S02.E04: The Denominator

[Whimsy]

Quote

When Iggy and Kapoor discover a patient might be suffering from lead poisoning, they are forced to take on the city. Max's unsolicited attempts to help a patient backfire.

Original airdate 10/15/19

[ams1001]

We're only 7 minutes in and I'm going to say the teenage girl ragging on Max's basketball skills is the best part of the episode. That and the baby-crying sound when the child in the stroller appeared perfectly calm.

How is the physical therapy room in this hospital always empty so two doctors can have inappropriate public sex?

Now he's gonna be a barbershop doctor? 🙄

Edited October 16, 2019 by ams1001

[preeya]

How long is Bloom going to be walking with the boot & cane and screwing the physical therapist?  Enough already.

[ams1001]

9 minutes ago, preeya said:

How long is Bloom going to be walking with the boot & cane and screwing the physical therapist?  Enough already.

Agreed, though my friend broke her foot and was in a boot for what seemed like forever. (Not that I have any clue what the timeline on this show is.)

Doesn't Max have work to do at the hospital he runs?

Edited October 16, 2019 by ams1001

[ams1001]

Doctors going to patient's house to test for toxins. What is this, House?

And, uh, I don't think the hospital has any standing to sue over lead contamination.

A barber dispensing prescription meds. Is that even legal? Also, I would imagine one high BP reading doesn't necessarily mean you need BP meds.

Edited October 16, 2019 by ams1001

[LittleIggy]

I hate Bloom. She uses Dr. Hottie as a booty call then rips him a new one when she thinks he is doing the same. 
No, the hospital has no standing to sue the city. The residents of the affected area do.

Poor Dr. Kapoor. 

[sheetmoss]

2 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Doctors going to patient's house to test for toxins. What is this, House?

And, uh, I don't think the hospital has any standing to sue over lead contamination.

A barber dispensing prescription meds. Is that even legal? Also, I would imagine one high BP reading doesn't necessarily mean you need BP meds.

Max said It was after 4 readings/visits.

[hula-la]

My sister is a Physiotherapist, and I was reading an article in her professional association journal that was advocating for new physios to work at hospitals. Booty calls with doctors was amazingly not on the list of reasons. 

[Dowel Jones]

Max has got to be the most dunderheaded dunderhead that ever dunderheaded.  Sure, I'll walk into the barbershop in my scrubs and tell everyone there that I will provide free medical care, and they'll welcome me with open arms.  At least he figured out that race was a factor here, but his stunt wouldn't have worked in an all white bowling alley either.  How about starting out by asking advice from a community leader first about how to set up a screening?  And then there's the part about dispensing medicine.  Sure, there won't be any problems with, say, a less than honest guy going to four different barbershops and picking up medicine, will there?  No liability there.  A better solution would be to have one of those automatic BP cuffs, with some literature and a consulting service available.

I think I finally figured out my problem with Dr. Bloom and her cane.  Is she using it on the wrong side?  I still have a cane from when I injured my ankle, and I used in on the injured leg side.  I tried it out tonight and it provides absolutely no support in I walk with it on the opposite side.  I guess if you have enough PT sex, the problem mitigates itself.

I wonder how Dr. Sharpe managed to get the highly potent but dangerous pain relief meds to give to the patient.  There would be a record somewhere, and if she is found dead in her room, there might be an investigation if people find the pill bottle beside her bed.  Prescribing the meds for her might be viewed as overstepping her responsibilities.

Too bad for Iggy and Vijay when they used their positions to advocate for a lawsuit against the city, because the city, in order to pay the settlement, eliminated funding for their positions.

I know it's required that all hospitals have a young, hotshot, know-it-all intern/resident whose job it is to contradict the experienced doctors, but, damn, kid, stay in your lane inside the OR.  Confront Dr. Reynolds outside afterward, and make a learning moment out of it.

[preeya]

4 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I wonder how Dr. Sharpe managed to get the highly potent but dangerous pain relief meds to give to the patient.  There would be a record somewhere, and if she is found dead in her room, there might be an investigation if people find the pill bottle beside her bed.  Prescribing the meds for her might be viewed as overstepping her responsibilities.

I was wondering the same thing. I believe assisted suicide is still illegal in NY.

