Just Meat

by DHMcCarty

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Growing up, i was the youngest of three rowdy brothers in a working class neighborhood in the Detroit suburbs.

My oldest brother Willy was a pure asshole, whose tough guy persona was fashioned after Elvis and a truckload of pure bullshit.

The second brother Dennis was a loner. He was 5’7” tall, fashioned of pure gristle and venom. If he told you something, you took it to the bank.

I learned early on that if you took anyones shit, you were meat. When it came to ‘fight or flight’ I never ran. I couldn’t. The adrenaline was so amped that I would have fallen flat on my face. My legs just couldn’t move fast enough to keep with the onrush of signals from the cortex.

But my fists could.

When the adrenaline started pumping, I felt no pain.

Until the next day.

Kids heal fast.

It wasn’t that I was a great fighter, I wasn’t. I just didn’t quit.

I got my ass kicked more than I care to admit.

But I got in my licks and no one ever came back for a second go round.

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As an adult, I made my living as an RN. I never much cared for the politics but I loved my patients and co-workers.

I have a lot of respect for MD’s and never had a problem deferring to their expertise. But the God complex is strong in a few of them.

We had a physician that worked our cardiac floor that flashed bikini pictures of his trophy wife, bragged about his 32’ cabin cruiser and drove a Saleen Mustang. He was an asshole with a capital A.

He was the kind of guy in High School that stored his boogers in his jeans pocket and was on the debate team. The guy that always let everyone know he got the highest grade on every test.

He had a habit of degrading the Nursing staff. More than once I heard him use the words Stupid and Incompetent. More than a dozen times I heard a fellow Nurse tell me the latest tale of Dr. Dupont’s ‘Assholery’.

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I was sitting at a desk in the nursing station charting on my patients. It was back in the day when we were still utilizing paper charts. I had all my charts piled up beside me.

Dr. Dupont came into the nursing station, drew several of his patient’s charts from the rack and piled them up on top of my charts. I glanced his way, picked up the charts and moved them three feet away.

He turned his chair to face me.

“You’re treading on dangerous ground. What’s your name, dipshit?”

I pulled my badge off my chest and held it four inches from his face.

“McCarty. M C C A R T Y. Do you need me to spell the first name for you Doctor?.”

He pulled a 3x5 card from his pocket and copied my name in block letters.

Suma Ramakrishna approached him tentatively with a chart in her hand. She was standing pigeon toed and twisting her hair around her finger.

“Excuse me Dr. Dupont, can you please tell me what you have written here in this order. I can make out the most of it except these two words.”

“Why don’t you learn to read English? It’s a beta blocker. He’s a cardiac patient. Are you too god damned stupid to figure that out?”

Suma, her lips trembling, turned and fled the Nurse’s station. I followed her out to the hall and pulled her into the refreshment room to fix her a cup of coffee. Kristin was right behind me to wrap her in a hug.

I’d had enough.

I headed back to the Nurse’s station just as Dr. Dupont ducked into one of my patient’s rooms.

Mrs. Cochran. 84 years old and deaf as a doornail.

I followed him into the room and stood by the window. A curtain separated me from the patient.

“I need to tell you something about Mrs. Cochran.”

“You can wait until I’m finished assessing the patient.”

“Her name is Mrs. Cochran.”

He glared at me.

A minute later he took three steps toward me.

“What? What are you going to tell me that I don’t already know?”

I grabbed him by the neck and thrust him up against the wall, my face four inches from his. His eyes bugged out.

“If I ever hear of your cursing, denigrating or belittling another Nurse I will drag you into the stairway and throw you down the fucking stairs. If you doubt that for a minute then you are in for a fucking epiphany.

Are we clear DIPSHIT?”

His lip was trembling.

“You just dug your own grave, asshole.”

“I don’t see any witnesses. I’ll live with my actions you little pissant.”

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The next night I told my wife about the incident when she got home from work. She closed her eyes and raised her hand to her forehead, rubbing her temples.

“What is wrong with you? You have a family and a mortgage. Do you think about that? You aren’t 19.”

“Those women have families and mortgages too. They shouldn’t have to deal with that kind of bullshit. They’re just trying to do their job.”

“You can’t keep saving the world from evil. You’re an adult. Act like it.”

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Thursday night when I showed up on the floor, Belinda the day Charge nurse pulled me into the refreshment room. Two nurses fixing coffee looked up at us and beat feet.

“Dr. McLaughlin is waiting for you in his office. I’ll watch your patients until you get back.”

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Dr. McLaughlin was Chief of Staff. He had the respect of every employee in the hospital. He was all business.

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“Close the door and have a seat Dan.

I have a formal complaint filed against you by Dr. Dupont. Some pretty serious charges. He’s calling for your dismissal.”

He reached across his desk and picked up another pile of papers.

“I also have 14 complaints filed against Dr. Dupont for profanity, denigration and intimidation filed by the Nursing staff.

You could say that I have a tough call on my hands. That would probably be correct. Except for one thing.

I think he’s an asshole too.

I had a talk with five of the Cardiac physicians yesterday. Everyone of them sang your praises.

Dr Singh laughed when he heard of your conduct and told me he had thought of throwing him down the stairs, as well.

The Physicians committee voted unanimously to rescind Dr. Dupont’s privileges at this hospital. There were no witnesses so it’s your word against his.

Dan, medicine is a team effort. We can’t do our job without the support of the nursing staff. No Nurse should have to put up with that kind of treatment. That’s not the kind of hospital that I run.

Judy wants to see you before you go back to the floor. Please close the door on your way out. It will be Judy’s decision to put this in you file or not.

Oh, one more thing Dan. Were you really going to throw him down the stairwell?”

I looked up at Dr. McLaughlin sheepishly.

“No. I don’t think it would have been necessary. He was already about to piss his pants.”

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The DON office was right down the hall. Judy smiled up at me when I rapped on her door.

“Dr. Mac said you wanted to see me.”
“How is your day going Dan?”

“I think you already know the answer to that one Judy.”

“I had a talk with Dr. McLaughlin this afternoon. I told him that if he went forward with this than I would call a General Nurses meeting and that pile of 14 complaints against Dupont would grow to 100. He laughed and said, ‘Now we just can’t have that, now can we.’

You need to get back to the floor. Belinda needs to get home to supper.”

I turned to leave.

“Dan. Did he really piss his pants?”

“No. But he got the point.”

“Dan, keep your hands in your pockets and your temper in check. I can’t afford to lose you.

Did you hear that someone keyed his car in the Doctors parking lot. It cost him $2,000 to repaint it.”

“Any suspects?”

She smiled,

“Oh, about a hundred.”