What "The Pitt" Taught Me About Being a Doctor

"In season two of "The Pitt," the Emmy-winning drama that returned to HBO Max on Thursday, a middle-aged man named Orlando Diaz wakes up in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. His wife and daughter are at his side; a cannula is delivering oxygen into his nose. "How'd I get here?" he asks softly."

"Then his wife pulls Mohan aside. "The thing is," she says, her voice breaking, "we don't have health insurance." Diaz eventually admits that he's been rationing insulin to save money. He and his wife work several jobs, but none of them offer health coverage; the family makes too much for Medicaid but too little to afford insurance through Obamacare. The hospital agrees to give Diaz a "discount," but the bill is still expected to run in the tens of thousands of dollars."

"A few hours later, Mohan spots Diaz heading for the exit, still in a hospital gown. He's removed his oxygen and asks her to take the I.V.s out of his arms. "Every minute I stay is a meal, shoes, school supplies," he says. Mohan persuades him to wait until she can pack a bag of medications and supplies-a stopgap measure that could nonetheless save his life."

Season two follows Orlando Diaz, a construction worker who wakes in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center with a serious diabetes complication. Samira Mohan, a compassionate medical resident, learns Diaz and his family lack affordable insurance and that he has been rationing insulin to save money. Hospital care carries tens of thousands in expected charges, pressuring Diaz to leave to protect his family's finances. Mohan convinces him to wait while she packs medications that could save his life, but Diaz disappears. The season also introduces Jack Abbot, a gruff veteran emergency physician and SWAT medic coping with field injuries and trauma.

Read at The New Yorker