're from Chicago.
Yes, sir.
My folks still live there.
What am I looking for here,
Rose?
- Blood behind the eardrum. Possible skull fracture.
- Right.
Can we drape him, please? Rose, I
need you to infiltrate with Xylocaine.
What do they do... your folks?
My father's in the
restaurant supply business.
Scalpel.
- Chatham, make a small incision there.
- Yes, sir.
Retractor. Rose, hold this retractor,
please. Keep your eyes on it.
So why didn't you get
into the family business?
I always wanted
to be a doctor, sir.
Yeah.
Feed this tube in here, Chatham.
So what about you, Chatham? You
wanna be a doctor like your old man?
Sir, when I was six, I actually thought
about becoming one of The Temptations.
Really?
You didn't pursue it, then?
No, sir. The position's filled.
Keep your eyes
on this tube, please.
- What made you decide to become a doctor?
- Helplessness, I guess.
I'd been marching with
some farm workers in Florida.
I'd been talking to this guy.
All of a sudden, he drops in
front of me with a heart attack.
There I was. I was trying
to save the ills of the world,
and I couldn't even save a guy
who was dying in front of me.
What do you got
in that tube there, Chatham?
Clear solution, sir, indicating
no internal bleeding in the patient.
Good. All right.
Let's stitch him up.
Gentlemen, you know, I think
you're both very promising doctors.
I want you
to remember something.
Who we are and where we come
from, it's really good for chitchat.
But in my program, the only thing
that really matters is how good you are.
All right. Finish up here.
Chatham.
Kenny! Hi.
What's wrong? Are you okay?
Chatham got the Honors
in OB-GYN.
Sweetie. Well, why
didn't you come inside?
How long have you been out here?
- I don't know.
- Come on.
You'll make Honors
next rotation.
Okay?
I can't let this guy beat me.
Not now. I've come too far.
- Good night, Lauren.
- Good night.
George, Nell. I want you
to meet Kenny, my husband.
These are the people I was tellin' you about
that make this place bearable every night.
You're the reason Lauren
has to work in this joint?
- You got a girl with a heart of gold.
- Lucky guy.
Come on. Good night.
Kenny?
It's no big deal.
Yeah.
I gotta go home.
I gotta study.
A full day off. I can think of
about a million things I wanna do.
- What do you think of?
- Women.
Really? That's fascinating.
"Really? That's fascinating."
What? You asked me, I told you.
Will you go get my tofu?
Tofu? No, I don't want...
That stuff looks like-like...
Like tofu. Go get it.
Thank you, ladies and
gentlemen. I'll be back in a few minutes.
So I'm all ready to
do an open-heart on this guy.
And then I look at his chart, and
he's here to get a cleaning and flossing.
I don't know. I tell ya,
I can't get no respect.
Guy walks into a doctor's office. The
doctor says, "I've got some bad news... ".
- How are ya?
- Good.
- How are you?
- Real good. Nice to see you.
- You too.
- Well, everything's set.
We've agreed to renew
the same student loan option
that you've had
for the last two years.
Full tuition.
So if you'll just sign
right there and there.
Sure.
May I ask you a personal
question, Mr. Chatham?
I know your father's a doctor.
These loans are gonna weigh on you
for a good 10, 15 years of your career.
Why don't I just get my dad
to pay for it?
We don't have
that kind of relationship.
It doesn't work that way.
There's something about
a hospital serving liver.
Suzanne, baby, I am desperate. I
need your notes on OB "D" and "C."
"Kennan"? Gant, you're picking
up your resident's laundry?
- Well, she asked me for a favor. She's a little busy.
- "Please, Dr. Kennan.
God, please let me do you
a favor and pick up your laundry!"
Come on, guys. Give me
a break. I'm not that bad.
- Give me a chili dog, will you?
- Excuse us, ladies and gentlemen.
Dr. Gant, you got
anything in there for me?
No, sir. But if you'd like me to
pick anything up or go get anything...
No, no. I'm... I'm just kidding.
All right, George,
don't shit me now.
Is this liver on the up and up
here, or do I go for the regular?
Happy Thanksgiving.
- Dr. Chatham?
- Yes, sir?
Henrietta Walker.
Interesting case?
Yes, sir. Cancer patient.
I'm gonna put her
on grand rounds for Monday.
Hello, Mrs. Walker. I'm Dr. Michael
Chatham, your student doctor.
Just wanted to come introduce myself.
I've had some blood work ordered.
A nurse will come up here
shortly and take some samples.
It might hurt for a moment,
but it'll go away.
I see you're a... an elementary
school teacher. What grade?
Mr. Chatham,
I realize this is
a teaching hospital.
But since I do not want you
practicing dramatics at my bedside,
please drop this transparent act
of the concerned doctor.
You will find this infinitely
easier on both of us
if you'll concentrate on being
direct, accurate and to the point.
I know what I have,
and I know why I'm here.
I don't need hand-holding.
Is that understood?
Yes. Yes.
Drink.
Hayes. Thanks, buddy.
Listen, why don't you take a break in
about an hour? We'll grab some dinner.
You gotta eat, or you're gonna be
worthless for grand rounds tomorrow.
I can't, man. I gotta check
on Miss Walker in an hour.
