Each episode is like a little gift, and I fall in love each and every day. The story is linear, each episode following the next. Elements from the last episode bleed into the next, and with each plot, each character keeps developing, and growing as a person. You forget you are watching a show and these are just actors. It is a blessing to watch the writers’ words come to life, and the actors portraying said words. I hope they know how thankful I am for this.
Source: American Broadcasting Company for The Good Doctor.
Let’s get to the episode! A gunman holds up the store Shaun and a couple are in. His autism takes over, making him pace and it leads to the gun going off. It doesn’t hit my favorite doctor, but wounds the girl named Avery, and the cashier hits the gunman over the head. We get to see Melendez with a bit of a heart, letting Shaun go home, but he doesn’t want to. It seems during stress, his mind goes to what he does best – fixing the injured. We also get to see an element from episode 3, how Shaun doesn’t answer questions, brought forth again when Jared asks what happened, and why the patient’s boyfriend is blaming Shaun. He ignores the question, and focuses on the injury, and the way he sutured her injury… oh… it was so gorgeous.
Over with the other patient, we see Dr. Lim and Claire working on the shooter. Opening his shirt reveals a swastika, and there are glances between Claire, Dr. Lim, and the other nurse, a darker skinned man. Only one operational room is open, and Claire says the girl should go ahead. Dr. Lim explains the man isn’t breathing without support, so he should go first, and Melendez concedes. Lim calls Claire out, who responds quite rudely, and is asked to leave.
Avery’s date, as it turns out it was their first time meeting, is aggressive with Shaun, blaming him, and questioning why they are letting him help her when it was his fault. Melendez steps in, and says he doesn’t know anything about Shaun. It is so nice how Melendez has grown to at least respect Shaun enough to defend him. If you watch, you actually can see him teaching Shaun and advising him, like a mentor should. Sure, Shaun already knows, often explaining the procedure with Melendez, but it is a step in the character development. Maybe Melendez will actually swing on Shaun’s father, if he ever appears.
With Lim and Claire, we get to see something that I’ve heard a lot lately, and never considered – women bringing down women. I’ve dealt with bullying all my life, being a nerd and enjoying books more than people’s company. Doesn’t help my hair is the color of fire, really makes you stand out. FYI guys – if a girl has a prominent trait, such as hair color or eye color, mention the second most noticeable trait. My husband first mentioned how lovely my green eyes were. 8 years coming mid-December!!
Source: American Broadcasting Company for The Good Doctor.
Anyways, back on topic, Lim explains Claire wasn’t kicked out of the OR because of her issues with the patient, but because of the fact she publicly went against Lim in front of staff. Even now, she couldn’t wait 5 minutes to talk with her privately. “Would you have stormed into Melendez’ OR?” Claire walking away shows that.
Shaun isn’t as calm as he is acting, obsessing over apples, which is the whole reason he stopped in and Avery was shot. Dr. Glassman seems to be having a bad day as well, and Shaun keeps avoiding the topic. When the patient starts crashing, Jared and Shaun have two ideas, and Melendez goes with Jared’s. It turns out she was indeed bleeding out somewhere. Shaun was wrong. He realizes where the bleeding was, and Melendez comforts Shaun by saying he was wrong, but also figured it out.
Leah, Shaun’ s neighbor and the one who eats the apple which kinda caused the cascading effect that leads Avery to being shot, swings by and apologizes. And Shaun admits his mistake, him pacing, caused someone to be hurt.
Source: American Broadcasting Company for The Good Doctor.
A hug happens, and we also get to see Jessica and Dr. Glassman bonding on a track field. It seems today was the anniversary of someone, Dr. Glassman’s daughter maybe, passing away from something… potentially preventable. Jessica says “I was lucky, she was not.” Maybe a drug overdose, or drinking and driving. 13 years puts them at teenager, or young adult ages. We all remember our invincible times…
Only 2 more episodes until the season is done. I am excited to see how it will end, but until next week, stay shiny!
Hello and welcome to this week on “What the heck are they talking about medically?” Name still in the works… Anyways, lets talk Avery!
In the beginning, they mention how the weapon is a low caliber gun. Caliber is the diameter of the projectile, in most cases a bullet. Low means less force, which might sound good, but it is not. An injury path is usually straight, a sword through the arm, arrow in the neck, a cut. You can map out the path because it makes sense. With higher calibers, the path is usually straight, through and through, but with low, the force of the bullet hitting skin slows it, and a bullet is only as strong as the force behind it. It was so weak, the hip bone was able to alter it’s path internally, and the doctors find an exit wound near her shoulder, even though it entered her abdomen.
The good news is it exited, so they can have a semi-informed guess as to where it went, based on injuries. Sometimes, a bullet will bounce around inside, unable to break the skin layer, but strong enough to injure organ tissue. Which is why they looked for an exit wound.
Sometimes, your body thinks it is helping, when in reality, it is hurting. In Avery’s case, so much has happened, between the wound, the bullet bouncing around, and the surgery, her body tries to fight by shutting down the organs they think are in danger, known as systemic inflammatory response syndrome. After a day, the body starts turning things back on, once it knows an infection hasn’t spread throughout the body. It also gives the heart a break because the organs do not need blood when they are off. Again, bodies can be stupid, but with modern medicine, a machine can support the organ until it is reset.
When Jared mentions a blood leak, it might seem confusing, but blood only runs through the body in veins and arteries, not just flowing throughout. If it is leaking, the heart cannot reproduce more in the time it would take to run the body. Like sipping from a drink, once it is done, you actually use more power to suck up those last drops. Why the heart was working harder, but with less blood flow. Even if they gave her an IV, the blood is still leaking out, and could have caused complications such as pressure on an organ as the cavity, or room where the organ should function, is compromised with blood. Luckily, Shaun did what he does, and follows the trail mentalling, and mentions the vein right before the exit wound was in the path.
That’s all I got this week, see you next week! Until then, stay shiny!