[Good Queen Jane]

5 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I think I finally figured out my problem with Dr. Bloom and her cane.  Is she using it on the wrong side?  I still have a cane from when I injured my ankle, and I used in on the injured leg side.  I tried it out tonight and it provides absolutely no support in I walk with it on the opposite side.  I guess if you have enough PT sex, the problem mitigates itself.

Nope, you use the cane on your good side. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

I am hand waving all these ridiculous inconsistencies and this would never happen in the real world and think of this show as a medical fairy tale where there are lots and lots of happy endings.

The little girl stole the show last night.

And WHY is Iggy going to adopt another child?  It is admirable but he already has a bunch, and I don’t think he should do that without making sure his husband is on board with the idea.

I like that Max has the barber helping out- barbershops are such an important place to hang out, talk, it would be a great place to take blood pressure.  I’m not sure about the meds, but I am guessing he passes along the info to Max who fills the prescription and gives them to him.

Max’s baby doll child is hilarious.  

[ams1001]

10 hours ago, sheetmoss said:

Max said It was after 4 readings/visits.

Oh, okay. I missed that. But still...

8 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

Prescribing the meds for her might be viewed as overstepping her responsibilities.

I don't think she actually "prescribed" anything, either. Just "accidentally left 'em out in the lounge... oops, right?" And yeah, something that strong would be locked up and tracked (in a normal world, at least). Especially now with all the drug company suits and settlements over opiates.

1 hour ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

And WHY is Iggy going to adopt another child?  It is admirable but he already has a bunch, and I don’t think he should do that without making sure his husband is on board with the idea.

I was rolling my eyes at the beginning when he was verbally kicking himself for even suggesting it...like, you do know that making the suggestion doesn't mean you have actually do it, right? It's simply a starting point for a conversation that may well lead to "no, we can't do that." I hope he's not planning to submit that application before talking to his family (including the kids they already have who will be hugely affected by adding another child to the household) again.

I was also bothered by Kapoor telling Iggy about the baby. I suppose technically HIPAA doesn't apply since he's not her doctor and he doesn't know about it via that capacity, but he should know better than to announce someone else's pregnancy without making sure that person is ready to do so. That it's your grandchild is irrelevant. I guess he's supposed to be a good doctor but he comes off so clueless in everything else.

Edited October 16, 2019 by ams1001

[LittleIggy]

The cancer patient took the pills and checked out of the hospital so she wouldn’t be killing herself on the premises. Still, Sharpe should have put the meds in an unmarked bottle.

[Mia Nina]

Didn't like this episode. It had a weirdness to it. Bloom's storyline is so dull, almost like the writers don't know what to do with her. Last night her best moment was Casey trying to help her. The show needs more Casey.

Sharpe overstepped IMO. Castro is an infuriating character in many ways, but I think her questioning of Sharpe about the conversation that led to their patient leaving spoke volumes about Sharpe's actions. She danced around the issue and wasn't entirely forthcoming with Castro about it. Castro promising to return the favor was pretty dark. Then again, Sharpe's handling of this one patient was extreme.

The barbershop system was creative, except for dispensing meds part of the plan. 

[txhorns79]

14 hours ago, ams1001 said:

We're only 7 minutes in and I'm going to say the teenage girl ragging on Max's basketball skills is the best part of the episode. That and the baby-crying sound when the child in the stroller appeared perfectly calm.

I enjoyed that Max left his child with a random girl off the street so he could play basketball. 

[Driad]

17 minutes ago, Mia Nina said:

The barbershop system was creative, except for dispensing meds part of the plan. 

Thinking about this more than the writers probably did ... since meds would be provided after a man's blood pressure was high 4 times in a row, maybe the barber would tell Max who needed meds, and a doctor would write individual prescriptions.  That wouldn't take into account the man's medical history, or possible interactions with other medications he took, but it's something.

Guess we should be happy for Max, that he has no work to do and no personal troubles.

[ams1001]

43 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

I enjoyed that Max left his child with a random girl off the street so he could play basketball. 

But she's babysat before!

And at the end he just parked her inside the fence with no one in particular watching her and where a stray ball could easily land on top of her.

[Lovecat]

12 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

 I guess if you have enough PT sex, the problem mitigates itself.

I had PT this morning.  I was not prescribed that particular exercise.  Hrmph.

6 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Nope, you use the cane on your good side. 

