Shannon Burke's novel Black Flies tells the story of Ollie Cross, a paramedic in Harlem during the 1990s. Ollie did not get into medical school so he is taking the opportunity to practice medicine while being a medic. He learns that medics are not always the "good guys" and often abuse their patients. However, he slowly finds himself blending in the with others and condoning the abusive behavior. The days are jam packed for a medic in the inner city. In this section, Ollie and his partner, Rutkovsky, experience a suicidal man whom Ollie stupidly bursts in on. A cop that often works with the Harlem medics, Pastori, "thinks" that a teenage boy is disrespecting him and forces the boy's boss to beat the boy up for Pastori's entertainment. Another medic, Hatsuru, encourages Ollie to block out everything about being a medic except for the medical aspects so that he does not become like the other medics. Ollie's morals are challenged when he is called to treat an elderly woman with fluid in her lungs. When Rutkovsky leans the woman backwards so that the fluid begins to drown her Ollie is forced to question it is best to let the woman escape her horrible life in the nursing home or save her life. However, the nurse comes in and Rutkovsky is forced to return the woman to her upright position so that she is no longer drowning. Back at the station the medics discuss whether a good medic is capable of not caring for their patients, but the issue is not resolved. Ollie knows he is becoming a good medic when he is able to keep up with Rutkovsky when they treat a patient with heart failure. Sadly, Ollie and his girlfriend, Cara's, relationship suffers because he is becoming more like the other medics with an "I don't care" attitude. On top of this, Ollie's family comes to visit and they are shocked that he works in an environment so different from the proper one he was brought up in. Back at work, Ollie and the rest of the medics and police men are faced with a problem when Mitch Green, a former boxer, is high and disturbing the peace. Another medic, Verdis, is kind to Green and is able to distract him while the other medics and police men pin him down. Even though Ollie is part of this "victory", Clara breaks up with him and he realizes that he cannot keep up both his medic self and his med student self.
A big shock comes to Ollie when LaFontaine, another medic, tells him, "Try to be the good guy. Try to be the hero. But not here. These people are animals. Give em a chance and they'll tear your head off" (Burke 56). Ollie is being fed the idea that his patients are not people, but animals and he is eating it up. This is one of the reasons he is starting to not care about his patients as much. He does not think that these people deserve the best help he can give them. This shows how he is becoming more and more like the other medics. I was hoping that Ollie would be different, but he sadly seems to be buying in to the medic way of life. It makes sense that Harlem was so crime ridden and poor during the 1990s. If the people were being treated like animals they would not want to make things better. If they were continually told they were animals, they would gradually begin to believe that. Hopefully Ollie will realize that this belief is wrong and will help everyone the best that he can.
When Ollie and Rutkovsky are called to help the elderly woman Rutkovsky opts to let the woman drown. Ollie says, " I guess I thought I wouldn't have drowned her myself, but she was a hundred and one years old. What did it matter if she died or not?" (Burke 66). Ollie is starting to question whether it is better to let someone die and escape from the horrible world around them or to save their life and let them continue living in the world. In some situations it might seem kinder to let the person die rather than live in a neighborhood so full of crime and poverty where they had no hope. On the other hand, if the person lived they could potentially make a difference. This is a touchy issue that has no definate solution. I think that Ollie will fall in with the other medics and use the excuse that the patient is "in a better place" to justify his lack of treatment.
Ollie is being forced to decide whether he wants to believe that his patients are good people who deserve to live, or if it is better to just let them die. So far he has wavered in his opinion, but I think he will soon be forced to chose a side. I am hoping that he sees the good in people and treats them to the best of his ability.
Source
Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.
*Black Flies should be underlined
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2 comments:
I believe that the decision to let the old woman with fluid in her lungs die would be morally incorrect for Ollie and Rutkovsky to make. Although I understand that the woman's life might have been very unpleasant and that she was probably going to die soon anyhow, I don't think that Ollie and Rutkovsky should be the ones to put her out of her misery. I believe that it's morally acceptable for the woman herself to decide that her life should be ended because of her medical condition or her quality of life. But for someone else to make this decision for her is murder in my opinion. Therefore, I think it's really disturbing that a medic (of all people) would be contemplating taking the woman's life.
On the contrary, I think that the decision to keep someone in pain or a vegetative state is morally wrong. No one wants to live a life of pain and suffering. It's not murder to decide to pull the plug, it's mercy. If you lived with fluid in your lungs, you would be drowning but staying alive longer. And drowing is the worst possible way to die.
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