A chaotic scene in C-Booth from “Code Black”.
To say that being an emergency room doctor comes with a unique set of stressful circumstances would be one of the biggest understatements in history. While treating life-threatening injuries and illnesses is obviously a major concern, there are countless other factors that make working in an ER one of the most complicated jobs around. In the award-winning documentary Code Black Ryan McGarry, M.D. shows us why the current healthcare crisis is a particularly challenging time for those training to be doctors, especially at Los Angeles County+University of Southern California Medical Center.
As veteran physician William “Billy” Mallon, M.D. notes in this documentary, L.A. County hospital is home to America’s busiest ER and “more people have died and more people have been saved than in an other square footage in the United States” in it’s trauma bay (known as C-Booth). The film begins at the hospital’s former location, an antiquated facility where doctors-in-training crowd around as emergency operations are done to treat potentially fatal ailments. To the viewer, these scenes are pure chaos. But to the doctors and trainees, it’s an oddly comfortable scenario, perhaps only because it is the only one they know. Even after a new hospital is built, however, the more spacious and up-to-date facility proves to have an entirely new set of obstacles to overcome despite its improvements.
“Code Black” writer/director Ryan McGarry, M.D.
Considering the current state of America’s healthcare system, and the fact that L.A. County is one of the largest of only a handful of public hospitals in the country, Code Black illustrates the discouraging extremes aspiring doctors are facing. Driven by a variety of factors ranging from personal loss to professional challenge, however, the doctors featured in this film are motivated to learn, adapt and do whatever it takes to overcome bureaucratic setbacks, uncontrollable challenges and the seemingly impossible times when the ER reaches Code Black, a discouraging situation where all these obstacles come to a head while the ER is overcrowded and there is no solution in sight.
It’s a particularly troubling time for those driven by a desire to help every patient that comes in, regardless of what has brought them to the ER. It’s this desire that motivates the doctors in Code Black to remain calm during the most trying times, get together outside of work to discuss solutions and work towards making L.A. County the hospital they want and need it to be. The film puts us right in the middle of it all, invoking emotions ranging from heartache to rage to occasional hope. Though it does little to offer a solution to any of the problems it reveals, Code Black definitely brings awareness to many of the hardships faced by aspiring doctors that we otherwise wouldn’t likely ever consider. And by humanizing the doctors with emotional backstories, Code Black succeeds in creating a sympathetic scenario for its audience.