Yup!  When I hurt my knee, my BFF, who is a PT, came over to the house to help me do some laundry.  I answered the door with one crutch, tucked under the armpit on my "bad" side, and before she even came in, she said, "First of all, you have that on the wrong side..."  This go-around (different knee issue) I hear her voice in my head every time I pick up my walking stick 🙂

3 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I don't think she [Sharpe] actually "prescribed" anything, either. Just "accidentally left 'em out in the lounge... oops, right?" And yeah, something that strong would be locked up and tracked (in a normal world, at least). Especially now with all the drug company suits and settlements over opiates.

I don't think we got a good enough look at the bottle to see whether the label had the patient's name on it, but I doubt that any doctor would be able to walk into a hospital pharmacy and just casually pick up a bottle of painkillers, all "Oh never you mind who it's for, Mr./Ms. Pharmacist..."  In fact, inpatient pharmacies dispense meds on a per-dose basis per electronic orders filed by a doctor or other licensed prescriber like a Nurse Practitioner; they don't just send a whole bottle down to the floor.  Sharpe would have had to write a prescription in the patient's name and have it filled, either at the outpatient pharmacy (whose computer system may have flagged the lady as an inpatient, triggering some questions) or at the Walgreens/CVS/Duane Read (because you know that there are at least 2 of those within spitting distance of the hospital).  And I don't know about New York, but I'm pretty sure my CVS here in PA asks for ID when one is picking up opiates.  So stupid.  It would have been more realistic for her to prescribe PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia) and hand the patient the button with a wink-wink.  Those are programmed so the patient can only give themself a certain amount of medication in a certain amount of time, but I'm sure Dr. Helen could have overridden it somehow.  A nurse would have gone down for that "mistake," though.  This show is so infuriating with its inaccuracy!  But it amuses my husband to no end (he laughs and laughs at the Izzy/Vijay antics), so we continue to watch...

[ECM1231]

5 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I was also bothered by Kapoor telling Iggy about the baby. I suppose technically HIPAA doesn't apply since he's not her doctor and he doesn't know about it via that capacity, but he should know better than to announce someone else's pregnancy without making sure that person is ready to do so. That it's your grandchild is irrelevant.

What was that about? I missed last week's episode. The pregnant woman whom he talked to at the end of the episode is pregnant with Kapoor's grandchild? Was this woman involved with Kapoor's son? I don't know of any other child that Kapoor has that we have been introduced to. 

[preeya]

48 minutes ago, Lovecat said:

I don't think she [Sharpe] actually "prescribed" anything, either. Just "accidentally left 'em out in the lounge... oops, right?" And yeah, something that strong would be locked up and tracked (in a normal world, at least). Especially now with all the drug company suits and settlements over opiates.

I think she may have called Nurse Jackie to fill the prescription. She has Eddie's pass-code to the pill dispenser.  😀

[Driad]

Crutches safety tip -- if you need to go up or (especially) down stairs, hold the handrail with one hand and put both crutches under the other arm.  It's a bit awkward but at least you have the handrail.

[maya1959]

1 hour ago, preeya said:

I think she may have called Nurse Jackie to fill the prescription. She has Eddie's pass-code to the pill dispenser.  😀

6 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

The cancer patient took the pills and checked out of the hospital so she wouldn’t be killing herself on the premises. Still, Sharpe should have put the meds in an unmarked bottle.

A doctor can prescribe pain relief for a terminal cancer patient but it is up to them how many she takes. Bloom would have provided a prescription but she is "not responsible" for how the patient uses them

Edited October 16, 2019 by maya1959
clarification as to who uses them

[ams1001]

2 hours ago, ECM1231 said:

What was that about? I missed last week's episode. The pregnant woman whom he talked to at the end of the episode is pregnant with Kapoor's grandchild? Was this woman involved with Kapoor's son? I don't know of any other child that Kapoor has that we have been introduced to. 

Yes, she was seeing his son (though I wasn't sure if they were actually sleeping together; I remember Kapoor being upset they had become friends, though). Last week the son told dad his band was going on tour and took off. When Kapoor mentioned it to her she said there was no tour and he bailed because she's pregnant.

[txhorns79]

8 hours ago, Mia Nina said:

The barbershop system was creative, except for dispensing meds part of the plan. 

