Doing Harm Read Online Free PDF

tasks.
    “Great. I just hope Luis and I don’t end up making you change your mind.”
    “I don’t think so, Dr. Mitchell,” she responds seriously. “I’ve heard great things about you. And Dr. Martínez. I’m really excited to be working with both of you.”
    Luis and I exchange a look.
    Is she bullshitting us already?
    And even if she is, do I care?
    I decide to take the compliment at face value. For now. “Well, thanks. And please call me Steve. I’m just a resident—I don’t deserve any respect.”
    She chuckles appreciatively. Luis smiles thinly.
    “Okay, Steve. Seriously, though,” GG says earnestly, “just let me know if there’s anything I can do for you guys. I really want to help out as much as possible.”
    “Be careful what you wish for. We’re going to take you up on that.”
    “That’s what I’m here for.”
    She unclips a well-worn, black leather case from her hip, and holds up a sleek smartphone.
    “Really, just tell me what I can do for you, and I’ll put it right in my extra brain here. I can put anything you want me to do in my daily schedule right now. I’ll be printing out some spreadsheets once I get home tonight to help get everything organized. Nothing too fancy—just Excel.”
    Luis and I exchange another glance. Is she for real? But I have to admit that GG’s eagerness is infectious. Normally, I might brush off someone like her as an annoying kiss-ass med student, but instead I smile. “That’s okay, GG. Luis and I will talk to you about that later. We don’t have a lot of time right now. I have to go to the OR.”
    Undaunted, she immediately snaps the phone back in place on her hip, like returning a gun to a holster. “No problem, Dr. Mitch … er, Steve.”
    “Luis’s going to take care of you this morning, get you all settled in, and assign you some stuff to do. In general, we’ll pretty much expect you to function at the level of an intern: help in surgery cases, gather lab results, do some scut. Oh, and you’ll be going to the resident’s outpatient clinic every Tuesday morning to see patients with Luis. Okay?” I stand up without waiting for an answer.
    “Great!” she exclaims.
    “Oh, hey. Steve?” Luis asks.
    “Yeah.” I look at my watch, my mind already in the operating room.
    “I forgot to mention it to you earlier—my ERIN account is all screwed up. It blew up on me during morning rounds, and now I’m locked out of the system. Can I borrow your account this morning until the IT people can fix it?”
    “Sure, man,” I say absently. ERIN is University Hospital’s electronic medical records system. All of our medical orders and records, including medication prescriptions, are done on the computer. Without his ERIN account, Luis is helpless: He won’t be able to order medications for our patients, and GG can’t help him since medical students aren’t allowed to order medications because they’re not doctors yet. Without Luis ordering medications for our patients this morning, the wheels might come off our carefully tuned bus, and I might end up looking bad in the eyes of my bosses. I can’t have that. So I quickly jot down my account name and password on his spreadsheet.
    “Thanks, Steve. The IT people said they should have it fixed by noon today.”
    I glance at GG. She smiles broadly and opens her mouth as if she’s about to say something.
    “See you, guys.” I turn and walk away before she has a chance.
    *   *   *
    Our first patient of the day, Mr. Bernard, is a carpenter from coastal Maine. He’s having his bladder removed because of cancer. I find him in the pre-op area, a large room with high ceilings next to the operating suites, where surgery patients sit in small cubicles on gurneys, waiting to undergo final evaluations before being wheeled into the OR. Doctors and nurses buzz around their patients, going through final checklists.
    Mr. Bernard is already dressed in his standard-issue hospital gown. With all the amazing