- I'll get something later.
- Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say.
So, from Suzanne.
- Tell her I said thanks.
- Yeah.
Gina's contribution.
I think you're makin'
real headway with that girl.
Get outta here.
- Are you gonna eat that sandwich?
- Yeah.
- Just checking.
- Right.
- Any time, Dr. Chatham.
- Yes, sir.
The patient, Miss Henrietta
Walker, is a 49-year-old female,
presents with sharp, epigastric
pain, nausea, although no vomiting.
- This has been increasing in the last three months.
- Physical findings?
Distended abdomen
with diffused tenderness,
shifting dullness, and a fluid
wave sign indicating ascites.
- What workup was done?
- CAT scan shows a mass in the area of the stomach.
Endoscopy and biopsy test
positive for gastric carcinoma.
Well, what's your assessment,
Dr. Chatham?
A large gastric carcinoma with
possible spread to the greater omentum.
All right. She's your patient.
How would you treat her?
- Give her several courses of chemotherapy.
- What else?
- Wait for significant improvement and attempt surgery.
- All right.
Let's take a look
at the patient.
- Henrietta.
- Dr. Redding.
I have some friends
with me here.
Let's take a look.
Tell me if I push too hard.
Don't worry. I won't hesitate.
I'm sure you won't.
How are the cats?
Splendid.
Any new additions?
None since the Siamese.
I've decided it's time
to put my house in order
in case I don't come home
this time.
That's an admirable thought,
but one I think
you could put off,
for the immediate future.
All right.
Well, I think Dr. Chatham's
assessment's on the money.
Questions?
I have a question, sir.
- Yes?
- Dr. Chatham,
what if there's intestinal
blockage secondary to metastasis?
Tests haven't revealed that.
What tests?
CAT scan, liver and bone
scan, L.F.T.s, SMA-12.
Those wouldn't necessarily
reveal intestinal obstruction,
or possible pleural effusion,
which, from your presentation,
could be included in this assessment.
That's a good point, Dr. Rose.
All right, let's order an upper
G.I. series for Mrs. Walker.
Thank you, Henrietta. Doctors.
Are you all right?
I was expecting to be attacked,
but not by someone in my own group.
Well, Kenny's a fighter. He's
probably had to fight all of his life.
You know, it's funny. When
Kenny's a tough-ass competitor,
everybody says, "It's all right. It's
okay. Look where he's come from.
He's had it tough. So what
if he's an asshole about it?"
Gina, if I had pulled a stunt like he did
today in there, I'd have been crucified for it.
Why? Because your father's
a surgeon?
- Michael...
- Look, it doesn't matter, okay? It's not important.
All that matters are end results.
Who's the best. I don't like to lose.
Kenny may have fired the first
shot, but I'm gonna win this war.
Michael.
The tests suggested by Dr. Rose
have all been run on the patient.
All prove negative, thus
supporting my initial assessment
that the patient,
Miss Henrietta Walker,
begin a prescribed chemotherapy
regime beginning in two weeks
continuing for
six concurrent weeks.
Thank you, Dr. Chatham.
Good follow-up. Questions?
Finish up with your patient,
Dr. Chatham,
- and then meet up with us in rounds.
- Yes, sir.
Well, I think
that is what is referred to
as a hollow victory.
I'm sorry. I guess sometimes
we get carried away.
It's the competition.
It... I'm sorry.
No need to apologize.
It's entertaining.
You know, I could have gone
to a private hospital.
Pension and disability
are pretty generous
when you've been a teacher
for 25 years.
I chose to be here.
- Why?
- Because this is a teaching hospital.
And being a teacher, I relate to
the process going on around me.
It... It makes me feel less sick,
like I'm back in my classroom.
So how am I doing, Teach?
You're doing pretty well,
Dr. Chatham.
Just don't concentrate
so much on the facts.
Facts are pretty important
around here.
So are people, Doctor.
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Michael, Michael, Michael.
You let me down.
Blowin' Honors this rotation.
Very embarrassing.
Listen, I think you should think
about going to another medical school.
- Perhaps, Walla Walla.
- Got an address?
Next time, kimosabe.
Suzanne. You look great.
Care to dance?
Look at Gant. That snake.
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door get on the floor,
everybody walk the dinosaur
Open the door get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
That's it.
I'm gonna do something
about that guy.
So we go in through the fourth and fifth
ribs, and it looks like it's gonna be routine.
Then it turns out the guy has a
mediastinal mass obstructing the vena cava.
I mean, you wouldn't believe the size
of this thing. Humongous. Incredible.
Are you going
for Surgery too, Gina?
No, um, Pediatrics or
Medicine. I haven't decided yet.
There aren't
a lot of women surgeons.
Why?
Yes, why is that, Donald?
Seems kind of obvious.
Surgery takes a lot of dedication.
It's not the kind of thing
you do for a couple of hours
and then go home
and be with the kids.
And, besides, the things we talk about
in there... tough for a woman to take.
I see. You'd have to
clean up your locker-room talk.
That's bullshit.
What's the problem here? You're
not even interested in surgery.
Well, lucky for me that I'm not.
Excuse me. Bye.
- Hey, where are you goin'?
- Home.
