Emergency by Denis Johnson

“He often stole pills from the cabinets.”

                The narrator explains that his good friend Georgie is always pocketing drugs from the hospital. The amount and combination of these drugs, such as LSD, could explain his hallucinations. While Georgie is cleaning up the blood in the OR, the narrator walks in asking why he is still cleaning, clearly he sees no blood on the floor. However, Georgie who is feeling the side effects of the drugs is imagining in his mind that there is still blood everywhere when in actuality the floor is clean. Nevertheless, even while being on the drugs, Georgie is able to carry out the duties of his job and prep Terrence Weber for surgery, but the drugs could explain why he was so bold to pull the knife out of the patient’s eye.

“We killed the mother and saved the children”

                I think there is a common misconception regarding drug users and their personality of not caring one bit. However, Georgie kills a rabbit but tries to save the unborn bunnies. Although, while being on the drugs his ability to think straight is inept and he does not rationally think of how he will be able to care for the unborn bunnies. He works in a hospital, a job that requires a decent educational background, because he is intelligent. This is another misconception of drug users being dumb due to the drugs destroying their brain. He is able to tend to the needs of those who are injured or sick.

“’The Lord,’ the intercom said, ‘is my shepherd.’ It did that each evening because this was a Catholic hospital.”

                It is interesting that this hospital is a Catholic hospital. First, Because Georgie steals pills from the institution therefore breaking the eighth commandment. Second, because the Nurse, someone who should be very caring, is rather the exact opposite. She is not concerned about the well-being of Georgie and enjoyed the idea of humiliating the physician on duty, knowing he would not be able to handle the injury at hand. Also, the Nurse becomes annoyed when the Our Father, an important prayer to the Catholic faith, is announced over the intercom.

clerk- a person employed, as in an office, to keep records, file, type, or perform other general office tasks (Emergency, 276)

orderly- a hospital attendant having general, nonmedical duties. (Emergency, 276)

LSD- Lysergic acid diethylamide is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an altered sense of time and spiritual experiences (Emergency, 279)