Doing Harm Read Online Free PDF Page A

acting the wrong way in front of a female medical student, especially one under your direct supervision, can get you into serious trouble. Connors, the surgery resident Luis is referring to, apparently hadn’t gotten the message.
    I point to my wedding band and unsuccessfully attempt to stifle a yawn. “I’m good. But thanks, man. Just try to keep her out of my way, okay?”
    “Sure.” He tips his chin in a direction over my shoulder. “Here she comes now.”
    I spin around in my seat and follow his line of sight to the cafeteria entrance, where a tall girl with dark brown hair, wearing the standard-issue short white coat of a medical student, is surveying the room uncertainly. Luis catches her attention and waves her over.
    You can usually spot the med students from about a mile away: Their short white coats and deer-in-the-headlights gazes make them stand out like sore thumbs. But as GG weaves through the human traffic of cafeteria rush hour, I can tell right away that she’s different. She’s wearing crisp green surgical scrubs under her short white coat. The purposefulness of each stride matches the intense expression on her face. This is a woman, it seems, who knows exactly where she’s going and how she’s going to get there.
    She reaches our table and introduces herself to me. My need to assert surgeonlike authority in front of a med student overcomes my urge to do the gentlemanly thing, so I remain seated as I size her up. She’s tall—very tall, almost as tall as I, and at six-one, I’m no slouch—with a long, svelte frame. Her hair flows down her back in thick, straight waves before gliding to a graceful stop just past her shoulders. She has eyes the color of dark chocolate and sharp features that abruptly soften around her cheeks and the edges of her slightly upturned nose. I have to admit that Luis was right: She’s pretty. Not beautiful, like a model; her body is a little too thick, her features just a little too asymmetrical.
    But she’s definitely good-looking—attractive in an intelligent, down-to-earth, approachable kind of way. And, as she leans over the table to shake my hand, I can’t help but notice that Luis’s description of her physical attributes was right on the money. Now I truly understand why Luis warned me—I might be happily married, but I’m not dead, and I labor to keep my eyes from lingering over the utilitarian, but provocative, dip of her scrub top.
    There’s something else about her that stands out almost immediately. Something that’s harder for me to put my finger on. Something elusive. A … stillness. A calm and magnetic self-composure that underlies everything she does and says. It’s in the way she moves confidently toward me, locking her eyes onto mine and shaking my hand, her attitude and motions utterly devoid of uncertainty—like Luis, but less commanding. It’s also in her voice, which is light and amiable and soothing, like a radio DJ’s.
    As she shakes my hand, her face breaks into a radiant smile, the lines extending across her smooth features, like ripples from a pebble tossed into the middle of a deep, placid pool. Her grin is broad and eager and completely natural, lacking any trace of self-consciousness, almost like the smiles of my daughters. Her hand is soft, her movements fluid and controlled.
    “Nice to meet you, GG,” I say. “I understand you might be interested in going into urologic surgery.”
    “Actually, Dr. Mitchell, I’ve already pretty much decided that it’s for me,” she says. “What you guys do for a living is terrific. Kidney surgery, prostate surgery—I think that stuff’s awesome. This is my subinternship, so I’ll be with you guys for the next six weeks.” During their last two years of medical school, University med students spend two-to-four-week blocks with various departments in University Hospital to earn credit toward graduation. Subinterns are advanced students interested in taking on more advanced