Lauren, it's not your fault. You
didn't know any better. Come on.
- Come on. It's okay. They're our friends.
- No, they're your friends.
If I'd asked you to come spend tonight
with my friends, you would've said no.
Hey, these people
are where our life is.
Where your life is, not mine.
I'm tired. I'd like to go.
I'm stayin'.
Do whatever you want, Kenny.
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody kill the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody kill the dinosaur
Open the door
get on the floor
Everybody kill
the dinosaur...
Hi, Mike. It's Gant.
Listen, I wonder if I can buy you a
beer, and maybe talk over some notes...
Michael, this is your father.
Your mother gave me your
number. I just wanted you to know
that I'll be coming to scrub
with Redding next month,
and I thought you
might like to know, and...
Well, I'll see you there perhaps
if we get a minute, okay?
Have a nice holiday.
Hayes.
Good morning.
Good morning.
- God!
- What time is it?
- 6:30. - 6:30?!
Listen, can I, take the
top one? I'll bring it right back.
- Yeah.
- You're sure you don't mind?
- No. - Good.
I'm gonna use my bathroom.
It's got all my stuff.
Okay.
My God! What have I done?
My God.
Well, Hayes.
You have done it this time.
- Hi. - How are ya?
I'm great. I'm just...
I'm great. And how are you?
Great, great.
I'm great too. Me, I'm
great. Thanks for asking.
See ya.
What's goin' on, Hayes?
Okay, Hayes, you wanna tell me
what's goin' on here?
Me and Suzanne...
We did the wild thing.
You slept with Suzanne?
I thought you guys
were just friends.
We are. We... Well, we were.
Now I'm not so sure.
- Well, have you talked to her about it?
- Not exactly, no.
- Hayes, you've gotta talk to her.
- I know. I know.
All right,
look, don't be stupid.
This could be the greatest thing that
ever happened to your relationship.
Okay, maybe not.
How... How was it?
Well, that's the problem.
See, it-it was really good,
but it wasn't great.
- How about for Suzanne?
- That's the worst of it.
See, for Suzanne,
I think it was,
unbelievable.
It was okay.
How was it for Hayes?
He thought it was incredible.
- Why are you here?
- I came to check up on things.
Haven't you graduated, or whatever
they call it, from this rotation?
You don't exactly graduate.
But, yeah, I'm in Pediatrics now.
I just came down to make sure
you weren't scaring anyone.
You seem to be doing better.
Your weight looks good.
Why don't you ask me if I am
doing better? Or is that taboo?
I'm sorry.
How do you feel you're doing
with the treatment?
Fine. Thank you.
Good.
The important thing
is for you to ask.
Now, how is your
competition progressing?
Fine, I guess.
- Don't you know?
- I just didn't know you were interested.
I simply like to know that whoever's
working on me is competent.
That's all.
Good morning, Dr. Chatham.
Dr. Redding.
- How are we looking there, Dr. Ballentine?
- All set, Doctor.
- All set to go?
- Yes, sir.
- We're ready, Dr. Chatham.
- We'll go in between the fifth and sixth ribs.
- Give me a scalpel, please.
- Scalpel.
- I need the rib spreader.
- Rib spreader.
- Sponge. - Sponge.
- Have a little bleeding present. Cautery.
- Cautery.
Mayo scissors.
Dr. Chatham,
it was great working with you.
- It's a pleasure working with you.
- Thanks. Good to meet you.
So you're doing well here?
Honoring?
Well, so far in everything but
Medicine. There's some stiff competition.
You're in one of the best med schools
in the nation. What'd you expect?
I remember when you were in the
national 14-and-under tennis finals.
You breezed through the first
four rounds without dropping a set.
Then you came up
against that kid, Gomez.
- You remember?
- Yeah.
He beat you the first set,
and then you let down.
You were better. You were
much better than he was.
But when you let down, he took advantage
of you and he beat you three straight sets.
Afterwards, I never saw you drop
your guard again. Don't do it now.
That was 10 years ago. How'd
you remember that kid's name?
It was a pivotal moment.
You always remember
the pivotal moments.
- Good to see you, Son.
- You too, Dad.
- Draft, please.
- Sure.
Hi.
Mind if I sit?
Meeting someone?
- No. - Sure.
- Here you go.
- Thanks.
Sure.
Why is it that when a guy comes
into a bar to be alone with his drink,
no one thinks twice about it?
But when a woman comes in alone, everyone
assumes she's waiting to be picked up?
- Why is that?
- I have no idea.
You know, your father
really is a terrific surgeon.
I guess you've heard that
a million times.
Yeah. About a million and one.
You know, I was eight
years old before I found out
his first name wasn't "Doctor."
All the time
that he lived at home,
I used to go to the hospital
and make rounds with him.
I loved the way people
there treated him. They...
Like he was royalty, you know?
"Dr. Chatham, we need you for this.
Dr. Chatham,
we need you for that."
It wasn't long before I realized those
people knew him better than I did.
And I wanted to be just
like him and as good as him.
I mean, so that
he would talk to me too.
What gets me
worse than anything,
even now,
like today when I see him...
Yeah.
I feel exactly like I felt
when I was eight years old.
I'm still trying.
I'll leave you by yourself.
