The exchange between Elizabeth Corday and Dave Malluci in "Such Sweet Sorrow" left me speechless. Yes, he's cocky, rather irresponsible and needed some sort of dressing down. But it was not her place to do it! She should have reported the incident to either Mark or Kerry and let them take it from there. And the way she did it! Nasty to the extreme, and JUVENILE. Reminded me of high school, or even middle school: "so-and-so said this about YOU". Her behavior was inexcusable. And as for her telling Dave how terrible he is...practically every regular on ER has behaved irresponsibly or made grave mistakes at some point. It made my blood boil to hear her chew him out like that. If I recall correctly, a young man named Gant was submitted to an equally brutal tongue-lashing by Corday's former lover, Peter Benton. It drove him to suicide. I think anyone who had to endure the kind of treatment that Corday dished out to Dave would be devastated. She was in the wrong, BIG TIME. Perhaps this subject has been discussed before, but I needed to vent. Thank you.

-- cynthia herbert (cherbert@richmond.edu), May 15, 2000

Answers

I thought Cordays bashing to Malucci was in the total right! His character, as she put it, is cocky and irrisponsible. I am glad she did it, because it is tiresome to see Malucci so arrogant all the time. And since she was the one that was going to have to fix that young lady up, because of the irresponsibility of both him and Abby, I felt that it was her place to say something. But this is only MY OPINION and I am not try to bash what you had said Cynthia.

-- Paula (pbranden@dwave.net), May 15, 2000.

I think Elizabeth was absolutely right in her upbraiding of Malucci. He had failed to carry out his responsibilities properly, and a woman almost died because of his neglect of his duties. Yes, it most certainly was her place to lace him down, because the consequences of his irresponsibility involved a life-or-death consequence. A doctor who fails to supervise a student and discharges a patient he hasn't seen is not only making a grave mistake, but also violating the rules that were set up to protect the patients in the first place. I think it's important to realize that Malucci was being made to realize what he had done was substandard and unprofessional, and the surgical staff had coped with his errors before and unanimously thought he was a poor doctor. I wouldn't want to be assigned to an emergency room physician whose quality of care and judgment hadn't been addressed because his superiors were afraid of hurting his feelings. Feelings be damned -- lives are at stake. Elizabeth was right on.

-- Chessie King (chessieking@hotmail.com), May 15, 2000.

I agree that Dave needed to be reprimanded. But Corday should not have been the one to do it, and that "do you want to know what the staff thinks of you" bit was brutal. I don't think I have ever seen anyone be as needlessly cruel as she, and that includes Benton and Romano. Nothing much shocks me on TV these days, but that did. I think the way she handled that situation was way out of line.

-- Cynthia (cherbert@richmond.edu), May 15, 2000.

I'm with Cynthia. I've already given my reasons several other places, but to summarize: Malucci did need to hear what he did, but from his supervisor (Kerry I think since that's who Elizabeth went to later to report what she'd done) and in a more professional atmosphere and temperament. Elizabeth herself could have told him HER opinion of him, but not everyone else's. I know there are lives at stake, but the event had passed and the reprimand needed to be handled appropriately. I've liked Elizabeth a lot until recently. She seems to be having some control issues considering her recent confrontations with Peter, Cleo, and now Malucci. In every case she could have and should have expressed her opinion, but I think she's overstepped her bounds and/or handled it poorly most of the time. I truly like her being a strong woman, but lately she's coming off more like Romano and that's not a good thing.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), May 15, 2000.

I thought Elizabeth was absolutely right in what she did. She is, after all, the Associate Chief of Surgery, and Malucci's patient ended up on her table, so she had every right to discipline both Dave and Abby. And WHAT is up with Abby? Have other med students made as many mistakes as she has? I don't remember Lucy or Carter, when he was a student, making so many errors.

-- Cindy (tailchasers51@hotmail.com), May 15, 2000.

