Meet The Cast

S01E05

A well-dressed middle-aged woman walks into the hospital, looking for her husband, who may be a patient at the hospital. The first person she talks to behind the desk barely listens to her before placing the staff meal order. The second person blows her off entirely. She corners Wyatt, who gets a page in the middle of the conversation and tells her to talk to someone behind the counter. Finally, she gets a hold of Ollie and begs for her help. The woman explains that she was away over the weekend, and when she got back, her husband was gone, and his work said that they had gotten a call about his medical coverage from Metropolitan General. The woman gets understandably frantic, and says that her husband's name is David Porter. Ollie describes him, and once they have verified that they're talking about the same guy, says that Mr. Porter came in Saturday with chest pains and had some tests. Mrs. Porter wants to know if her husband is okay, and Ollie leaves to get the last doctor that treated him. It's not looking good for Mr. Porter, is it? If he was fine, Ollie would just say so. Mrs. Porter takes a seat.

Ollie wants to know why Boies has to talk to the wife. It's Boies' job, he says. Ollie points out that there may be legal issues. Boies says she's not helping. Ollie wants to know what Boies will say, but he doesn't know, and he heads over to greet Mrs. Porter. After introducing himself, Boies tells her that her husband was admitted, and there were complications, and her husband went into shock and died of cardiac arrest. Mrs. Porter says, "I can't breathe." Boies apologizes again, but Mrs. Porter still can't breathe. You're a doctor, man! Do a tracheotomy or something! But I think poor Mrs. Porter needs more than that.

Ben and Max are walking down the hall discussing the upcoming "M & M" conference, which we discover stands for "Morbidity and Mortality." Ben is of the opinion that said conference is about "assigning blame" and "covering [their] asses." Max feels that it's about "learning from [their] mistakes." Anyone who has watched ER can tell you that Ben is mostly right. They meet up with Lab Guy (I think he has a name, and I think it's Pirandello, but I'm just going to call him Lab Guy), who says he loves "Death and Donuts" because it's like the Roman Coliseum. This is the same guy who wanted to put a picture of Hitler in the lab last week. He's quirky. We see many other doctors filing in and taking seats.

Max starts off the conference by reminding everyone that this is confidential, and turns things over to Ben. Stiles is called on to present the case. The patient, David Porter, was forty-one years old, and came in with "radiating chest pains." We flash back to Stiles interviewing Porter, who doesn't smoke or exercise. They establish that the pain is like someone pressing on his chest, and he's been experiencing it all morning. Stiles suggests the symptoms of a heart problem (pain down the left arm, tingling fingers) and Porter isn't sure. Stiles says it could be "stress, heartburn, pinched nerve," or something cardiac related. Stiles wants to do an EKG to be sure.

Ben asks Stiles about the test, and she says she took Porter to the technician and then waited for the results. Cut to Stiles complaining to Boies that none of the staff is friendly to her. Boies tells her to relax, and tells her about a guy who got a blood clot from flying coach. Really? That's scary. Stiles wishes Boies a good day off, and someone comes up to tell her the EKG is done. While looking at the test results, she goes to ask the tech which one is Porter's, because they're apparently not labeled. The tech is on the way out and doesn't answer her. Stile looks at several test results, and finds one that apparently meets her requirements. She tells Ben that the EKG revealed heart problems. Ben establishes that the EKGs were not labeled, and that she picked the one that fit the diagnosis she had already made, but she really didn't know if it was Porter's results. That Ben is tricky. He should be a lawyer. Or a homicide detective. Stiles gets upset at being caught in her mistake. Ben asks what she did , and after recovering some composure, Stiles says that "the threat of infarction appeared high on [their] differential," so she sought out "a cardiac consult, and a follow-up EKG."