What do you recommend,
Dr. Hayes?
Well, given the little
girl's allergy to penicillin,
I recommend we start her
on erythromycin.
- Sounds good.
- Here you go, sweetheart.
We'll have you feelin' better
in a flash. Bye-bye.
Thank you, Doctor.
Be well.
For your cough, all you need
to do is when you go home,
grind up about seven or eight
peppercorns and mix it with some honey.
It'll take care of your throat.
- Really? - Yeah.
- I'll try it.
- Okay.
Peppercorns and honey?
Is that some new combination
they taught you in pharmacology?
- Well, I...
- What do you suggest after that?
Eye of newt?
Three eagle feathers?
Jump up three times
and bark at the moon?
It's sort of a secret
family recipe, actually.
Well, I suggest that you keep it
just that, Dr. Maloney... a secret.
You see, when a patient
receives information from you,
they perceive it
as coming from a doctor.
And you are not a doctor.
What specialty
are you heading for?
Well, I was hoping Pediatrics.
Good luck.
Let me tell you about
the stars in the sky
And a girl and a guy
- And the way they kiss
- Hayes?
- On a night like this
- Hi.
- Do you need some help?
- No, no.
I've got it all under control.
Boy. Um...
So they brought this guy
up from Psych for X-ray.
A swallower. Pencils,
pennies... you name it, he'd eat it.
Unfortunately, nobody
bothered to tell me that.
What I got is that
this guy's ready for release.
- No, Hayes.
- Yeah.
- He had the form and everything.
- You didn't release him?
No, no, no, no. He ate my pen
before I got the chance to sign the form.
I'm sorry.
I'm really tired.
- Maybe we should just go to sleep.
- Okay, you're right.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Are you comfortable?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
Okay.
Hey, Billy, your blood is tired.
We're gonna give you a
transfusion to make you feel stronger.
Will it hurt?
Well, it might sting a little when I first
put in the needle, but I'm pretty good at it.
After that, it won't hurt a bit.
Okay, relax.
Dr. Kelly said to go ahead.
The tests are fine.
Great. A little alcohol.
It feels cold.
All right. Now, that
didn't hurt a bit, did it?
Okay. There you go.
- Want me to connect the tubing?
- Yeah, I'll take it.
There you go.
Now just relax.
Take a deep breath.
That's good.
What's happening?
My God! Get help!
Get some help in here!
Suzanne, go get some help!
Code blue! We need some
help here, stat! Dr. Redding, 213!
Get his head up!
What's happening?
- What happened?
- Convulsions. I don't know what happened.
All right.
Let me get in here. Come on.
There's no pulse. All right.
He's coding. Get the cart in here.
Come on.
We need to get him intubated.
Let's get that monitor on.
Get the board under him.
Lift him up.
All right. I'm starting
compressions. Ambu-bag.
One amp bicarb, one amp epi.
Can I see a rhythm strip?
Was there any seizure disorder
on the chart?
No, none.
- How long has he been like this?
- Two minutes.
- What was his diagnosis?
- Anemia.
All right. Let's get ready.
All right. We're charged here.
Ready for defib. Stand back.
There's no response.
Again. Stand back.
Nothing. All right.
I'm going manual.
There's nothing on the
monitor. We're losing him.
Bretylium.
Isuprel.
All right.
Let's defib him again.
All right.
We're going again. Stand back.
We're losing him here.
Come on, kid. Come on.
- Come on.
- Damn it!
Come on, kid. Come on.
Stand back.
Still nothing.
I'm gonna go back to manual massage.
Come on. Come on.
We're not gonna lose you here.
Come on.
We lost him.
- Time? - 11:58.
No, I already
left a message.
Look, when does Dr. Ballentine
get out of surgery?
He already got out?
Great. When did he
get out, please?
All right. Thank you.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Come on in.
- Why don't you come out?
Is this really
out here every day?
Nah. Only when we're working.
Go ahead. Say it.
Get it over with.
You don't think it was my fault...
what happened in there today.
Gina, come on. For every 10 things you
can test for, there's 100 that you can't.
He was my patient.
Gina, there probably
isn't a doctor alive
who hasn't felt responsible
for a patient's death.
I mean, you do something, and
in spite of all your best knowledge,
it goes wrong.
It's not your fault.
Don't beat yourself up for it.
I don't know if I
can go back in there.
I don't know if I'm strong
enough to go back in there.
You are. I know you are.
I don't know if
I'm strong enough.
You are.
What are you doing here?
I got two urgent messages.
I thought there was
something wrong.
I guess I made a mistake.
If you were so worried, why didn't you
call right back when you got the messages?
I don't call you right back, so then
you run off with the next best thing?
Come on, Gina.
God. Donald,
you are a terrific surgeon.
But what I need right now is
somebody who cares about the way I feel,
and you're just not good at it.
I'm sorry.
Shit.
This is surgery, folks,
not a picnic. Get 'em clean.
Your hands, Dr. Hayes.
- Go ahead.
- No, you, please.
No, really. You were first.
Hi.
- You gonna be all right?
- Yeah, I'll be all right.
Congratulations on Honors
in Pediatrics. Way to go.
You too. Double Honors.
Makes this the big showdown.
Good luck.