I too was glad to see Elizabeth reprimand Malucci. Its about time someone was held accountable for a mistake they made on this show! I am a Malucci fan but he is arrogant and irresponsible. He needed SOMEONE to tell him like it is before it was too late. I am not a doctor and have no idea of what a hospital hierarchy is like, but I think she had every right considering that girl ended up on her operating table. Malucci and Abby put her life in jeopardy and I think coming from Elizabeth he just might listen. I really think this is going to be the start of a new and better Malucci!

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), May 15, 2000.

Actually, I thought Elizabeth was right to confront Malucci. She was honest, direct and stated factually what he had been doing. He has been acting irresponsibly and he has not been taking his duties seriously. She asked Abby to step out of the room and then she clearly and succinctly explained why his mistakes were jeopardizing his reputation as well as his career. He needed someone to point that out to him. Elizabeth is in a supervisory position in the surgery department of the hospital and once the patient came to surgery due to an oversight in the ER, it became her responsibility to deal with the situation. After she reprimanded Malucci, she found Kerry, his supervisor, and explained the situation to her. In my opinion, she did everything right in this situation.

-- Seleise (amethyst_6822@yahoo.com), May 15, 2000.

I think what Elizabeth did was great. I think sometimes it's easy to forget the amount of authority she has, but she is the associate chief of surgery. She has an OFFICE! I think Malucci needed to have the swelling in his head go down a little, and Elizabeth certainly took care of it. I'm not so sure she should have mentioned what the whole staff thought of him but every other thing she said had to be said. I love it when she gets like that.

-- Joanne (bucklind@hotmail.com), May 15, 2000.

And since she has an office, if she was going to do this, she should have had him meet her there, which is another point that she did it when she was angry. Oh well. If someone in my company had done that to a member of my staff and then come told me, I'd have politely thanked them and then requested that next time they came to me FIRST and let me handle it constructively, with their help and/or input. Maybe she's used to things being done differently though. I'm dropping the subject and hoping this little roll of her's is over.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), May 15, 2000.

Actually, I though Elizabeth was in the right too. That's pretty confirmed by what Mark says when she mentioned Malucci and he asks "what did he do this time?" like he has messed up many times before.

-- Barbara Sirois Doyle (barbara@sirois.com), May 15, 2000.

I think Corday was right. Malluci has to understand that his behaviour can put a life in danger. If he is not able to work hard , he should have chosen another job.

But like others, I think she should have told her opinion instead of speaking for all the ER.

By the way, if other people had a problem with Dave, why didn't they speak out?

Delphine

-- Delphine Kerzerho (delphine@cancerboard.ab.ca), May 15, 2000.

On a related note, don't you think there's a weird dynamic between Dr. Dave and Abby?

I saw SSS backwards -- walked in 10 minutes late, watched the rest, and then saw the beginning on videotape. (I'm pretty indifferent to the D&C thing, so I didn't have strong feelings about seeing the episode under perfect conditions, spoiler-free -- I just wanted to see it.) So I already knew Abby and Dave would be getting into big trouble when I saw the beginning. As such, I was quite struck by the first scene with Abby. She is all groggy, continuing to doze as a nurse (was it Lydia?) tells her about an incoming patient. Then the nurse says, "Do you want me to wake Dr. Dave?" and THAT brings her to consciousness, saying "No, I'm up."

Is she for some reason afraid to wake Dr. Dave, or just too arrogant to do so (suggested by her saying Dr. Dave didn't need to see the patient since she had more GYN experience anyway)? I thought her insistence that Malucci needn't be awakened was particularly striking in light of the fact that, prior to this episode, we've been unable to tell who if anyone was her supervisor. And the bit in the previous episode in which she looked at Carter, deliberately not Malucci, when the comment was made that a great teacher makes a difference.

-- Elizabeth (ebs42@yahoo.com), May 15, 2000.

Dr. Corday, I hope, is honing her verbal scalpel for The One Who Most Deserves It. May she dice him into such tiny rocket-shaped particles that even Gretl won't recognize him. But may he return thereafter.

