Well one more chapter before I introduce my finance and tell you about his embarrassing ER visit, and how I ran into him the same night outside of the hospital.

My residency was very hard at the beginning. Emergency Medicine was relatively new as a specialty and not one female doctors were specializing in it. I was the only female resident. When I met my attending, Doctor Grayson, all of us were reminded that we are called “residents” because we will feel like we reside in the hospital. Then he mentioned knowing my dad, and not to think that will help me in any way. Then to give you an idea of what kind of man he is he told me that women really shouldn’t specialize in this. That we are “too emotional” and “can’t handle the stress mixed with boredom.” Then said to me “Nice ass though.”

The nurses at first didn’t like me. They thought I must think I am better than them because I was a doctor. The first few months were not fun. Nurses hated me, I barely ever slept, and Doctor Grayson kept commenting on my butt. I told my dad about him. He said they were interns together and said to try not to be alone with him and always make sure a nurse is around when he sees a female patient and that he hoped he had “changed” in the last decades.

Things got better with the nursing staff after I stood up for them. First time Doctor Grayson was berating an older nurse over his own mistake. His orders were contradictory and she did what was honestly best for the patient, but not what he had in mind. I pointed out that while we give the orders, they do the actual treatment and see a lot more than we do. Another time he slapped a new nurse, Kelly, about my age, on the butt. She was visibly upset about it and I got between them and told him that was very unprofessional. He walked off then scheduled me for four days straight with no breaks. So that I’d “learn my place” and not “fraternize” with the nurses “just because you’re women.”

Kelly and I became very good friends after that though. Became my lunch and break buddy. We also both liked fast cars and if we both had the same day off we would go cruising in the AMC Javelin my Aunt Mary gave me when she decided she needed a pickup. Wearing your white coat and having a nurse in uniform as your passenger is the best way to get out of a speeding ticket, and that 330HP was a lot of fun.

Doctor Grayson always managed to just barely skirt what was appropriate and what was taking advantage of patients, there were complaints sometimes but nothing ever really came from it. Let’s just say if you were an attractive female patient he’d go out of his way to be your doctor. Actually he’d put his charms on but if you came in with a sprained ankle somehow he’d manage to give you a breast exam.

Things came to a head with me though. I had a young very pretty coed in the ER who had a bad fall on her bottom. She was using a rope swing and missed the swimming hole and landed on the ground. She was pretty scared and came in wearing just her two piece swimsuit. After we made sure she was stable I was pretty sure she might have broken her coccyx in the fall. That means I had to do a rectal exam on the scared girl. We got her into a gown and I had her in the Sims position when Doctor Grayson burst in. Said he’d handle it and I should go. I said no I’d do it but he pushed me aside and put on gloves himself.

Before I could react his finger was inside her, commenting on a healthy pink anus, with a “fantastic muscle tone.” Then he wasn’t just doing the exam which should be just a finger and try and see if the bone is in the right position. He probably did that but then he was pushing his finger in and out while twisting it.. What should have been maybe a 30 second exam took more than a minute. He was downright fingering her. The poor girl started tearing up. I finally told him to stop.

“Well Doctor Richardson, it feels like it’s properly in place. Probably just a bruise… I want you to repeat the exam now.”

“What? I think she’s fine then.”

“Repeat my exam. NOW”

I don’t know what I was thinking but I repeated his exam as quickly as I could. Then let her know she’d be fine and just some bad bruising. When I was done and put the discharge papers in I went to see Doctor Grayson.

“What was that?”

“Well I had to assess her coccyx.”

“Yeah but…What the fuck was that?”

“I assessed her coccyx, then made sure you knew what a properly placed but bruised coccyx assessed as…” He said starting to walk off

“You enjoyed that way too much.”

“Yeah and I enjoyed watching you do it way more.” he said wink a creepy wink.

So I went and reported him to the chief of medicine.

After I reported him for being inappropriate with that patient he was making my life a living hell… I worked three twenty four hour shifts straight napping whenever I got a chance. Then after he came out from an administrative meeting he cornered me in a supply closet and said. “You’re just a goody two shoes like your dad.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You think you’re better than everyone because you’re a female in emergency medicine. Go get on an OB or Pediatric residency you fucking bitch. Then go pump out some babies like your mother.”

“Excuse me?”

“I ought to teach you a lesson.”

“Get out of here, I don’t care if you are my attending or not.”

“Your life is going to be hell if you stay.” I was seeing red... Then he reached out and grabbed my chest. So I slapped him as hard as I could… He didn’t like that… he pushed me against the shelves and started to run his hand up my dress… So as hard as I could I kneaded him in the balls… Instantly put him over in pain. Then I slammed his head into a shelf of catheters. I really didn’t know what to do next. Honestly I was scared… He started yelling “You’re done! You’re done!” and I ran off.

Lucky for me Kelly saw it all go down and not sure if that saved me or not. I got a call as soon as I got home telling me not to come back pending investigation and that it didn’t look good for me… He said I attacked him! And they didn’t want to hear my side. Meanwhile, not only did Kelly report his hands, she talked most of the nursing staff and a few of the doctors said they were resigning if he wasn’t finally dealt with.

I got a call that I could come back and was told that he had “resigned” and moved on to somewhere else. So I came back, new attending, things went well but with one more run in with him about two weeks later. I had driven up to my grandparent’s farm with Kelly for a Sunday dinner. One of our few same days off… It was a great ride on those winding roads. I bet you can tell I like fast cars. My dad, mom, siblings, Aunt Mary, her husband, and their ten year old son were there. We were getting ready to sit for dinner when a Cadillac we didn’t recognize pulled up. Out popped Doctor Grayson. He started yelling “I Knew I’d find you around here! BITCH! That’s your car!”

“Oh God dad…” I said pretty damn scared.

“Stay in the house Meghan.” He said going outside just in time to see Doctor Grayson taking a tire iron to my windshield.

“Dick, what are you doing!” My dad yelled out. “How did you find…”

“I remembered the farm… Your daughter got me fired because she doesn’t know her place… Goodie like you… Get her out here so I can teach her a lesson!”

“Get out of here. I am calling the police!” My dad yelled and turning back to the house was tackled by him.

My grandfather, now over 80, ran out, my grandmother got on the phone with the police and what was about to become a major mess suddenly stopped… My aunt Mary came out of nowhere, we didn’t even see her leave. She had the shotgun!

“You son of a bitch pervert of a doctor! That’s still technically MY CAR!” He looked up to see her raising the gun to her shoulder. “You’ll never work in Boston again you son of a bitch! I should shoot your fucking nuts off!”

“Mary!” My grandfather yelled out. Then under his breath “I never was proud of your potty mouth before…”

“Get out of here before the Police find you and if you EVER touch my family again I am going to… And if you EVER lay hands on my niece again I AM going to rip your nuts off with my bare hands…And feed the tiny things to the dog!” He took off running back to his car. “Run away you coward.. You’d probably have enjoyed me castrating you too much anyways!”

He sped off… The town cop found him speeding down a dirt road and we agreed not to press charges if he stayed away from me and fixed the car. Which he reluctantly did… Though I also regret not pushing it. I just wanted it to be over though. We never saw him again at least. We were all really proud of my aunt though. She quipped that she made sure she grabbed birdshot because he probably had tiny balls. My dad and I laughed, my mom asked if she was secretly Irish, my grandpa smiled, and my grandmother looked a little embarrassed.

“The language Mary! But thank you!”