Rescue me, take me
in your arms -
- Rescue me
- Rescue me
I want your tender charm
Ladies and gentlemen,
the surgery rotation.
I need you and your
love too -
Come on. I know you've
all been waiting for this.
- Sal, you wanna get that?
- Come on, baby
And rescue me
All right, now, people.
Now, the tension
is so thick in here
that I don't know whether
to cut it or the patient.
Can we just concentrate
on the operation? Thank you.
All right. Now, today, we
have a simple cholecystectomy.
If we don't traumatize
the surrounding tissue here,
we can have this patient
going home in a couple days.
You ready, Dr. Ballentine?
- Let's do it.
- Okay, scalpel.
Dr. Wyler, I'd like you
to perform the honors.
Now, if you can just make
an incision from here to here.
Okay. From here to here?
Okay. That's okay.
It's all right.
I'll take it.
All right. The incision is made
here in the mid line from here.
At least he had the decency to wind up on the floor.
- Vivian? - Yes?
- Hi. - Lauren, hi.
- Hi, Lauren. - Hi.
- What are you doing here?
- I got off early.
I thought I'd bring something. We
could have dinner together. Is that okay?
I don't have time
to take a break.
- Not even to eat?
- I grabbed something earlier.
I asked you if it would be okay if I
stopped by, and you said it would be.
Yeah. I thought
it was gonna be later.
Yeah, well, it can't be later, 'cause I'm
working a shift tonight. You know that.
- I don't remember what shift you're working on.
- Lucky you remember anything.
- Goddamn it, I'm working.
- What do you think I'm doing every day and night?
All I want is 10 minutes with
my husband that I never see.
- I think we're gonna take a little walk.
- No. I'm sorry. Don't go.
No, it's okay. There's
things that we need to do.
- It's okay.
- It's fine.
Dr. Rose, what if we were to come in under
the bed of the ninth rib instead of the 11th?
- Suction.
- We would risk traumatizing the pleural space,
possibly resulting
in a pneumothorax.
What other approach
could we use? Hayes?
Well, the patient has
a very large tumor,
and the added exposure by going in
through the ninth rib would lead me...
- Hang in there, Hayes.
- Come on, buddy. Hang in there.
I'm fine. I'm fine. It would
lead me to... use that approach.
I think you're right.
Are we all in agreement?
- Pressure looks good.
- Two-silk.
- Suture.
- Dr. Chatham,
what if the patient were to spike tonight
in post-op and develop a distended abdomen?
- Clamp.
- Worry about intra-abdominal bleeding, check for sepsis.
What kind of workup
would you do?
Complete C.B.C. Look for
an increase in white count.
Get a blood culture,
urine culture, chest X-ray.
- More suction, please.
- Very good.
- Hemostat and sponge.
- Cut.
Damn! Vivian.
Hayes? How are you feeling?
I feel like we gotta
get out of this rotation soon
or I'm gonna end up
on that table myself.
- Redding thinks I'm an idiot.
- No, Redding thinks it's hilarious.
You know, this is the longest
conversation that we've had in weeks.
You're my best friend, Hayes.
I miss that.
Having sex shouldn't interfere
with our friendship.
- But... - It has.
- I miss my couch.
- I want my room back.
You got it.
- Suz? - Yeah?
It was nice though, wasn't it?
Yeah, I'm
telling all my friends.
So where'd you learn that technique
of pulling up through the bottom?
- Redding showed it to me.
- Yeah?
The first time
I've tried it though.
- Pretty impressive.
- Thanks.
Chatham, Ballentine wants you.
Ballentine.
- Is this your patient?
- Yes, sir.
- What's his condition?
- He's just been admitted for a workup for an enlarged liver,
a coin lesion to the lung,
needs an upper G.I.
Well, instead of disappearing into the student
lounge, maybe you better start his workup...
E.K.G, lytes, chem panel, urine
for culture, stool for occult blood.
Order an upper G.I.,
B.E. and a CAT scan.
Get the results to me stat.
You understand?
- Yes, sir. - Good.
Rick, I need these right away.
- You need these now?
- Yeah, now.
Rick. Buddy.
Pal. Putz.
Rick?
Rick!
- Cynthia, where's Dr. Ballentine?
- He's off all day.
What do you mean, "off"?
Have those two workups run tomorrow, and
we'll put 'em on the schedule for next week.
- Chatham.
- Sir, sorry I'm late. I was delayed in lab.
We were talking a bit
about abdominal masses.
Someone can fill you in.
Good luck with that, Dr. Rose.
Thank you, sir.
- What's up?
- Another case came in. It's a renal cell carcinoma.
They're gonna try to operate.
- Redding's gonna let Kenny scrub with him?
- Yeah.
That's great. I mean,
that's great. That's great.
- Your patient's in room 218.
- Thanks, Suz.
X-rays go pretty fast.
Just couldn't stay away?
If you find that entrance line
humorous or calming,
we have a major problem.
Well, you'll like
this one better.
The chemo's worked.
We shrunk the tumor.
What does Dr. Redding say?
He's got you ordered
for surgery in a week.
He's also ordered you a new
diet and some supplemental fluids
to get you up
to fighting strength.
He thinks I'm too weak to
make it through the operation.