This made me crazy, because it honestly looked like Max just gave the barber a bunch of prescription pills and told him to dispense medication after a certain number of readings.  I know Max claimed he would be supervising, but it's not like he is really known for his follow through.  For example, I presume all the patients he wanted to give dogs to last week probably died, and their dogs ate them because the whole "give a dog to a person recovering from surgery" idea is stupid.

[doodlebug]

8 hours ago, Driad said:

Thinking about this more than the writers probably did ... since meds would be provided after a man's blood pressure was high 4 times in a row, maybe the barber would tell Max who needed meds, and a doctor would write individual prescriptions.  That wouldn't take into account the man's medical history, or possible interactions with other medications he took, but it's something.

Guess we should be happy for Max, that he has no work to do and no personal troubles.

Dispensing medications without a documented medical exam/record is illegal.  The barber could certainly take blood pressures and write them down, just as lots of people with high blood pressure use blood pressure cuffs at home and bring a list of readings to their doctor.  But, Max would lose his license for prescribing medications to people who he has never seen, whose full medical history isn't on file someplace, who haven't had a physical exam.  Although most high blood pressure is essential, there are cases where tumor or kidney disease or even interactions with other medications, legal or illegal, can cause it.  Max is an idiot.  There are ways to set up public health clinics in neighborhoods where people can go for basic health care, but not the way Max did it.

There was an actual study released about a year and a half ago.  They set up blood pressure clinics, staffed by pharmacists, in inner city barber shops in LA.  In addition to taking BP's, the pharmacists got detailed histories, were able to get blood work and could provide medications right there.  However, every single visit done by a pharmacist was then reviewed and countersigned by a physician.  People whose blood pressures were above a certain limit or who had  complex medical histories were sent to the doctor.  The barbers working in the shops were given information about the importance of treating hypertension, the benefits of early intervention and asked to encourage their customers to come in and get a blood pressure check.  They did not take blood pressure or dispense medicines themselves.

Sharpe's storyline was ridiculous, she could lose her license for prescribing narcotics to a patient who is not hers.  All narcotics prescriptions are written on special paper, the doctor has an identifying number attached and the pharmacy keeps meticulous records. In Ohio, where I practice, a physician may give no more than 7 days worth of narcotics to a patient and the prescription has to include a diagnosis which indicates the reason why the patient is taking narcotics. As with Max and the barber shop, writing prescriptions without some sort of written record of the indication as well as an exam, vital signs, etc will get your license pulled.  Narcotics prescriptions are very carefully monitored these days.  Also, it appears Sharpe's counterpart is treating these patients as part of a clinical research project.  There are strict criteria and oversight, especially with critically ill patients.  Even regular oncology patients are monitored as part of a team approach that includes nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, psychology, even hospital chaplains and hospice.  The patient's quality of life as well as her feelings about continuing in the study would be assessed regularly.  Helen wouldn't have been the first to notice that the lady was not doing well and she wouldn't have needed to intervene.  BTW, more than a few doctors, myself included, would feel that it was rather unethical to encounter a depressed patient and simply offer them a bunch of pills along with advice on suicide without perhaps asking for psychologic assessment and perhaps suggesting other interventions first.  Helen was just as wrong as her counterpart, IMO.

Edited October 17, 2019 by doodlebug

[txhorns79]

I did mean to add that the evil comptroller was right that they had no proof linking the lead poisoning to the repainting of the expressway.  A picture showing dust coming off the overpass as sandblasting is done isn't evidence.  You'd likely need scientific studies to make the connection, as well as to ensure there is no other possible source for the lead poisoning.  That they acted like the one picture resolved the issue was ridiculous.    

[NYCFree]

In New York State all prescriptions are done electronically. There is no way the barbers would be able to do them, unless Max shared his log in info, which would have to be illegal.

[Dowel Jones]

3 hours ago, doodlebug said:

There was an actual study released about a year and a half ago.  They set up blood pressure clinics, staffed by pharmacists, in inner city barber shops in LA.

I would hope that they set up somewhere private within the barbershop, because there's nothing like a bunch of smartass friends within earshot hearing your medical history and such.  As was the case in this episode.

[bros402]

That barbershop idea was a good idea, but Max doesn't know how to proceed with his ideas. I was expecting him to get some New Amsterdam branded blood pressure machines - like the ones you see at pharmacies - and put them in barber shops. Maybe have some pamphlets on New Amsterdams services, or maybe set up a day where staff would come to barbershops and see people in the community.

