Holby City: Ric in the dock

(Series 19, ep. 56 ‘Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy’ by Elliot Hope and Johanne McAndrew 31.10.17) Did Ric Griffin forget to prescribe anticoagulants to his patient Mrs Warren, thereby causing her death? He doesn’t make that kind of mistake, he says. He also says he told Donna to give Mrs Warren the anticoagulants, but she doesn’t remember him doing so. And she would remember – she doesn’t make that kind of mistake either.

It’s clear that someone made that kind of mistake – but who? 

I have my own theory based on a throwaway remark from a previous episode, but in the meantime this was tense stuff, as both Ric and Donna had to testify at a coroner’s court. Relations between them at work were also tricky, as she went over his head to order some tests which she mistakenly believed would help a still-alive patient on AAU. This patient required emergency surgery that was so risky that even Raf (who is no stranger to a risky procedure) marvelled at Ric’s skill and surgical balls, thus highlighting what a disaster it would be if his career was ended by the Warren case.

Even so, the coroner (Naoko Mori) concluded that the case should be referred to the CPS as possible manslaughter, so there is a very real risk that Ric’s scalpel-wielding days could be numbered. Time to get the ‘Ric is Innocent’ placards in production, I think.

Last week we left Fredrik promising to keep the secret of Nina’s pregnancy quiet. I can confirm that the secret is still safe, mainly because Nina wasn’t in this episode. Instead, Fredrik had turned his gaze to Dr Dominic Copeland, his rival for the junior doctor prize. “I look forward to your imminent downfall!” Fredrik told Dom. I mentally inserted “Mwah hah hah!” after that sentence, because Fredrik was looking so evil at that point that he really should have been wearing a cape and a twirlable moustache.

Fredrik’s motivation for wanting to win the junior doctor prize is mainly to impress Daddy (as well as to lord it over his less brilliant rivals). Dominic didn’t have any motivation to win it at all – his mojo had “popped out for a pint of milk and not come back.” A chat with Sacha made him realise that he’s still missing Arthur, who would have been all over the junior doctor prize. Dominic decided he wanted to win it for Arthur.

Keller patient o’ the week was Adina (Cristina Catalina), a very delightful woman with innards like a patchwork quilt. She and Dominic bonded, and in working out what was wrong with her he thought he had a suitable topic for his junior doctor prize project. Another chat with Sacha determined that it was too specialist a topic for a junior doctor to tackle, but the general subject of bowel resections would be just the thing.

When Fredrik and Dominic presented their proposals to Hanssen, Fredrik was very scathing about the humdrum nature of Dominic’s idea (“Bowel surgery. How nouveau”) – but Dom’s commitment to how much patients could benefit from more research into the subject persuaded Hanssen that it was a better bet than Fredrik’s more showy-offy idea. It’s safe to say Fredrik was not a happy chappy.

Jac wasn’t happy, either, but we didn’t find out why. Fletch didn’t find out why either, although he made several attempts. It wasn’t just that useless nurse Amira Zafar (Poppy Jhakra) was back again. It wasn’t even that Jonny Mac has hardly seen Emma for two months and Jac feels like a single parent. It wasn’t even that Jac has developed “a worrying addiction to Pulses’ chicken salad.” So what could it be? She looked close to tears on several occasions. I think it’s time she had a little heart-to-heart with Sacha.