No, it's mainly to help you
after the operation.
I told you before
I'd have none of that.
- Of what?
- Bedside lying.
Miss Walker,
you're going to be just fine.
That's better.
I almost believed you.
Now get some rest.
- Don't I know you from somewhere?
- Hey, stranger.
- Hi. - Hi.
Wait. Wait.
He's got his operation tomorrow.
Wait. Michael.
Come on.
- Where?
- Let's go.
What?
Where are we going?
Michael.
My God.
Tie this
vessel right here and
cut this.
Scissors. Cut.
What do we have to
watch for here, Rose?
Superior mesenteric artery.
Cut right here.
Scissors. Okay.
It's completely
encased the aorta.
We can't get it out without
compromising the intestinal blood supply.
Well, what did the pre-op
I.V.P. show?
The mass didn't cross
the mid line.
All right. We're out of here.
Isn't there
something we can do?
You know, Dr. Rose, sometimes
you have to know when to quit,
and hope to come back
to fight another day.
Maybe after some chemo, we
can come back in here, but...
Close him.
Two layers of nylon, please.
Shit.
Go
ahead, man. Close him up.
Suture. Pick-ups.
How ya doin'?
Look, there's no way
you can test for that.
- It's not your fault.
- Come on.
- What do you care?
- What are you talking about?
I could have tested for it.
- I should've thought of an angiogram.
- Next time.
What do you mean, "next time"?
You've got it
wrapped up, Chatham.
I'm gonna stay at Nell's.
I left the number on the table.
- For how long?
- I don't know. A while.
I just gotta get through
this year on top.
You knew that
this would be hard.
I knew you'd have to work. I
didn't know you'd have to resent me.
I don't resent you. I
Kenny, every time you walk in here
and I'm waiting for you, you resent me.
Every time I call you,
you resent me.
Every time we go out with your
friends and I don't have anything to say...
Forget it. You don't
hear, and I can take that.
What I can't take is how this
goddamn competition has changed you.
You haven't made me
a part of things.
The patient's weight is 120
pounds, hemoglobin is up to 10.7.
However, future weight gain will not be
as dramatic... falling off by 20 percent...
Therefore offsetting any advantage that
we may gain by delaying the operation.
Very good.
Dr. Ballentine and I are gonna do our little
work in the O.R. so we can get you out of here.
Well, it's about time everyone
stopped talking and did something.
I agree. Dr. Ballentine is
gonna be performing the surgery,
and I've also asked Dr. Chatham
to scrub so he can assist.
So we'll all be seeing you
in the O.R.
Okay? Spirits up.
- Are you nervous?
- No.
That was good.
I am scared.
Don't be. There's
no reason to be scared.
Everyone here is the best. You
don't need to worry about it. I promise.
- Okay? - Okay.
I promise.
Okay.
- Tie that blood vessel there.
- Debakey pick-ups.
- Suction. - Clamp.
Chatham, what would you do next?
- Go through the omentum to the lesser sac, sir.
- Right.
Dr. Ballentine, why don't you let
Dr. Chatham work in here for a little while?
Come on, Chatham.
- Metzenbaums.
- Metzenbaums.
- Hemostat.
- Hemostat.
So what's the game plan?
Chatham: Connect the
esophagus to the jejunum.
And how do you plan
to drain this?
With a long N.G. tube
and multiple drains.
Let's get all the packs out of
here and take a sponge count.
- Don't wanna leave anything in there.
- Yes, sir.
Can you wrap up here?
I got a plane to catch.
All right. Thanks very much,
people. You've been great.
- Dr. Chatham?
- Yes, sir.
- You did real good in there.
- Thank you, sir.
Why don't you
close up shop for us?
Yes, sir.
Dr. Chatham,
report to post-op.
Dr. Michael Chatham to post-op.
Sarah, how's she doing?
I checked her last 20 minutes
ago. There's definitely a dip.
- Dr. Ballentine leave any instructions?
- No.
Thank you.
Dr. Ballentine.
Sir. Dr. Ballentine.
- What?
- Henrietta Walker's condition is getting worse.
Her blood pressure's dropping,
her pulse is thready,
and her urine output
is very low, sir.
That's just third spacing after
abdominal surgery. It happens all the time.
Sir, I know about third spacing.
I think this may be cardiac.
Dr. Ballentine, report to E.R., stat.
Dr. Ballentine to E.R., stat.
Just increase her fluids
and keep an eye on her.
Sir, I was thinking.
What about adding dopamine?
- If we did, it would increase her...
- Chatham, you think too much.
Just increase her fluids.
How is she doing?
B.P.'s way down, and
urine output's almost at 0.
What are you gonna do?
Dr. Ballentine? Excuse me. I need
to talk to you about Miss Walker.
- I can't right now.
- Sir, she's not responding.
- We have to do something.
- Do what?
She's not dehydrated, sir.
She's in cardiogenic shock.
She needs some dopamine
to increase her cardiac output.
Sir, I learned
about this in Medicine...
Look, every third-year student
thinks their patient has
what they just learned about.
She'll respond to the fluids. I'll
get up there as soon as I can.
- When's that? When she codes?
- Get the hell out of here.