[alexvillage]

The writers messed up. Unless they are planning a follow up, it was really bad.

Max, white man, recruits black barber shop owner in a mostly black neighborhood to dispense drugs. It doesn't matter his intentions, the blood pressure checkup is a good idea. Dispensing medication without a license to do so is (legally speaking) trafficking, just like sharing your prescription medications would get you in trouble. Add the racial factor in, and Max just put a lot of Black Lives in jeopardy. 

The assisted suicide was even worse. If for or against it, that's not how it should happen. A few minutes with a patient and she gets the pills to kill herself? And while Sharpe was right about Castro's motivation, which it might be unethical, she victimized the patient by choosing the easy way out - get rid of the "suffering" and just a warning to the one who might be exacerbating that suffering. It is ableist and classist. The writers led us to a black and white situation, the woman was assertive and in one sentence she convinces that she is ready to die. Life is not that black and white. 

And if Kappor and Iggy believe the city will just cave to one photo as proof of led poisoning, they need to get those two to Flint STAT! So much bullshit in this episode.

[Higgins]

22 hours ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

I am hand waving all these ridiculous inconsistencies and this would never happen in the real world and think of this show as a medical fairy tale where there are lots and lots of happy endings.

The little girl stole the show last night.

And WHY is Iggy going to adopt another child?  It is admirable but he already has a bunch, and I don’t think he should do that without making sure his husband is on board with the idea.

I like that Max has the barber helping out- barbershops are such an important place to hang out, talk, it would be a great place to take blood pressure.  I’m not sure about the meds, but I am guessing he passes along the info to Max who fills the prescription and gives them to him.

Max’s baby doll child is hilarious.  

Max can't prescribe medication to patients that he has not assessed. That's illegal.

[Higgins]

16 hours ago, Lovecat said:

I had PT this morning.  I was not prescribed that particular exercise.  Hrmph.

Yup!  When I hurt my knee, my BFF, who is a PT, came over to the house to help me do some laundry.  I answered the door with one crutch, tucked under the armpit on my "bad" side, and before she even came in, she said, "First of all, you have that on the wrong side..."  This go-around (different knee issue) I hear her voice in my head every time I pick up my walking stick 🙂

I don't think we got a good enough look at the bottle to see whether the label had the patient's name on it, but I doubt that any doctor would be able to walk into a hospital pharmacy and just casually pick up a bottle of painkillers, all "Oh never you mind who it's for, Mr./Ms. Pharmacist..."  In fact, inpatient pharmacies dispense meds on a per-dose basis per electronic orders filed by a doctor or other licensed prescriber like a Nurse Practitioner; they don't just send a whole bottle down to the floor.  Sharpe would have had to write a prescription in the patient's name and have it filled, either at the outpatient pharmacy (whose computer system may have flagged the lady as an inpatient, triggering some questions) or at the Walgreens/CVS/Duane Read (because you know that there are at least 2 of those within spitting distance of the hospital).  And I don't know about New York, but I'm pretty sure my CVS here in PA asks for ID when one is picking up opiates.  So stupid.  It would have been more realistic for her to prescribe PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia) and hand the patient the button with a wink-wink.  Those are programmed so the patient can only give themself a certain amount of medication in a certain amount of time, but I'm sure Dr. Helen could have overridden it somehow.  A nurse would have gone down for that "mistake," though.  This show is so infuriating with its inaccuracy!  But it amuses my husband to no end (he laughs and laughs at the Izzy/Vijay antics), so we continue to watch...

Many of the hospitals I have worked in have outpatient pharmacies attached to the hospital.

[starri]

I love this show's extremely loose take on NYC geography.  The 'Dam has always been shown to be roughly where its real-life counterpart is located, in Kips Bay in the East 30s.  The barbershop appeared to be in the northern part of Harlem, which is easily 100 blocks from there.  And yet, Max was acting like it was just down the street.

[izabella]

Personally, I didn't see anything wrong with what Sharpe did.  She had been talking with that terminal patient all episode, and she gave her an option if she chose to use it.  The patient does not have to take the pills at all, or she could use them for pain - as Sharpe said they were very effective for that.  Or, she could choose when the pain gets to be too much for her and end her own life on her own terms when she is ready.  In the meantime, if she's well enough, maybe she can tick off a couple of things on her bucket list, or at least go eat all her favorite foods in the comfort of her own home.  As for the patient not being hers, that other doc kept talking about OUR patients and they did both work together on those patients and those treatment trials, blah blah, so I don't think Sharpe was out of line legally to prescribe her drugs.