Cut to Sid telling Porter that his follow-up EKG appears normal. Porter says he's feeling better, and wants to go home. He makes a joke about a "honey do" weekend -- in other words, "honey do this, honey do that." Aw, that's so Hi and Lois. In the process of explaining, he reveals that his wife is away for the weekend. Sid and Stiles ask him about stress, and Porter says he's a day trader, which Sid says seems like a stressful job. Sid says the new test doesn't mean Porter doesn't have a heart problem -- once the patient is removed from stress, the tests will often go back to normal. Stiles asks to see Sid outside. Stiles objects to keeping Porter there. Sid thinks Porter is "walking the ragged edge of disaster," and wants to "pull him back from the brink." Stiles looks concerned.

Sid tells Ben that it was decided to "transfer the patient to the cardiac catheterization lab" for surgery. Ben asks if Sid decided this himself. Sid says he consulted with the head of Cardiology. Cut to Sid trying to convince Heart Guy to do the surgery. Heart Guy doesn't think it sounds necessary, and he's got a squash game at four. Well, good to know his priorities are in place. Sid convinces Heart Guy to do it by promising to do all the prep work so that Heart Guy can "step right in."

During the surgery, Porter is awake and alert. I know about the dangers of anesthesia and all, but I don't think I would want to be awake while doctors were poking shit in my heart. I'm a big wimp that way. Heart Guy praises Sid's technique, and Sid says he's thinking of going into cardiology. Heart Guy pulls Sid aside and offers to let him to do the technique, even though he's never done one before. Oh, this doesn't look good. Sid agrees to do it. He tells Porter what he's doing as it happens. They watch the procedure on a monitor. Just as Sid goes into the coronary artery, Porter starts moaning in pain. Heart Guy says Porter is "infracting." No one will answer Porter's questions about what's happening to him, and when they do give him information, it's in medical terminology. Finally, Sid injects dye into the heart so they can figure out what's going on, and tells Porter he's having a heart attack.

Ben reviews for those of you who missed the first quarter of the show. Ben tells Sid that he managed to "provoke an M.I.," and asks how that happened. Cut to Heart Guy telling Sid he made a small tear in the heart, and that caused the heart attack. Heart Guy could repair it via surgery, but he doesn't think it would work because the artery is too small. Heart Guy advises just letting Porter "ride it out." In other words, have the heart attack. Actually, he says they should "put him in the CCU, watch for arrhythmia, give him some morphine to shut him up and send him home when the whole thing's over." Nice. Heart Guy kept reminding me of David Letterman, and I couldn't figure out why until just now. The actor played Letterman in HBO's movie about late-night television. Ironic that he's playing a heart surgeon now, given Letterman's problems, no? On his way out, Heart Guy tells Sid to forget about going into cardiology. Wow, what a charmer. Hope he didn't miss his squash game.

Sid tells Ben that Porter was transferred to the CCU for "monitoring and pain control" and signed over to Ollie. Cut to Sid giving Ollie the bullet as Cherry looks on. Does Cherry have any patients of his own? Ollie realizes that the hospital staff caused "the infarct." Ollie says she'll never go to the hospital as a patient, and asks who is "the schmuck who botched the cath." Sid just looks at her and walks out. Ollie leaves too, and Cherry offers to give her advice since she is "in the deep woods" after botching the call on one of Gideon's patients. Oh yeah, Sick Building Guy. Ollie denies that she is "in [Cherry's] world" or even his galaxy. Cherry thinks she just won't admit it.

Ollie tells Ben that when she examined Porter on Saturday night, he was stable, but "slightly febrile." Why can't they just say he had a fever? Ollie orders a bunch of antibiotics, thinking it's an infection. The nurse points out that the temperature rise "could be in response to the M.I." The nurse suggest running the drug order by the chief resident first, but Ollie wants to "stop a fire before it starts." She walks out, saying, "Who's in the woods?" Ben asks her if she determined if Porter had any allergies, and Ollie says there was nothing in the charts. Ben asks for Cherry's opinion. Cherry stands up reluctantly. Cut to a nurse examining Porter, who has a rash. The nurse calls Cherry in, thinking that Porter is having an allergic reaction and that Ollie is unavailable. Porter confirms that it's an allergic reaction, and looking at what Ollie prescribed, notes that "she really carpet-bombed the poor bastard, didn't she?" Cherry doesn't know which drug caused the reaction, so he babbles something about a native guide and writes something on the chart. Ben asks what Cherry prescribed, and Cherry says it was a steroid to clear up the rash. Ben points out that it wasn't Cherry's patient, and Cherry says the rash was worsening, according to the nurse, and he was trying to help.

