"What's the situation?"
Dr. Burke jogged over quickly, asking with urgency.
"…The patient is now basically stabilized," Adam reported.
Dr. Burke gave Adam a peculiar look.
He had already held this intern in high regard, yet Adam kept surpassing even those expectations.
Even if he had arrived first, he wasn't sure he could have handled things better than Adam.
Was this really just an intern?
Adam's reputation had preceded him. A few years back, when he was a medical intern at the center, Dr. Burke had heard whispers about him.
But he had always assumed Adam's success was due to his connection with Leonard, artificially inflated by others.
Look at Alex, another intern who got in through connections—it was clear what the usual standard of such "connected" interns was.
Yet Adam, also supposedly a beneficiary of nepotism, had somehow raised the bar so high that Alex was left in the dust.
What was once an acceptable level of competence was now glaringly inadequate. The contrast exposed Alex's true abilities, making it impossible for senior doctors to ignore his shortcomings any longer.
Repeatedly defying superior orders, lacking medical ethics, offending patients, and demonstrating subpar professional skills—
Someone like him would have been fired long ago if not for his connection to the hospital director.
But even so, Dr. Burke was done tolerating it.
Yes, the director had influence.
But Dr. Burke was a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, with his own dignity and reputation to uphold.
Did being the director's protégé mean Alex could keep disregarding his authority?
Even if Alex had been right, it would still be unacceptable. But the problem was, Alex was wrong over and over again.
This couldn't be ignored any longer.
A superior's authority had to be maintained.
"You'll be responsible for Mr. Owens' follow-up care," Dr. Burke instructed after checking the patient.
Standing off to the side, Alex looked utterly miserable.
As long as Dr. Burke didn't officially remove him from the case, even if the African American patient verbally requested Adam as his doctor, Alex didn't dare walk away.
Passive resistance was one thing; openly defying a superior was another matter entirely.
If he really dared to do that, he had no doubt Dr. Burke would immediately push for his termination.
And at that point, even the director wouldn't be able to protect him.
"What are you still doing here? Done with your rectal exams?" Dr. Burke asked coldly.
Alex turned and left without another word.
He knew he had completely offended Dr. Burke.
There was no point arguing.
Sometimes, you had to admit defeat.
Dr. Burke gave a few more instructions before leaving—after all, as an attending physician, he had a busy schedule.
"Adam, you're amazing," Liz said admiringly.
"You're the amazing one," Adam replied modestly. Since it was their competition break time, he smiled and added, "You just marched right over and took Alex's patient."
"His patient?" Liz scoffed. "Honestly, he should just stick to rectal exams. At least then he wouldn't be endangering lives."
"Adam, you really pulled it off," Cristina and Meredith approached, impressed. "You actually managed to take the patient back."
"Adam, if I ever make a misdiagnosis, promise me you'll secretly correct me," Meredith joked. "It's clear you consider more factors than we do."
"I remember Adam has a degree in psychology," Cristina mused. "Maybe I should get a psychology degree too. Otherwise, even if I encounter the same situation, I wouldn't be able to handle it like Adam did."
"Huh?" Meredith and Liz looked at her.
"Patients lie all the time," Cristina explained. "Take that tattooed masochist, for example. A small tattoo infection—he wouldn't have mentioned it even if you asked because, to him, it's insignificant. Bringing it up would just make him feel embarrassed.
But Adam didn't even ask—he immediately identified the possibility. How? Because he could read the patient's psychological behaviors and quickly deduce the real condition.
That's what makes him so impressive."
"Almost every patient lies," Adam said with a smile.
"Because that's human nature—to highlight strengths and downplay weaknesses. Unless absolutely necessary, most patients won't reveal everything to their doctors.
When patients answer our questions, their responses are already filtered—just like writing a diary.
Of course, in most cases, their descriptions still provide useful information, and we can make reasonable diagnoses based on that.
But the real problem arises when a patient hides critical symptoms or causes of illness, which could lead to serious misdiagnoses.
That's when understanding psychology becomes invaluable—it helps us determine when a patient might be lying during medical consultations." Chapters first released on novel_fіre.net
"That's a skill only the truly exceptional can master," Meredith sighed. "We're already drowning in work as interns—who has time to study psychology on top of that?"
"Exactly," Liz, who had graduated from a regular medical school, strongly agreed.
"You're exhausted?" Cristina shot a side glance at Meredith. "What kind of exhausted? I remember we were classmates at Harvard Medical School."
Meredith was speechless.
She wasn't lacking in intelligence. If she had been willing to put in the effort, getting a psychology degree wouldn't have been impossible.
But during school, she had been more focused on enjoying life.
Now, as an intern, she was entangled in an emotional mess with a certain "dreamy" attending physician.
Not to mention the nights of headboard banging that left George with a face as dark as charcoal and Liz complaining that she should oil the bed springs.
On top of that, being an intern was already exhausting—how could she not be tired?
As they chatted, George walked over.
"Looks like Alex is in serious trouble!"
"Oh? What happened?" Liz's eyes lit up.
"I just passed by the director's office. Dr. Burke was there, arguing with him. I overheard something about Alex… and the phrase 'encouraged to resign.'"
"It's finally happening," Cristina smirked. "Remember what the director told us during orientation?"
"We started with 20 surgical interns. Eight will transfer to easier departments, five will crack under pressure, and two will be forced to resign," Adam recalled with a smile.
"Looks like Alex might be the first one from our group to be dismissed," Cristina said, grinning.
Getting rid of someone with connections wasn't so easy.
After a few more exchanges, the group dispersed.
"You need something?" Adam turned to George with a smile.
George glanced around cautiously. Seeing no one paying attention, he pulled Adam into a hospital room, shut the door, and closed the blinds…
always update and finish