If I am ever terminal like that, I hope I can convince a doctor to give me a bottle of pills so I can choose when I've had enough, or not. 

Edited October 18, 2019 by izabella

[bros402]

2 hours ago, izabella said:

Personally, I didn't see anything wrong with what Sharpe did.  She had been talking with that terminal patient all episode, and she gave her an option if she chose to use it.  The patient does not have to take the pills at all, or she could use them for pain - as Sharpe said they were very effective for that.  Or, she could choose when the pain gets to be too much for her and end her own life on her own terms when she is ready.  In the meantime, if she's well enough, maybe she can tick off a couple of things on her bucket list, or at least go eat all her favorite foods in the comfort of her own home.  As for the patient not being hers, that other doc kept talking about OUR patients and they did both work together on those patients and those treatment trials, blah blah, so I don't think Sharpe was out of line legally to prescribe her drugs.

If I am ever terminal like that, I hope I can convince a doctor to give me a bottle of pills so I can choose when I've had enough, or not. 

NY doesn't have a Death with Dignity law as far as I know. Helen implying if she took too many she would die could be seen as encouraging it.

Now if Helen had said "hey if you go through the tunnel into Jersey, talk to a doctor there about how you are feeling about your terminal cancer" - that would've been fine. We have a death with dignity law here in NJ.

[izabella]

9 minutes ago, bros402 said:

NY doesn't have a Death with Dignity law as far as I know. Helen implying if she took too many she would die could be seen as encouraging it.

If anyone asked, she could say she was giving the patient a warning that if she took too many of the pills, she would die.  That seems like a warning a doctor would give a patient.  With this show, I don't think anyone will ask.

[thebigboot]

14 hours ago, izabella said:

If anyone asked, she could say she was giving the patient a warning that if she took too many of the pills, she would die.  That seems like a warning a doctor would give a patient.  With this show, I don't think anyone will ask.

No doctor would give that warning because lets be honest, enough of any med could probably kill you. Yes, in this show no one will ask because in this show laws don’t exist. It’s kind of hard to be supportive of a show that for the good of the people says hey, legality and responsibility doesn’t exist because rich people.

[doodlebug]

21 hours ago, izabella said:

Personally, I didn't see anything wrong with what Sharpe did.  She had been talking with that terminal patient all episode, and she gave her an option if she chose to use it.  The patient does not have to take the pills at all, or she could use them for pain - as Sharpe said they were very effective for that.  Or, she could choose when the pain gets to be too much for her and end her own life on her own terms when she is ready.  In the meantime, if she's well enough, maybe she can tick off a couple of things on her bucket list, or at least go eat all her favorite foods in the comfort of her own home.  As for the patient not being hers, that other doc kept talking about OUR patients and they did both work together on those patients and those treatment trials, blah blah, so I don't think Sharpe was out of line legally to prescribe her drugs.

If I am ever terminal like that, I hope I can convince a doctor to give me a bottle of pills so I can choose when I've had enough, or not. 

I feel it was wrong because Helen didn't present any other options to the woman.  Either she stayed in the study and remained in the hospital or she went home to die.  There was no mention of palliative care or hospice or other programs that can greatly improve the quality of life for the terminally ill.  She needed some guidance and support so that she could choose the best option for herself.  Helen essentially told her to go home and die.  It is not an all or nothing proposition and, if the woman did elect to go home and not commit suicide, then she needed to know what sort of support physical, emotional, spiritual would be available to her.  Because Helen didn't even mention options to improve the quality of her life, it seemed to me that she was indeed encouraging the woman to end it now and that is very unethical.  Despite the fact that Max likes to claim to be the only caring doctor in the universe, an oncologist such as Helen needs to be tuned in to all of the choices a patient in that woman's situation would have.

I'm not even talking about the legal ramifications of assisted suicide here; Helen undoubtedly wrote a note in the chart to cover herself and undoubtedly skipped the part of the conversation where she told the patient that she could hasten her death with an OD.  Helen's behavior was unethical, IMO, because she painted a very black and white picture of a situation that deserved more nuance.

