This episode has a subplot featuring Morrison reluctantly taking a house call, despite it not being a thing anymore, out of the goodness of his heart. The caller, who has actually called on his neighbor's behalf, begins calling for anyone in his building having any kind of health issue, demanding Morrison come to him, despite Morrison repeatedly telling him to take his friends to the hospital.
I don't know if we're supposed to feel bad for the old guy or for Morrison, but I can tell you I'm squarely on Morrison's side, here, because I also work in an industry where every now and then one person will latch on to me and decide I'm the guy to contact directly the next time I have a problem, and if they can't reach me, or I can't help right then, it's my fault if something bad happens when they could have called the main line.
"You helped me in the past, therefore you're my service slave" is basically their mindset. In this episode old Mr. Ludavic laments the impersonal nature of "modern" medicine (trust me, pal, you got no idea how bad it's gonna get), which I understand, but he seems to blame Morrison for this personally, and crosses several lines, even at one point calling Morrison at home. When Morrison says no, I'm not coming again, take your friend to the hospital, Ludavic later screams at Morrison, "He could have died because you did not come!"
The problem is, this man's condition was serious enough that he would have died even if Morrison HAD come. The fact that he relented and took his friend into the hospital saved his life. Morrison gives him a "F@ck you" speech at the end, explaining all that, and I wanted to cheer.
The moral; don't stick your neck out for strangers because they will unfailingly treat it like you're now obligated.
Same thing with my users; if they try to do an end-run around proper channels to involve me, I tell them the same thing each time; "Please call the main line."
I don't know if we're supposed to feel bad for the old guy or for Morrison, but I can tell you I'm squarely on Morrison's side, here, because I also work in an industry where every now and then one person will latch on to me and decide I'm the guy to contact directly the next time I have a problem, and if they can't reach me, or I can't help right then, it's my fault if something bad happens when they could have called the main line.
"You helped me in the past, therefore you're my service slave" is basically their mindset. In this episode old Mr. Ludavic laments the impersonal nature of "modern" medicine (trust me, pal, you got no idea how bad it's gonna get), which I understand, but he seems to blame Morrison for this personally, and crosses several lines, even at one point calling Morrison at home. When Morrison says no, I'm not coming again, take your friend to the hospital, Ludavic later screams at Morrison, "He could have died because you did not come!"
The problem is, this man's condition was serious enough that he would have died even if Morrison HAD come. The fact that he relented and took his friend into the hospital saved his life. Morrison gives him a "F@ck you" speech at the end, explaining all that, and I wanted to cheer.
The moral; don't stick your neck out for strangers because they will unfailingly treat it like you're now obligated.
Same thing with my users; if they try to do an end-run around proper channels to involve me, I tell them the same thing each time; "Please call the main line."
