39 pages • 1 hour read
Michele HarperA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Harper summarizes her brief foray into the online dating scene, which she describes as being “jury-rigged by any virtual algorithm, no matter how inventive Silicon Valley considers its calculations” (73). After going on several dates, Harper was left feeling that this method of meeting someone might not ultimately prove effective for her.
She then pivots to the story of patient Erik Samuels, whose notes indicated a history of violent behavior. Harper clicked on the details and read that Erik grabbed a doctor’s breast while she was performing an incision on him. Harper took a deep breath, mentally preparing to treat him, and got to work. She provides an inside glimpse into her thoughts: “While he certainly deserved to pay for his past violent behavior, it wasn’t for me to decide when or how” (90).
As she examined Erik for a painful swelling extending from his groin to his scrotum, Harper realized that this was a surgical emergency. No matter how loathsome a person he may be, in that moment he was a patient, a human needing pain relief. Ironically, all three doctors that treated Erik were women. Harper writes, “Fate had delivered this man into the care of three female doctors that evening, each of whom had calmly gazed at his excruciatingly swollen genitals. Women were the ones to inspect him, to touch him, and, ultimately, to slice open his flesh to save his life” (91).
The most dominant theme in this chapter is the importance of basic human dignity, a principle to which Harper unapologetically adheres, even as she must treat a man who violated a fellow doctor and thereby broke the code of the doctor-patient relationship. While she was initially hesitant, perhaps even reluctant, to provide urgent treatment to Erik, she eventually realized that her role as a doctor is not to judge or condemn but to heal the bodies that enter her emergency room. By sharing this realization, Harper acknowledges the difficult human side of treating someone who may be a threat to her physical safety, while also accentuating her commitment to the noblest aspects of her profession.
She does not perform her duties in an emotional vacuum, though, which made treating a man with a violent history toward women a difficult task. She had no guarantee that Erik had left such behavior in the past and was now a changed man. Instead, her choice was to lean into basic human dignity, into the common ground that binds us all together, regardless of our virtue or viciousness. This decision reflected Harper’s acknowledgment that medical care, especially emergency care, is by nature a gift to all, regardless of someone’s past mistakes.
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