New Amsterdam Episode 2
Expectant Dad
Our second visit to New Amsterdam opens with a pensive looking Dr. Max Goodwin speaking. As the scene widens we find Max cracking Dad jokes to his baby over his wife’s sleeping form. Like many expectant fathers, Max is taken with bonding with his baby any way he can. He begins singing “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”. As the song proceeds, his wife awakens with a smile and as he concludes, he kisses her pregnant form and tells the baby, “time to go to work”.
Time to work
Quickly, the pace of Max’s day changes as he rounds with the department chairs. Dr. Frome is right on his heels when we hear his now familiar refrain, “How can I help?” Frome quickly requests the removal of the candy from the vending machines in the pediatric areas. As they exit an elevator, Dr. Bloom catches him with a snag for getting rid of the ED waiting room. Max quickly catches onto her need for additional nursing staff. Pushing the department heads as hard as he pushes himself, rounds continue through a stair climb. Dr. Kapoor mentions the crippling costs of healthcare and is chastised by Max for bringing things down. Undeterred, Kapoor continues with his pitch for revising the patient bill of rights for the hospital. Max praises Kapoor for bringing things back up. Here we get a glimpse of Max’s desire for levity amidst the constant pressures of emergent crises, cost management, and raising the standards of healthcare.
A man of his word, Dr. Goodwin meets with the custodial staff and explains their important role in infection control at the hospital effectively making them feel a part of the team. He tells a brief story of how a janitor from his previous clinic helped with infection control and saved lives. Dr. Goodwin proceeded to ask them, “Cómo puedo ayudar/ How can I help?”
He proceeds with a board meeting where he tells the Board his plans, explains that costs will increase, and asks “Who’s with me?” As expected, he is answered only by cranky and baffled looks. He continues with the Board explaining that they need to deliver better healthcare with fewer resources, but pleads for their help and ideas. Unsurprisingly, he is met with silence. Dr. Goodwin starts to “dance” in the front of the room threatening that he will continue to do this until they speak up. Just after he moves into his version of the Robot, one brave Board member speaks up, “What about group appointments?” Relieved to have someone participating, Max asks for more. The idea is to create group appointments for like conditions: diabetes, hypertension, etc. All of this before the opening credits. Max is a busy man.
Meet the patients
Our first patient, Josette, enters the ER after collapsing while receiving an award. Dr. Bloom and Dr. Reynolds concur that the problem is cardiac, specifically acute mitral valve regurgitation. A “leaky” heart requires prompt care to save the patient. She is quickly moved into a trauma room as they begin care to stabilize her.
We next find ourselves strolling the halls with our two beloved brain nerds, Drs. Frome and Kapoor discussing Dr. Frome’s children and Dr. Kapoor’s lack thereof. In an awkward segue where Iggy calls Kapoor old, the conversation shifts to the longevity of the changes put forth by Dr. Goodwin. Dr. Kapoor is skeptical that the Dean will allow changes to progress for very long.
We meet Dr. Frome’s patient Leo. Leo is a young boy playing with Legos in the floor. Dr. Frome (who tells the boy to call him Iggy), asks the boy for confirmation of information given him from the boy’s mother. Leo is having difficulty staying awake and has been wetting the bed. Iggy does his best to set the boy at ease as he begins to look over Leo’s chart discovering a lengthy list of powerful daily medications in the boy’s record. Dr. Frome who quite engaging is unable to elicit much response from Leo. His treatment plan: take Leo off his medications and find the boy locked away inside. At this suggestion, Leo makes the first real eye contact of the conversation.
Still Running
As a patient complains about not knowing the cost of a procedure a passing Max informs him of the law restricting hospitals from disclosing the costs of treatment and continues in his state of perpetual motion. Dora catches up with Max reminding him that he is perpetually late and cannot continue to ignore the calls of the Dean.
As he continues to push forward he is stopped by Dr. Helen Sharpe. After engaging in a brief verbal sparring match, he dismisses Dora with the task of getting him an apple. Living up to her name, Dr. Sharpe very pointedly tells Max he needs to slow down and take his diagnosis seriously.
Broken Heart Syndrome
Drs. Floyd and Bloom find that the Josette suffers from a particularly acute case “Broken Heart Syndrome” in which the stress was so great it caused significant physical damage to the heart muscle. As Dr. Floyd discusses the surgical repair, the family asks to perform a protection ritual requiring a small cut to the skin filled with herbs. The response is a quick and adamant no as any cut to the skin carries some risk of infection. As a part of his day, Dr. Goodwin discusses the ritual with Dr. Reynolds. Holding firm in his position, and after reminding Max that he fired the entire Cardiac Surgical department due to high infection rates, Dr. Floyd begins to transport the Josette to the OR. Josette remains unstable for transport, crashing and exhibiting complications each time Dr. Floyd tries to begin transport.
After further intervention coupled with some prose from Dr. Reynolds on why rituals are not necessary as compared to his skills, he and Dr. Bloom once again prepare to transport the patient. Once again they are hindered by complications. Some issues between the two seem to bubble up as Dr. Bloom reminds Dr. Reynolds that ultimately it is about the patient and what they need and “why can’t he just give her that”. Ultimately the ritual proceeds and Dr. Floyd safely transports Josette to OR. As we watch him scrubbing in, reciting “Invictus”, Dr. Bloom points out that these “habits” are in fact his rituals.
Just when we think all is well, Dr. Reynolds is faced with a crisis. Josette’s heart stops again and none of the measures are working. Unwilling to give up “hope”, Dr. Reynolds keeps trying until we all breath a sigh of relief at the resuming beep of the monitor. Dr. Reynolds delivers good news to the family and everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.
