On a number of occasions, Cate and I have discussed how, as a doctor (or a ‘doctor, almost’), she is obligated at all times by her chosen profession to help those in need of medical attention, both inside and outside of the hospital. For her, this brings to mind a tense scenario in which she is on a plane and a fellow passenger has a heart attack, stroke, or something equally unpleasant. Somebody yells out, “Is there a doctor on the plane?!” Thinking back to a room of a medical students mumbling a little something called The Hippocratic Oath, Cate shoots up out of her seat and saves the day with a portable defibrillator or feels for a pulse and informs the pilot that he can continue on to West Palm Beach as scheduled, ’cause this dude is dead. Then there is of course the understandable dread of having to give mouth to mouth to a complete stranger, or worse, having no idea what to do. Anyway, the point is that Cate uttered these words, or some version thereof:

“I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required [...] I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.”

…and she’s been waiting for the moment when, during her “off hours,” she’d be required to act. Well, the first such moment came not three hours ago, on our way to dinner with friends. Pulling up to a stop sign, a crowd caught my eye, and I noticed that what they were gathered around was a biker, face down on the pavement, who had clearly just been hit by a car. He was moving, and as he attempted to roll over I noticed a sizable wound on his head. Cate asked me if she should try to help and I said that if she wanted to, I would pull over. After a second of hesitation, she grabbed her phone and was out the door.

Cate basically just confirmed that the man was breathing and told him not to move, and the Fire department and paramedics arrived within about one minute. When she returned to the car, she said that she hadn’t done anything. I tried to explain to her that in reality she’d done quite a lot. She’d opened that car door and run into a situation because she was obligated to do so. It would have been so easy to assume that the paramedics had been called and to keep driving. The point, as I see it, is not that she didn’t actually save somebody’s life or perform CPR. The point is that she opened that door and ran down the street to make herself available to somebody in need. In the end, I think it was a nice reminder of what this med school madness is all about.