Cut to Ollie chastising Cherry for "muscling in" on her patient. Porter is now "bloated beyond recognition" and Ollie will have to "blast him with diuretics." Ben asks if either of them considered the risks, which sounds like an innocent question, but Ben takes the opportunity to knock both of them down for what they did. I start to get mad at Ben, and then I remember that a healthy man died, and suddenly my anger goes away. Well, my anger at Ben goes away. Ben emphasizes "one of the bedrock principles of medicine -- first, do no harm." Ben asks if the diuretics straightened things out. Cut to Ollie and Cherry explaining what they've done to Boies, and saying that they think things are stabilized. Boies says they would be right to think that -- "if his kidneys weren't failing." D'oh! Commercial.

After commercial, Boies is up. He says that Cherry and Ollie updated him on Sunday afternoon. Cut to Boies giving Ollie and Cherry quite the dressing-down, as he points out that the doctors have given Porter a heart attack and now kidney failure. Boies tells them to go home. Wyatt is on the phone with his mother. Does he do anything but make personal calls? Boies gets serious and hands Porter over to Wyatt, telling him that although he's Wyatt's patient, Wyatt needs to do exactly what Boies says.

Lab Guy gives his testimony to Ben. It's all lab talk, and I can't really make heads or tails of it. Boies says he gave the lab report "due consideration" on Sunday evening. Cut to Boies telling Wyatt that he doesn't want to give Porter meds. Wyatt thinks Porter has a staph infection. Boies checks out the report and reveals that they don't know what kind of staph it is, where it came from, or if he even has it for sure. Boies wants to "let him heal" and "wait it out."

Wyatt is talking to the nurse, and they note that Porter's temperature is spiking. Wyatt consults Boies, who doesn't want to do anything until the lab confirms it's a bug. The nurse tells Wyatt that Porter's "potassium is six" and she thinks he should be on dialysis. Wyatt calls Boies, and leaves a message. The nurse can't believe he hasn't talked to Boies, and points out that it's Wyatt's patient. This appears to be all the convincing Wyatt needs, as he orders dialysis. Can he even do that? Ben feels the same way. Boies admits that Wyatt did it "without [his] consent and without [his] consultation." Just when you think Wyatt is in big, big trouble, Ben points out that Wyatt saved the patient's life at that time. Oh, so it wasn't that bad.

Boies continues that, at about 3 AM on Sunday, he stopped by to check on Porter, and he was stable and still undergoing dialysis. The dialysis guy says that Porter's blood is as "thick as mud" and asks if Boies can cover for a minute while he takes a break. Boies agrees. Ben establishes that Boies was responsible for the patient. We see Boies's beeper go off, and he checks out some sort of monitor. It must look okay, because Boies walks out of the room and asks the nurse at the desk to look in on Porter while he returns the page. He does, and it's relating to his coach-flying thrombosis case. The nurse hears someone calling weakly for her, and goes into another patient's room instead of Porter's. Boies is detained on the phone for a moment longer. Ben can't believe he left the patient. Boies tries to say that he had to make a phone call, and Ollie looks surprised. Cut to the dialysis machine suddenly shutting down and all sorts of alarms going off. Commercial.

Okay, so the guy's basically dead and we still have fifteen minutes of show left. Interesting.

