The Pitt Season 2 episode 7 finally revealed that the reason why Westbridge had gone down was because its computer system had been hacked by cyberterrorists. Even though PTMC’s cybersecurity system was robust, CEO Trent Norris ordered a digital blackout, because if they were offline, the cyber terrorists wouldn’t have anything to hack into, thereby prompting everyone to go analog for supposedly the rest of the day. But before all that went down, a bunch of things happened. For starters, Roxie stood (or sat) firm on her decision to stay in the hospital instead of going home and traumatizing her family with her sickness. Santos continued to ignore Harlow because there were some hiccups with getting an ASL interpreter for her. Abbot made his grand entrance in the ER with Officer Hiro and stabilized him with the help of Robby. In addition to that, he took a liking to Baran because of their common experience in war zones.
Speaking of being in the warzone, it was hinted that Baran was probably suffering from PTSD, which was why he excused himself from a conversation about Jackson to get in touch with Dr. Fairgraves from the Pittsburgh Neuroscience Group. Meanwhile, Langdon had a big hand in setting up a cooling room, because they were seeing several cases of heat exhaustion. He also played a big role in stabilizing a guy who had been shredded by a boat’s propeller. Was all that enough to compel Robby to forgive Langdon? No, not exactly. Samira’s day wasn’t going all that well because Orlando had escaped from the ER because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to foot the bill. However, the one who was feeling like she was living a nightmare was Ilana; she had entered the ER after being sexually assaulted by her “friend.” Thankfully, she had Dana and Emma to look after her. Now, how were all of these people affected by the blackout? Let’s talk about episode 8, to find out.
Spoiler Alert
The Pitt Goes Analog
The tiff between Robby and Baran that started in hour 7 of Season 2 regarding her not consulting him before giving the go-ahead to Norris about the IT shutdown bleeds into hour 8. But since he has to teach all the analog procedures of handling patients, he tables that discussion with Baran for later and focuses on having a quick but in-depth chat with his staff. Right before all the monitors went down, Robby had told Whitaker to take a picture of the boards so that they could write it down on the whiteboard. Whitaker claimed that he had taken the picture, but when he saw what he had clicked, he was too ashamed to show it to anyone else because it was so blurry. This is when Joy reveals another one of her amazing skills: photographic memory. Yeah, she remembers everything that was on that monitor in detail, and she starts spewing out all the data so that Baran can write it on the whiteboard.
Given how Dana is still tending to Ilana, Princess continues to hold the position of charge nurse. Robby tells everyone to check on their patients until Joy is done creating an exact copy of the patient board. Whenever they get some free time, Robby and Abbot provide everyone with a new piece of information so that they can seamlessly do their job without relying on tech. By the way, this means that Baran’s AI is seemingly done for the day, which certainly means that there’ll be no more unnecessary discrepancies in the charts. I know I say this every week, but I am truly astonished that this is the kind of system and training in place to deal with emergency situations. In certain self-proclaimed trillion-dollar economies that boast of world-class healthcare, hospitals will certainly shut shop if they are struck with this kind of calamity.
Updates on Roxie, Harlow, and Samira’s Future Plans
Santos, with the help of the ASL interpreter, tends to Harlow properly this time. After learning about the amount of hours she spends on the computer and massaging the muscles on her neck and her shoulders, Santos gives her some antacid and anesthetic for the trigger point, which is giving her headaches. While that does its job, Santos goes to Baran to give her the lowdown on what’s going on with Harlow, and she points out that Harlow’s posture while using the laptop is the biggest contributor to her ailment. Langdon tries to use this moment to bury the hatchet with Santos, but it seems like she’s unwilling to let him back into her space. Elsewhere in the ER, Lloyd and Cora Hamler, Roxie’s parents, arrive at the ER, and Victoria takes them to her room. It doesn’t take long for the old-timers to read the room, and they take the children, Tucker and Shane, to the canteen for some ice cream so that Roxie can have some time to think. It’s pretty obvious that Paul really cares about Roxie, but it seems like the approach that he’s taking to convincing Roxie to come back home is actually overwhelming her instead of making her wait for the hospital bed a little easier. McKay informs Robby that Roxie is still in a world of pain, and Robby tells her to up her dosage. McKay warns that that could stop her breathing, and Robby essentially says that in Roxie’s situation, death is the best option.