Edited October 19, 2019 by doodlebug

[bros402]

On 10/18/2019 at 1:56 AM, izabella said:

If anyone asked, she could say she was giving the patient a warning that if she took too many of the pills, she would die.  That seems like a warning a doctor would give a patient.  With this show, I don't think anyone will ask.

That too, especially if there isn't a pattern with Helen's other patients.

[Pepper the Cat]

I think Iggy will adopt Kampoor’s grandchild.

The cancer story made me very glad to live in a province that has established MAID(medical assistance in dying), which gives terminal people control over their death, should they choose.

[athousandclowns]

On 10/16/2019 at 6:04 PM, txhorns79 said:

This made me crazy, because it honestly looked like Max just gave the barber a bunch of prescription pills and told him to dispense medication after a certain number of readings.  I know Max claimed he would be supervising, but it's not like he is really known for his follow through.  For example, I presume all the patients he wanted to give dogs to last week probably died, and their dogs ate them because the whole "give a dog to a person recovering from surgery" idea is stupid.

Today I went to Walgreens to pick up a RX for blood pressure and although it was filled the other day the pharmacy clerk could not give it to me because the pharmacist was at  lunch for another 15 minutes. Huh? She said she could not scan it or ring it up without a pharmacist there. ( I could see if it was a narcotic)    I  was pissed because they’d screwed up the order several times so was not going to hang around. Little did I know I could go to my hair salon and picked up a supply. 

Edited October 20, 2019 by athousandclowns
Typo

[Dowel Jones]

Plus, you could score all types of meds from some random home bound patient that died while you were walking her dog.  No one needs to know. 

[Lunula]

On 10/18/2019 at 8:57 PM, doodlebug said:

I feel it was wrong because Helen didn't present any other options to the woman.  Either she stayed in the study and remained in the hospital or she went home to die.  There was no mention of palliative care or hospice or other programs that can greatly improve the quality of life for the terminally ill.  She needed some guidance and support so that she could choose the best option for herself.  Helen essentially told her to go home and die.  It is not an all or nothing proposition and, if the woman did elect to go home and not commit suicide, then she needed to know what sort of support physical, emotional, spiritual would be available to her.  Because Helen didn't even mention options to improve the quality of her life, it seemed to me that she was indeed encouraging the woman to end it now and that is very unethical. 

To be fair, Helen discussed hospice with her and she outright rejected it saying, “they’d still be in control” - leaving us to believe she wanted to make her own choice to live or die.

[Whimsy]

On 10/19/2019 at 8:23 PM, Pepper the Cat said:

I think Iggy will adopt Kampoor’s grandchild.

I feel like that's a given.  Nothing is subtle in this show.

[yourmomiseasy]

On 10/15/2019 at 9:44 PM, LittleIggy said:

I hate Bloom. She uses Dr. Hottie as a booty call then rips him a new one when she thinks he is doing the same. 
No, the hospital has no standing to sue the city. The residents of the affected area do.

Poor Dr. Kapoor. 

To be fair, chronic pain can make you an asshole.  I didn't realize how cranky my pain was making me until it was gone.  So having been in that boat, I just wrote Bloom's behavior off as the pain talking.  But then again, it's Bloom, so 🤷‍♀️

On 10/16/2019 at 7:16 AM, KittenPokerCheater said:

And WHY is Iggy going to adopt another child?  It is admirable but he already has a bunch, and I don’t think he should do that without making sure his husband is on board with the idea.

 

Especially since his husband seems to be at home with the kids more than Iggy.  I really cannot stand Iggy.  I realize he's supposed to be this nice caring guy, but he just annoys the fuck out of me.  So needless to say, I was not moved at the end when he was online shopping for a little refugee baby of his own.

[Zsolt]

English is not my mother tongue and I don't understand what does the title of this episode (The Denominator) mean in this case.

As I know, the denominator is the bottom number in a fraction, but I guess it has another meaning also. What is it?

[bros402]

On 2/15/2021 at 4:14 AM, Zsolt said:

English is not my mother tongue and I don't understand what does the title of this episode (The Denominator) mean in this case.

As I know, the denominator is the bottom number in a fraction, but I guess it has another meaning also. What is it?

From what I remember - I haven't seen the episode since it aired - it involved a whole neighborhood potentially being poisoned. Denominator can be a shared trait - so the thing they share is poisoning.