Critic’s Rating: 4.25 / 5.0
4.25
It’s another hour in the emergency department on The Pitt Season 1 Episode 3, and it helps you see how the season’s storytelling will unfold.
New patients may come and go, but we’re paying closer attention to some of the worst the system deals with, whether they’re agonizingly sad, humorous, or sometimes frightening.
So let’s see where things stand in hour three of this 15-hour shift.
Whitaker’s Being Tested
It’s Dennis Whitaker’s first shift, and he’s already being tested to the hilt.
He lost his first patient, and letting him go was incredibly difficult. It didn’t help that Santos razzed him right after, but maybe that’s how you normalize the process.
It might have done more than Robby’s attempt to comfort him.
Robby: This was not your fault. This was nobody’s fault. No doctor could on the planet could have caught this. Listen, it sucks, but today, today was this guy’s day to leave this mortal coil. One-hundred and fifty thousand people die every day in the world and you got one of them. But you learn to live with it and you learn to accept it as much as your own mortality and find balance if you can.
Whitaker: You found balance?
Robby: No, not even close. But, I, I, you know, you keep tryin’, which is all you can do.
I loved that Robby was focused almost exclusively on Whitaker as he continued compressions on Mr. Milton, though. His eyes were trained on the young doctor without a second glance toward Mr. Milton.
Mr. Milton is gone, but Robby still has time to save Whitaker’s future and help him accept the first loss of someone in his care.
Here’s another thing to keep in mind: This won’t be the first time Whitaker takes a bath in miscellaneous fluids. It becomes a bit of a running gag, with each time worse than the last
Corridor Care is a Thing
Whitaker’s story also brings up a broader topic that is more prevalent in the UK but has also been written into The Pitt.
For reasons I don’t entirely understand, patients are often left in hallways or even treated there because there isn’t enough space in hospitals. Could Mr. Milton have been saved if he hadn’t been left haphazardly in the middle of traffic in a busy hospital?
You’d think that patients would be seen more than usual out in the open like that, but the opposite may be true. When you walk by someone so many times a day, they become invisible.
They can also become annoying, like the older wisecracking woman who doesn’t appear to have a room but is convalescing in the hallway, frequently pestering Dr. Robby.
It may be good for a laugh, but she’s a human being, seemingly just as in need of care as Mr. Milton and countless others who are languishing in the Pitt’s hallways.
When You Say “Don’t Mean to Be a Dick,” You’re Usually Being a Dick
Here’s a hint for anyone who doesn’t already know it. If you preface a statement with “I don’t mean to be a dick,” the chances are you know very well how dickish you are about to be.
Langdon has been working with Robby for how long and still doesn’t know why he’d be holding Nick Bradley rather than shuffling him out of the ED?
We’ve seen Dr. Robby in action now, and in this short time, we already know he goes to great lengths to treat his patients and even more to ensure their family members don’t wind up back in the ER.
Caring for the family of patients is crucial. That task often falls solely on nurses, so I really appreciate seeing doctors stepping up to the plate, too.
It also shows us how doctors have to broaden their scope of care when there is a nursing shortage. Maybe Dr. Robby wasn’t always this caring. We may never know. but it does surprise me that the patient satisfaction administrator hasn’t recognized this in Dr. Robby.
Has she ever spent time in the ED? I don’t see how she could have if she’s putting so much emphasis on his performance in relation to patient satisfaction scores.
So far, the only people we’ve seen who are not entirely patient-focused are Langdon, Santos, and perhaps Garcia, although we’ve barely scratched the surface with her.
Dr. Robby is allowing time for Nick Bradley’s parents to come to terms with their son’s brain death. He’ll also be a great candidate for organ donation. Rushing them out of that caring place could mean others will suffer, too.
Nick Bradley’s Story Is Tragic, but So Is Jenna’s
It’s always so easy to say, “Hey, don’t do drugs.” But kids will be kids, and experimentation is the rule, not the exception.
You think you’ll live forever, and one B on a test might be the end of your life. Your brains aren’t fully developed. It’s the literal time for making bad decisions so that you can learn from them.
But in today’s world, one bad decision can end your life. I remember taking what I thought was “speed” in high school. I had no idea what it was, but I wanted to be cool. Today, being cool or worrying about staying up longer to pass a test can mean death.
The war on drugs (as ridiculous and futile as it sounds) has never been more important. It needs to be fought in an entirely different way, but war still needs to be waged.
Nick Bradley didn’t do drugs. Neither did Jenna. But they both found themselves in the hospital after taking one supposed Xanax. Nick didn’t make it; Jenna did, but it will haunt her for the rest of her life.
There Ought to Be a Law
There ought to be a law about taking patients from the same incident to different hospitals.
Mr. Bradley’s outburst was emotional and pure, but it was unfair to Jenna. Nobody knows the story about why she’s alive, and Nick isn’t. That will come later. His death and his father’s blame will never leave her.
Now, if she’s responsible, it will be harder to care if she suffers. But if she isn’t… you see where I’m going with this.
We see too often on medical shows how warring gangs are brought to the same hospital for treatment or how victims and perpetrators are in nearby exam rooms. Hell, I was down the hall from my attacker as he screamed at me from the other room.
Allow me to say that it didn’t do anything for my stress and made the whole situation worse.
Is Mel on the Spectrum?