Baran and Samira have a conversation with Dr. Desmond Wolke regarding Baby Jane Doe. Baran wonders when Jane is going to get her own bed, and Wolke is of the opinion that she doesn’t need one. Baran says that she needs to be kept in the hospital and under observation, because rhinoviruses can indicate a serious bacterial infection. Wolke says that, as per protocol, Jane needs to be sent home, which is when Samira points out that the baby doesn’t have a home; she was abandoned. Wolke states that he can’t put a kid with a virus in the nursery, and he doesn’t want to waste a private room on a healthy baby (relatively speaking). The only good option that he sees is putting her up for foster care. Baran doesn’t vibe with that idea; hence, she tells Wolke to tell his attendant to get in touch with her. While they wait, Baran and Samira have a discussion about the latter’s future; Baran pushes her towards elder care, because she has seen how good Samira is with old-timers. Samira probably never realized her true potential, but once it was pointed out by Baran, she did start thinking about it seriously. By the way, in this episode, Season 2 takes 2 jabs at present-day politics, because it has led to the lack of funding for research into racial disparities in health care as well as Medicaid. Remember, kids, everything is political, so don’t say stupid stuff like, “I don’t like to engage with politics.”
Knox’s Weight Proves To Be A Problem
52-year-old Howard Knox is brought in with abdominal pain and fever; and, by the looks of it, he is extremely overweight. While Robby, McKay, and Whitaker treat him with respect, Ogilvie keeps passing some insensitive comments about his body. Either way, they take him into one of the trauma rooms and get a basic idea of how Knox is feeling in his own words. With that out of the way, they decide to send him to CT. Yes, the CT machines are working, but the reports will only come out in printed format, not digitally. That’s not the issue though; the issue is laying him down for the CT test without causing breathing problems. Since Knox admits that his respiration will be obstructed if he is made to lie down, Robby explains the alternate process where a tube will be thrust down his nose to make him breathe artificially.
The poor guy actually apologizes for being overweight and causing so many complications, which is just so sad that Robby has to assure him repeatedly that it’s fine and that he’s in the right place because Robby and his team know how to take care of issues like this. By the way, there’s another problem, which Robby and the rest discuss in private: the normal CT machine probably can’t handle Knox’s weight. Hence, they might have to bring in the CT from the Presby (UPMC Presbyterian) or get one from the zoo because they have CT machines meant for large animals. However, that’s a bridge they can cross when they get there. For now, Perlah brings in Baran to help with the awake nasotracheal intubation. While preparing him for the procedure, they learn that Knox is a victim of workplace accidents, layoffs, singlehood, parental death, and an estranged relationship with his sister, Lauren Milford, who’s in Arizona. Even though that’s the opposite side of the country, they send her a message just in case she wants to bury the hatchet and be by her brother’s side.
While all this is going on, Mel asks Baran to help her with a woman who’s experiencing sudden vision loss, and while Baran tends to that, Abbot arrives to help Robby and the rest with Knox. McKay and Ogilvie get the soundboard so that Knox can communicate with them after his mouth becomes unusable due to the intubation, and McKay uses this time away from the rest of the team and Knox to knock some sense into Ogilvie regarding his insensitivity. By the time McKay and Ogilvie return to Knox’s room, we see that Abbot and Garcia are already there for the intubation. Once that’s done, they start preparing for the weight check. Since Knox’s weight is a little more than 450 kilos, McKay thinks that they can put him in the CT machine they have; Robby disagrees with her, because they are already in a crunch situation and he doesn’t want to risk crashing the CT machine. Therefore, Knox has to be moved to the Presby, and Abbot is willing to accompany him on this little detour.
