There are four words that no hospital patient ever wants to hear: We can’t help you. There are so many situations in which these words manifest, but the worst is in situations with solutions. Most medical cases have solutions, but the money to cover the cost of those solutions is a different story. Chicago Med‘s wave of budget cuts has trickled down to every nursing hour, and trickled back up the hospital’s bottom dollar. It’s easy to say “not today” to a scenario where money, or some other obstacle prevents a patient from getting what they need, but it’s less easy to come up with a long-term solution.
Somehow I was jaded enough to think that Connor’s post-breakup spiral would be a professional one. Instead, he’s cool as a cucumber at work, while driving an expensive car. It’s not as if Connor lives his life based on his bank account, or that he hasn’t seen poverty up close. It’s just easier not to worry about expensive medical bills when you’ve never had to worry about them yourself. He and Halstead treat a comic who has trouble finding the funny in her cancer diagnosis. Her tumor removal is covered by Medicaid, but the hospital refuses to pay for the care of a previously overlooked bone cancer. Connor has to make a very generous donation to the hospital in order to give his patient the care that she needs. I’m inclined to agree with Ms. Goodwin’s overall outlook on the subject. Yes, Connor saved a patient today, but he can’t do this for every patient, all of whom deserve the best treatment available.
Then there are those times when no amount of treatment can help the situation. April and Manning see that firsthand with a young woman who infects her boyfriend with a superbug she has been carrying for a decade, and will never be able to get rid of. She would rather leave him heartbroken than risk making him sick again.
Choi treats a woman with severe anorexia, and we mean severe. The woman is so far into her sickness that she counts the calories of her medication, and she’s not enough strong enough to move. Anorexia isn’t just about food and weight. It’s a disease deeply rooted in control. If bargaining won’t work, and she can’t even allow a feeding tube in, then there is no hope. This is why Dr. Charles called anorexia the deadliest mental illness he’s ever known. There is literally nothing he can do to save Choi’s patient.
With Dr. Charles tied up with the anorexic patient, Dr. Reese spends most of her first day back after her suspension flying solo. That was a bad idea. Just because Reese can be in the same room with patients, doesn’t mean she is ready to be a doctor again. She can’t even get close enough to her patient to do a basic physical examination. Without that, Reese jumps to the wrong conclusion and misdiagnoses. The fear is not going away. Not that it should realistically disappear after a few weeks, but perhaps throwing Reese into the deep end wasn’t the best plan.
There wasn’t anything altogether comforting about this week’s Chicago Med, other than baby Owen giving Halstead not one, but two, black eyes.
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