Mel is, by far, my favorite new Pitt physician. She’s adorable, but I also wonder if she’s on the autism spectrum. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just an interesting facet of her character.
When she had the emotional response to death that she controlled by humming and intertwining her hands tightly, it certainly made it seem as though she was unique in that way.
Interestingly, I’ve also recently started watching the ’90s show Chicago Hope and a character retreated to the bathroom to sing Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head to alleviate his stress. There’s no doubt that the medical field is stressful work, so I wonder how prevalent this kind of thing really is.
When Mel had a burst of inappropriate clapping, though, it was just as shocking as Whitaker’s phone ringing during the moment of silence on The Pitt Season 1 Premiere.
I’m trying to imagine myself walking into an emergency department, trained or not, and being expected to fly when you can barely walk the job yet. It’s pretty incredible when you think about it.
The Ol’ Framing Nail to the Chest Trick and Other Laughs
Another thing that The Pitt has in common with Chicago Hope is how they portray their patients as incredibly human and quote humor in their worst hours.
On The Pitt Season 1 Episode 3, a man arrived with a nail possibly puncturing his heart, and all he could do was scream in anger at his treating physicians as if they were interrupting his busy day.
Patient: [growling] This place sucks. I will destroy you on Yelp. Nobody’s ever coming to this shithole again, I swear to god.
Dr. Robby: From your mouth to God’s ear!
That’s twice now that someone has alluded to leaving hospital reviews online to ward off people from choosing the trauma center. Well, good luck with that, pals, because the ambulance will do what the ambulance does.
Still, the guy was hilariously irate, and even though he was pissed off, it lightened the load for him and the doctors. If he wasn’t so busy railing at the docs, he might have realized he was in real trouble. I think that would be worse.
Another patient was suffering a heart attack and was in similarly good humor.
Dr. Robby: If everything goes as planned, it will be like you never hade a heart attack. We’re gonna put a catheter in this artery right here. We’re gonna shave the hair with a clipper…
Mr. Gellen: As long as you stop short of a Brazilian.
Dr. Robby: It’s an option we offer. It costs a little bit more. A lot of people’s insurance won’t cover it.
Mr. Gellen: [chuckles] Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.
I’m curious to know if you all have been in similar situations and behaved the same way. I know I have.
My first time in an ambulance, I had the paramedics laughing out loud. My whole family has a beautiful sense of self-deprecating humor, which always erupts at the most traumatic times.
Dr. Robby Doesn’t Let Up on Mohan
Was anyone else annoyed when Mohan said, “I work at the speed I’m comfortable at”?
I’m all for high patient satisfaction scores and can totally agree that doctors too frequently treat people like breathing cadavers, existing only to treat and move on in the hopes that they’ll learn something along the way.
But when you work in the emergency department with a waiting room full of people who need treatment, you don’t get to act as if those people who need treatment don’t exist.
Mohan fears making a mistake and losing a patient, but so does every other doctor. Robby’s advice to consider another specialty was spot on. Concierge medicine sounds like it might be more her speed than an ER rotation.
But she has her strong suits, too. Kudos to her for taking Whitaker under her wing and helping him find his bearings after losing Mr. Milton. She may be fearful of losing patients or making mistakes herself, but it also makes her more aware of what others are going through.
Dr. Robby Has to Pee
When doctors like Mohan work at a slower pace, it means other doctors have to pick up the pace and keep up a breakneck pace that runs them ragged.
I keep going back to the patient satisfaction scores of this ED because after three hours, I find it impossible they could be correct.
Dr. Robby doesn’t even allow himself time to take a whiz because his attention is almost entirely patient-focused.
My mood sours when I need to pee, so how long can Dr. Robby hold it before his mood deteriorates, too? Maybe that’s what’s been affecting those scores!
The Difference Between Two Struggling Families
And finally, in the most heartbreaking stories of the season, the juxtaposition between the Spencer and Bradley families continues.
Mr. Spencer wound up in restraints because he tried ripping out his breathing tube, and I’m having a hard time understanding how his children can let it happen when they hold the key.
This must be the first time Helen has ever dealt with death. I thought their mother was gone, but if Helen can allow her father to linger, suffering like he is, then this is at least the first time she has dealt with a sick person taking the next step.
Even her brother Jereme asked, “Why is he so agitated?” It’s as if they didn’t listen to what Dr. Robby said. A the very least, they didn’t understand it. They also don’t watch medical shows, which is a clear benefit to those of us who do.
Every step they take to try to extend their dad’s life just adds a different set of complications and the need for more treatment.
Meanwhile, the Bradleys are handling things far better, thanks to Dr. Robby’s care. Yes, John Bradley did lash out at Jenna, but it’s to be expected under the circumstances. After the Spencer family heard the Bradleys cry out in the second episode, I wonder how they view their ED neighbors.
Other ED Happenings
- Every vape pod is an entire pack of cigarettes. Damn.
- Yes, we do in a society where people steal ambulances. Sigh.
- I don’t think Santos is going to be likable any time soon. The closest she came was with a high-five with Javadi. She just rubs me the wrong way.
- Am I the only one wondering if perhaps Javadi IS too young for the profession? She should be out making dumb decisions like Nick and Jenna with her underdeveloped brain, not treating patients.
It’s your turn! Are you enjoying The Pitt? If you’ve made it this far, why not drop below and let me know what’s on your mind?
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