Brooke Risks Death to Save Her Eye
Baran, Mel, and Samira tend to Brooke, who is experiencing blindness in her left eye. She has arrived at the ER with her wife, Wendy. Mel theorizes that maybe a blood clot has blocked an artery at the back of her eye, which has decreased her vision. As soon as Mel calls it an “eye stroke,” Wendy begins to panic, because she thinks that her wife is going to be paralyzed. So, Samira informs her that whatever Brooke is dealing with is limited to her eye; the rest of her body is probably fine. I say “probably” because, like Baran says, they have to do a proper diagnosis before saying anything concrete about Brooke’s condition. Since the retinal exam doesn’t work, Baran tells Mel to bring in the FOP, which is a smartphone fundoscope. It looks exactly like what it sounds like; there’s an eyepiece attached to a machine that looks like a nail gun, and that machine has a smartphone linked to it. So, if you put your eye into that eyepiece, the doctors can take detailed scans of the retina without dilating the pupils. Based on the scan of Brooke’s left eye, it appears that there’s no blood flow in the retina. Hence, Baran orders a digital massage and a non-contrast head CT.
Once the reports come in, Baran gives Brooke and Wendy a choice: using clot-busting medication or not taking any medication at all. Both have their pros and cons because, well, it’s the eye, and that thing is pretty close to the brain. After a brief discussion between the couple, Brooke says that she’s willing to risk it and take the medication. Once the medicine has been administered, Brooke is moved to a different room so that she can be observed properly for the next couple of hours. Baran tells Mel to stay with Brooke and report if there are any complications. Mel wants to catch up on her charting, because it’ll help her mentally prepare for her deposition, but Baran insists that she stay with Brooke because that’ll give her the appropriate “quiet time” to ready herself for the legal hearing. Meanwhile, Samira takes care of George Francis, who is largely there because he’s a lonely man. Since Samira is a kind-hearted person, she doesn’t mind it, and she patiently listens to everything the old timer has to say. Going back to Mel, she is pulled aside by Ellis, who takes a pretty aggressive approach to putting her mind at ease.
Nicole Gives an Education on BPD and Schizophrenia
Victoria seems to be confused about how to pick patients from a manual board. Robby tells her to just pick the one on the top, because the names have been listed according to urgency, and write her initials alongside the name of the patient. Before Victoria can pick a new patient, though, Caleb arrives with Nicole Steadman; she runs the parent support group for the psychiatric service. Nicole’s daughter was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was a sophomore. So, evidently, she’s the right person to talk to Jackson’s parents, because it’s possible that he’s going down a similar road. Yes, I have to say “similar road” since it’s not clear yet if Jackson is going to be diagnosed with BPD or schizophrenia. He needs to take meds, go to therapy, and be under observation for a significant amount of time.
Once there’s enough data, they’ll be able to say for sure what approach they need to opt for in order to give Jackson the treatment he needs. Charles still refuses to be patient about this situation, because he’s certain that a blood test or a brain scan will do the trick. Victoria and Nicole try their best to convey the message that it’s not about bringing Jackson back to what he used to be before this episode; it’s about easing him into this next phase of his life. BPD or schizophrenia isn’t like a death knell or something. Nicole speaks from personal experience that, despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia, her daughter is living a full life. What’s important is that the time and attention that are needed to tailor the medical regime according to the patient in question are given; if that’s done, everything’s going to be fine.
Langdon and Santos Are Still Not Friends
Santos and Joy wheel Jackie Liddell into the trauma room. She has arrived there with her best friend, Jaquie, who is the architect of Jackie’s pain. Apparently, both of them were in the middle of a pub crawl, and they stopped to take a photograph where Jaquie was crouching and Jackie’s head was right above Jaquie’s. Jackie’s tongue was out while she was posing, and when Jaquie got up without a warning, her head hit Jackie’s jaw, and she ended up biting through her tongue. Langdon joins the dynamic duo to take care of Jackie, and while things go fine initially, Santos starts getting hostile when Langdon starts talking about the drug that needs to be used to numb the tongue. Hence, Langdon chooses to remove himself from the room, and he tells the girls that he’ll return when they have to do the stitches.