Boies is telling Ben that he thought that "the situation was under control." Cut back to the beeping machine. Boies, still on the phone, looks at his watch. Boies tells Ben that a blood clot formed in the machine. Ben asks how long it lasted, and Boies answers, "Between three and five minutes." Boies walks back toward the room, hears the beeping, and runs in. Boies tells Ben that Porter lost "significant" blood and became hypotensive. Boies rushes into the room and starts compressions. Boies tells Ben that the time of death was 3:37 AM. Ben thanks him. Wyatt looks down at the ground. Ben says that "all doctors make mistakes" and "usually the system of checks and balances" corrects them. In Mr. Porter's case, all of the errors added up to catastrophe.

Boies is sitting outside Ben's office. Ben opens the door for Boies to enter. Ben snarks that Boies thinks he can handle any case "with plenty of 'tude and insouciant wit." Boies objects, but Ben says that he was the same way when he was chief resident. Ben thinks that Boies is "the most technically competent" doctor he's ever seen, but that gets him into trouble because he thinks he can take on every case, and he doesn't show caring. Boies says that he cares, even if he doesn't show it. Ben says Boies is "a child of privilege" and he didn't fight for him. Boies says Ben doesn't know him. Boies continues that M & M is not about learning. It's about "taking responsibility." Ben agrees. Boies walks out. Ben looks concerned and confused.

Ollie walks into Boies's office. She's wondering about something -- she found out that Boies never answered the page about the thrombosis. You know the call that kept him out of the room while Porter died? Ollie is saying that call never happened. Boies denies it. Ollie walks out.

Wyatt is telling Boies that you "make the best decision you can make in the moment," and "if it turns out to be wrong, you don't let it shake you." Boies agrees. Wyatt says that he has to tell Boies something important: "I thought I had it covered." Hey, it's the Law & Order ending! Don't miss the last five minutes!

Cut to Wyatt covering the dialysis. Wyatt gets a page. Wyatt checks the monitor. Wyatt asks the nurse to keep an eye on Porter. Wyatt calls his mother, because his father just got out of hip replacement surgery. Cut to Boies in his office, looking at his beeping pager. Wyatt is still on the phone. Boies starts to return his page. Wyatt hears the beeping dialysis machine and runs into Porter's room. Boies sees some light flashing and runs to Porter's room, doing chest compressions. Cut back to Wyatt saying he wouldn't have left if he didn't think he had it covered and thanking Boies for taking the fall. Boies says he won't do it again and walks away. Turns out they were having this conversation while looking at Porter's dead body in the morgue. Wyatt walks up to the body and stares at it.

Ben is meeting with Max and the hospital lawyer (Ellyn from thirtysomething). Ellyn explains to Ben the proper way to talk to the widow and still avoid a malpractice case. Ben isn't pleased, and says he can't do it because there are things he wants to say. Max says they all do, but they can't. Ben clarifies that they care, but they're not responsible, and wonders what kind of care that is. Max says the institution has to protect itself.

Ben is explaining the tear in the artery to Mrs. Porter. Max and Ellyn are nearby. The widow doesn't think this is supposed to happen. Ellyn points out that it's a known risk, and that Porter was informed of the risk before it happened. Mrs. Porter wants to know who did it, because she would like to talk to them, and ask them why. Mrs. Porter is all righteously indignant.

Mrs. Porter is walking out. Ben walks up behind her and says that the doctors who treated her husband answer to him, so he is ultimately responsible. She wants to know what really happened. Ben says that they failed, and that they made a series of mistakes that were neither criminal nor malicious. Mrs. Porter can't believe they "screwed up," and wonders if that's supposed to make her feel better. She makes to leave, and Ben tells her that he "killed a man once by making a mistake," and he sees the man's face every day. Ben can't make her feel better, but they know what they did, and they won't forget. Mrs. Porter tears up and says she's so angry, but she sounds more upset than angry. She makes to leave again, but stops and turns, and asks Ben if he will tell her all of it if she wants to know. Ben agrees. Mrs. Porter walks out.

week: Ben tells a woman she has breast cancer. The woman refuses to accept it, and is mad at Ben for telling her husband her secrets. Wyatt is named one of the hunkiest doctors in Boston.