In Search of the Lost Boy
In discussing the medications Leo is taking daily, Leo’s mother find outs that the stacking of the medications is creating his problems. One medication causes sleepiness so a stimulant is prescribed and the side effects of the medications are causing weight gain and ultimately Type 2 diabetes, the underlying cause of his bedwetting.
Drs. Frome and Kapoor huddle to devise a plan to safely detox Leo to find the emotional issues that led to his daily medications when Dr. Goodwin interrupts with an introduction to the Psychiatrist in charge of Leo’s district with the New York City Schools. If Leo is removed from his medication, he will not be allowed back into public schools. An outraged Iggy cites legal precedent which is quickly dispensed with further details from Max. The solution? Take the school system to court.
In the courtroom at New Amsterdam, Drs. Frome and Kapoor face off with the New York City School system all in hopes of reaching the young boy trapped amid a cloud of medications. After presenting their case and viewing video footage of the precipitating incident at the school, Dr. Frome makes one last attempt to reach Leo. When that fails, Dr. Kapoor sees only one way left to prove their case.
A Little Less Sharpe
Dr. Sharpe delivers less than pleasant news to a new patient, Millie. She has a plan for treatment though they both know Millie’s time is running out. Looking for some silver lining, Millie feels fortunate to meet the famous doctor who has lit up her television screen many times. Simultaneously, she laments her appearance considering she was now face to face with such a personality as “The Dr. Helen”. Dr. Sharpe tries to diffuse Millie’s self-deprecation but is instead overcome when Millie speaks and, perhaps for the first time, Dr. Sharpe truly hears the story of a cancer patient. The seemingly unshakable Dr. Sharpe is visibly rattled as she ducks around the corner with an excuse about needing her calendar.
The Razor’s Edge
Amidst his busy day, Max stops in to check on his wife. He makes promises that she doesn’t believe but he really wants to make true. She makes a seemingly simple request of a spouse. Go and do what you need to do, but when you return, let me in. Max agrees and returns to his day.
Dr. Goodwin shows the first cracks in his unorthodox approach when he discovers Dr. Kapoor in the process of detoxing Leo from his medications. He pushes back on Kapoor with the problems that could arise and the liability of the hospital. Undeterred, Kapoor holds his ground with Max. He wonders aloud if Max’s new attitude is the result of a visit with the Dean of Medicine. He finishes his argument with “So patient first or job first?” Amidst Kapoor’s argument, Dora arrives with several more places that Max is needed. For the first time, we see Max’s eternal optimism falter. As he bursts through the door onto the rooftop he is met by Dr. Helen Sharpe who claims the rooftop as her hideout.
On that rooftop, both Helen and Max come to realize that they have been pushed to their limits for this moment. Dr. Sharpe has fallen victim to the contagious attitude of Max and believes she cares too much for her patients. Max faces his guilt of not matching Georgia’s commitment to slow down together. Dr. Sharpe realizes that Max hasn’t shared his diagnosis with Georgia. That seems to Max a load too heavy to ask his wife to carry when he already dumped New Amsterdam on her.
The Weight
Released from the cloud of medication and with help from Dr. Frome, Leo tells the story of the day he lost his dad and he blames himself. It seems clear that Leo is not a danger to himself, but rather needs time and space to process the grief of losing his father and navigating himself away from his misplaced blame. Following a successful ruling, we see a tender moment between mother and son and a heartwarming smile from Leo.
As Max returns to visit Georgia after a long day that included some straight talk from Dr. Sharpe, he gets an update from her physician. There are still concerns with the pregnancy and Georgia is to remain on bedrest and completely stress-free (physically and emotionally) for the duration. Now what is Max to do? His betrayed wife is looking to him for authenticity and sharing but he now knows he cannot share his diagnosis as instructed by Dr. Sharpe. Dr. Goodwin sets his shoulders, perhaps a little lower, and takes Georgia’s hand. She waits expectantly and asks for a single truth from him. You can almost hear the battle raging in his head as he settles on this one truth: “I love you”.
Dr. Kapoor is found in an empty stairwell, cell phone to his ear leaving a message…for his son. He we find a little insight into Dr. Kapoor’s discomfort around sharing family details and are left to wonder what happened between this father and son. From all that we have seen, Iggy’s assessment of Dr. Kapoor’s paternal inclinations seem spot on. Dr. Kapoor leaves an open offer for his son “I’m here”.
In her closing scene, Dr. Sharpe is very carefully applying nail polish to the brittle, mangled nails of Millie. This small, yet enormous, gesture elicits a smile from Millie and some sense of peace for Dr. Sharpe. It turns out that Dr. Helen Sharpe has many facets and, like many women, hides that softness under a tough exterior for her own protection.
My thoughts
Even more than the pilot, this was a beautifully constructed episode of New Amsterdam. We can all relate to something in the lives of these doctors. We have all been like Max, spinning way too many plates at once, and just hoping to not drop one as we grow tired and they feel heavier. The genuine compassion that Iggy Frome brings to life and practice will hopefully inspire a movement. I loved the measured and thoughtful Dr. Kapoor pushing those boundaries for maybe the first time in his effort to put patients first. Personally, Dr. Sharpe’s softening has been replayed multiple times in my life and if we are honest we have all exhibited Dr. Richards level of obstinance along the way.
New Amsterdam builds on its central theme “How can I help?” in beautiful ways throughout this episode. Diverse personalities and skill sets find their own unique ways to help as they are challenged to help each other and themselves along the way. I can’t wait for my next appointment to check in with the doctors and meet the Dean of Medicine.
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