Dead Behind the Eyes by Brock Car

Author:Brock Car
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prairie Wind Publishing
Published: 2014-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 53

Rick joined four other third year students for lunch in the hospital cafeteria. He had two helpings of ground beef goulash on his tray and two cartons of chocolate milk. Rick loved cafeteria food. It reminded him of his happy childhood and the taste and smell made him feel loved. When he sat down, the others were in mid-rant about his favorite class, Healing the Spirit, taught by sociologist Sue Landers, PhD.

“I can’t believe I’m forced to pay tuition to listen to some sociology major tell me how to play nice with patients. That woman has nothing to teach me,” Paul barked. “I am in medical school, not touchy-feely school. As a doctor, I’ll be saving lives. Let the hospital social worker deal with the families. I don’t have time for hand-holding. It’s not even cost-effective.”

Rick didn’t usually let himself get sucked into these thinly veiled doctor-as-God conversations. But he couldn’t resist. “I believe strongly in the mind-body connection. If you want to heal the patient, you have to treat the whole person, the whole family. I think this is the most important class we’ll take.”

“Then be a shrink, or maybe a chaplain. I don’t care how much of that voodoo, holistic crap you’ve bought into. I signed up to practice Western medicine.”

Two residents at the next table stood up to bus their trays. Ian was a skinny, dark-haired man who looked about fourteen. His glasses and protruding Adams apple set off a terrible haircut that camouflaged a yarmulke. The other resident, Randy, stood six foot five and had the rugged good looks of a pro-soccer player. Good looks, brains, medical resident—Randy got laid a lot.

“Rick, I once felt like you do about being a compassionate physician—healing from the heart, serving the entire family—for about two years,” Randy said. “Let me save you a few years. Unlearn everything Sue Landers teaches you. Being a doctor is like being a landlord. You keep a certain distance from your patients. If you show compassion or try to be their friend, I promise you, it will come back and bite you in the butt. The patient is your enemy. They are clients, and enemies. If you let them, they’ll suck the life right out of you. They’ll expect you to work for free, and then they’ll sue your ass. If you don’t keep a healthy distance from them, you’ll go crazy, and broke. The good country doctor is dead and buried. What insurance companies didn’t do to him, malpractice attorneys did. The patient is the enemy. Remember that.”

Rick went to his job at Sears that night with a heaviness he hadn’t felt in a long while. It was easy to forget about medical school the minute he hit the revolving doors at Sears. But not tonight. He demonstrated a couple of vacuums and sold one to a pretty young woman as she balanced a toddler on her hip. “Who would have guessed that buying a vacuum could actually be fun. You’re good at what you do,” she smiled.

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