Joy can obviously sense the tension between Santos and Langdon, and even though she’s raring to know about the drama between them, she doesn’t say anything, because Jackie is the priority. Langdon catches up with McKay, who gives him some sound advice about battling addiction; McKay speaks from experience, which is why Langdon takes her words to heart. Eventually, Langdon joins Joy and Santos to finish up stitching Jackie’s tongue. Once that’s done, Joy takes off to help Ogilvie and Victoria with a patient who has severe boils on his limbs and mouth; the guy in question has phytophotodermatitis, which has happened because he was squeezing fresh limes out in the sun. Robby goes with Victoria and Ogilvie to take a look at the guy and advises steroid pills and sunscreen.
Dana Returns To The Hub
Princess enters the room where Dana has been collecting evidence from Ilana, and she really wants Dana at the hub because this blackout is a doozy. But Dana can’t leave the room until she’s done with Ilana. Thankfully, Ilana and Emma return to the room, which prompts Princess to head back to the hub, and although Ilana didn’t get anything to eat, she makes it clear that she’s calm and composed enough to finish the evidence-collection process. That comes as a relief for Dana because she has been worried about whether she’s treating her properly. However, when she sees that Ilana is feeling more comfortable in her presence, she realizes that she hasn’t lost a step after all these years, especially when it comes to a sensitive case like this. Once all the swabs have been put in the “rape kit” or sexual assault forensic evidence (SAFE) kit, Dana gives Ilana the meds for STI prevention and offers a birth control pill too; Ilana rejects the latter, because she trusts her IUD. Dana then informs her about Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), which is for HIV; it’s a regimen that needs to be followed over the course of 28 days, and the sooner Ilana starts, the more effective it will be.
Well, on that note, Emma parts ways with Ilana, because the ER is a mess. Ilana says that she’s thankful that she feels lucky to be treated by Dana and Emma. Of course, anyone else in Dana’s and Emma’s position would have loved it if crimes like these didn’t happen and women weren’t sexually assaulted for simply existing. However, the reason why both Emma and Dana say that they are glad they were the ones who got to tend to Ilana is because they know that their hands are safe. They can’t prevent crimes from happening, but they can ensure that a patient feels comfortable after going through such a harrowing experience. They know that there are many doctors and nurses out there who haven’t gotten the training to treat patients who have been sexually assaulted, or they are just not sensitive enough (largely because they aren’t paid to be) to be empathetic. Hence, they are grateful to be of service to Ilana. Dana tells Emma that the rape kit is supposed to be locked up in a special fridge, and it should be collected by the police in the next 72 hours. While putting said rape kit in said special fridge, Dana gets the shock of her life when she sees another rape kit, which has apparently been lying in there for the past 2 weeks. This kind of shows how the law treats rape victims and how certain cases of sexual assault just “fall through the cracks.” Regardless, Dana gives the liaison for the Pittsburgh police an earful and tells them to send someone to pick up the rape kits immediately. By the way, this means that Dana is back at the hub, and Princess is free (kind of), and she immediately starts putting things in order because she is a magician. Is that enough, though?
Well, no, because in the ending of episode 8, we see Robby and Dana looking at the chaos unfolding at the hub and wondering what they are going to do. Yeah, there’s no big cliffhanger this week or startling revelation; just the calm before the storm. You read that right; what we are seeing at the hub is “calm.” There are 7 more hours left in this hellhole, which means everyone needs to pucker up because it’s going to be much, much worse, and with no tech support, everyone will reach the brink of madness. Who will make it through and who will succumb to the pressure? Place your bets in the comments section below.