-- Driad (botteron@alum.mit.edu), May 15, 2000.

Go Dr Corday! Alex Kingston is a strong character and with the departure of Juliannne I'm hoping she can keep ER together. I say kudos to the tongue lashing! Her scenes have been powerful all season....especially with that murderer/rapist guy she told she would let die if he didn't give the cops the answers they wanted....I say 2 thumbs up to her!

-- Whitney (CWB Sierra Angel@aol.com), May 15, 2000.

Well, it looks as though once again I get to play devils advocate and contribute to the less favorable argument. I agree with Cynthia. There is only one word to describe the way Dr. Corday handled the situation with Malucci. HORRIBLE. She was uneccesarily crude, crossing the threshold of bluntness into blatant RUDENESS, not to mention the fact that she was incredibly infantile in pointing out everyone's opinions on Malucci, failing to support those opinions with much substantial fact. Yes, Malucci was out of line, that I am not denying, and I do believe he should have been reprimanded, but oh holier than thou, bow down to my prestigious self Dr. Corday should not have been the one to do it.

-- Mandii Faris (contradiction@uswest.net), May 16, 2000.

Just wondering when Abby is gonna get her dressing down from Dr. Dave. I mean, Carter was thrashed REGULARLY by Benton as was Lucy by Carter. I don't understand her being under Dave's charge and never being addressed by him personally concerning anything. In fact, Greene and Weaver are more of her teachers/correctors than anything. I'd just like to see Dave act like the teacher he's supposed to be.

-- Marcy (marcy@cbt.net), May 17, 2000.

It seems to me that the writers just threw that out last week, that Dave was Abby's teacher. Did anyone know this before? I wonder if Dave even knew this before (lol!). I agree that someone needs to be tougher on Abby or she is never going to learn. In the past the teachers (Benton to Carter and Carter to Lucy) have been very demanding of their students so maybe now that we know Dave is the teacher he will act like one. I doubt we will see much of these two characters this week though. Will Abby still be a med student next season? Or will she be in her first year as a resident? I am not sure how that works.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), May 17, 2000.

I believe Elizabeth HAD to dress down Malucci. Obviously, noone else was; and how else do you learn if you don't realize where you're in the wrong. Especially when dealing with peoples LIVES! Elizabeth could've asked Malucci to her office, yes. But at least she didn't dress him down in front of anyone else. And, IMHO, she did it in as a humane way as possible. Can you just imagine how the same conversation would've taken place if it was Kerry (especially the Kerry from 'SSS') instead of Elizabeth? Malucci was better off hearing it from Elizabeth rather than Kerry. And I think hearing it from Elizabeth will make him listen this time. How often have we seen him get directions from Kerry and just blow them off or at least have a terrible attitude about them?

-- AmyE (roamy@aol.com), May 17, 2000.

I thought Elizabeth's reprimand for Malucci was right on. I agree that it was hard to watch, and it was humiliating for him which is just what he needed. I really like his character a lot, he is funny and his cynical sarcasm makes for good tension in his scenes. The way I see it, is that medicine is not a discipline that tolerates laziness, sloppiness, or repeated mistakes. Malucci has shown to be capable of being a good doctor, but he needed his *** kicked into shape. Elizabeth was just the person for the job too. Would YOU want Malucci caring for you, or your loved ones, when he makes these kind of irresponsible mistakes? Leaving a med student, unsupervised, in charge of an emergency room patient? Seems like a no brainer to me, the patient almost died! He's a big boy, he'll get over it.

Pulling for Carter's recovery :) Monika

-- Monika C. (monika@medmail.com), May 18, 2000.

hmmmmmm...put a patients life in one hand.....Dr Dave's humiliation in the other....now weigh them, and see which one is more important. i think lizzie was right on, i mean think of how many lives she saved, and how many patients she saved from suffering just by dishing out that tounge lashing. i wish more doctors would care about their patients this much!!!

-- ALexis Springer (lexicat1@webtv.net), May 18, 2000.