Look, the best thing you can do is
just let it go and hope for the best.
- Did you try Redding?
- No, I can't reach him.
- He's on a plane somewhere.
- You're stuck, man.
It's Ballentine's patient.
He's the doctor.
- Chances are he's right.
- What if he's not?
You can't buck protocol.
They'll kick you out. You'll lose
the internship, everything. Go home.
You're beat. There's
nothing more you can do.
Stat.
Waiting on a co-signature.
Do you have any idea of the
seriousness of what you've done?
Yes, sir. Broke protocol.
You cut yourself off
from the hospital.
You challenged and overruled
a resident of mine
whose experience outweighs you
by quite a few years.
Sir, it was clear Miss Walker was not
responding as expected to the medication.
Her readouts were extremely low.
- I had to do something.
- No, Dr. Chatham.
Dr. Ballentine
had to do something.
He was also aware of the
factors affecting her condition,
and it was his studied opinion to
continue the medication as planned.
Sir, he was not aware.
Well, then it's your
responsibility to make him aware.
At the moment, I thought the patient's life
was more important than the rules, sir.
- What would you have done?
- That's not the point.
I cannot run a program
where a student is allowed
to act on his own, no matter
how good his intentions are.
I would rather accept the
responsibility of breaking the rules
than losing
a patient's life, sir.
And if your choice had
proved to be incorrect,
would you have been prepared to
accept the responsibility for her death?
Saving someone's life does not
make you infallible, Dr. Chatham.
We're human. We make mistakes.
I think you have the makings
of a fine doctor,
but you haven't even begun to experience
the complications of a human body.
Now, until you're able to understand
the limits of your knowledge,
I'm not gonna allow you
to practice in this hospital.
You're suspended from all duty
until further notice.
Yes, sir.
I don't believe it.
I counted it up. I spent 68 hours
away from this place since we got here.
That's 2.8 days.
I don't know where to go.
Hey, we need goblets on 16.
You got it.
- You doing okay?
- Yeah.
How's school?
Chatham got suspended.
- What happened?
- Broke a rule.
He went against Ballentine.
So I guess that makes you
number one.
Congratulations.
The day you left,
I operated on this guy.
We opened him up, and there
was nothing we could do for him.
I felt so helpless.
I would have done anything
to help that guy.
Michael felt the same way.
The thing is,
he saved Ballentine's ass,
but he's getting screwed for it.
I don't know
what's important anymore.
Except... I know...
that you are.
Do you think you're coming home?
- Dad. - Michael.
- What are you doing here?
- Your mother called me.
I wanna know what's happened.
I made a decision.
That's what happened.
There's a lot of people who
think I did the wrong thing.
I know I did the right thing.
I'm prepared to accept
the responsibility.
Listen. When I was starting out,
I wanted to believe that
medicine was an exact science,
but there are
too many variables,
too many random possibilities.
I finally understood
that my instinct
was as important
as my knowledge...
That actually my knowledge
informed my instinct,
and that I should trust it.
It took a lot of courage
to believe that.
But I knew that if I turned my back
on something I really believed in
that I'd never be able
to live with myself.
If you did something because
you really believed in it,
you did the right thing, Son.
Is your hearing tomorrow?
Yeah.
Come on. Let's talk about it.
Dr. Chatham, the facts of this
incident are pretty much on the table,
except for one area...
Why Dr. Ballentine didn't respond to your
request for examination of Mrs. Walker.
I can't speak
for Dr. Ballentine, sir.
Would you say that you had a close
relationship with the patient... Mrs. Walker?
- I knew her fairly well.
- "Fairly well"?
She was my patient
during my medicine rotation.
I've followed her progress
for the past several months.
And you kept up with her case even after
you had moved on to a different rotation?
Yes, sir. I was
interested in her progress.
Do you think it's possible, Doctor,
that your relationship with the patient
might have clouded your reasoning
and caused you to be unduly alarmed?
Perhaps even overemotional in
your conversations with Dr. Ballentine?
No, sir. That's impossible.
I responded to the evidence.
Michael, is there any reason
that you're aware of
that Dr. Ballentine didn't
respond to your prompting?
Dr. Ballentine is
an excellent physician.
He's been in this situation
numerous times.
Now, given that information, can you think of
any reason why he should ignore your advice?
No, sir, I can't.
Thank you, Doctor. The
board will review the information.
Dr. Redding will make a final
determination in a day or so.
- You may go.
- Thank you, sir.
Dr. Redding.
Hey, Rose,
congratulations
on the internship.
It's not official yet,
but it will be. Way to go.
It was a pleasure
working with you, sir.
Dr. Redding!
Dr. Rose.
About Michael Chatham.
I thought you should know the problem
between him and Dr. Ballentine is personal.
Michael's been seeing
Gina Wyler.
Dr. Ballentine
had been dating her.
Are you implying that Dr. Ballentine
would jeopardize a patient
because of a problem
with Michael Chatham?
I'm saying it's a factor
that hasn't been taken into consideration
in Michael Chatham's suspension.
You understand if what you're telling me
has any bearing at all on his suspension,
you're the one that has
the most to lose by it?
I guess that's why I'm here.
I'm the most credible person
you could hear this from.
- Habit.
- She's doing fine.
- Gonna be released next week.
- Yeah?
Michael.
- Hi. - Hi.
- I came by, but you haven't been home.
- I've been out.
- Are you okay?
- Yeah, I'm fine. Where are you working tonight?
Emergency. Listen, I think
that you should know,
Kenny went to see Redding
about Donald.
- What'd he say?
- Why don't you ask him?
Will you come by
and visit me later?
- Yeah, sure.
- Okay.
Kenny.
- How's it going?
- Listen, I heard you talked to Redding.
Yeah. Don't hold your breath.
He wasn't knocked out by it.
Why'd you do it? You got
the internship wrapped up.
Yeah, it looks that way.
But I wanted to win it.
In my mind, I didn't want an
asterisk up next to my name
saying, "Michael Chatham
should've won this."
Thanks.
Thanks.
Doctor, we have multiple
incoming burn patients.
- God, what the hell happened?
- A tanker truck was rear-ended on the freeway.
We've got 20 on the way.
Okay, I want everyone available
down to E.R., stat.
Everybody on the double
out here! Come on! Stat! Stat!
The E.R.'s full!
What do we got here?
Is she alert?
I got a bleeder.
I'm gonna need some help here.
The patient has no pulse.
We got a code blue.
Give me one amp epi,
one amp bicarb, stat.
We're gonna give you something
for the pain. Just take it easy.
- We're gonna get you cleaned up and out of here.
- Give me the three-silk.
Hayes, you all right there?
Yeah. I got it.
Let's go! Move
it! Watch your back!
- Give me a hand.
- Clear.
- We're gonna have to shock him.
- Coming through. Get out of the way, buddy.
- He's got a pneumothorax. Get the chest tube, suction.
- Yes, sir.
Get him prepped quick.
Chatham, grab that patient
and get in here.
Come on, Chatham.
Get that patient over there.
All right.
Let's get the chest tube.
Hi, my name's Dr. Chatham.
Let's see what we got here.
Xylocaine, one percent.
He's gonna make it.
Okay, let's get the next one.
- Hey. - Kenny.
Dr. Rose, Chatham,
sit down, please.
Since you two are so relaxed,
I'm gonna dispense
with the formalities
and get to the point.
Chatham, as of today, your
suspension has been removed.
It is the decision of the board
that your actions,
however irresponsible, were
motivated out of a set of circumstances
which fall outside
the protocols of the hospital.
Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
Now, as to your futures.
Dr. Rose,
your request for transfer to Chicago
Medical Center has been accepted.
You will complete
your fourth year there,
and I've recommended you
for the internship in Surgery.
Thank you, sir.
Dr. Chatham,
that leaves you and me.
You will finish up
your fourth year here,
and I've approved you
for the surgery elective.
I thought we'd get a jump
on that internship.
Yes, sir.
Hey, Suz, did you check that
stuff that makes the brakes work?
The brake fluid? Yes, Hayes.
Gas, gas. Did you check the
gas? Have you got a full tank?
Yes. And, you know, if I run out, I
just might be able to find a gas station.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm gonna miss you, Hayes.
I mean,
you're only going to Denver.
It's not like you're
going to Mars or something.
Why do you have to
go away for fourth year?
Because it's a better
pediatrics program for me.
How am I gonna get through this
without you?
The same way I will, Hayes.
On the telephone.
Hayes, give me a shot here.
You're taking that chair?
- That's my favorite chair.
- Here.
The only reason I agreed to switch
houses with you lovebirds is this chair.
- No chair, no move.
- Did you clean your bathroom?
Well, I...
You clean your bathroom,
and you can have the chair.
- That's what I thought.
- I'll go first.
- A lot of action...
- Hey.
Hey.
- Hey.
- Hey, Lauren.
- Good luck in school, Michael.
- You too. Kenny.
- You keep Redding on his toes.
- You bet.
- I'm gonna miss you in the O.R., man.
- Yeah, well, one day,
we'll call for a specialist at
our table, and you'll show up.
I look forward to scrubbing
with you, Dr. Rose.
- Dr. Chatham.
- Take care.
- Have a safe drive back there.
- Thanks.
See ya, guys.
- See ya, Michael.
- See you later.
- Suzanne, drive safe.
- I will. Take care of yourself.
Take care.
- Call. See ya.
- The oil!
- Suzanne, check the oil!
- Hey!
But it could leak.
The oil. She...
Rescue me
I want your tender charm
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
'Cause I need you by my side
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
Come on and take my heart
Take your love
and pamper every part
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
'Cause I need you by my side
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
or take me in your arms
Rescue me
I want your tender charm
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby
- Take me, baby
- Take me, baby
- Hold me, baby
- Hold me, baby
- Love me, baby
- Love me, baby
Can't you see
that I need you, baby
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
Come on and take my heart
Take your love
and pamper every part
'Cause I'm a-lonely
and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on, baby and rescue me
'Cause I need you by my side
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me
Come on and take my hand
Come on, baby and be my man
'Cause I love you,
'Cause I want you
Can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
-
-
- Take me, baby
- Take me, baby
- Love me, baby
- Love me, baby
- Need me, baby
- Need me, baby
-
can't you see
that I'm a-lonely
Rescue me, rescue me
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