'The Pitt' Doctors I Most Want Treating Me, Ranked | Season 1, Episodes 1-5
Who knew spending 15 hours in an emergency room could be so fun?
Spoiler warning for episodes 1-5 of The Pitt on Max.
Medical shows are a television staple. The drama, the tension, the stakes — everything is at an eleven which makes it easy to get sucked in. Currently, I’m watching three different medical shows: Doc (amnesia drama that . . . isn’t great, but I’m giving a few more episodes before I drop it), St. Denis Medical (still finding it’s footing in its first season, but is a ton of fun!), and finally The Pitt.
The Pitt is . . . intense, to say the least. But I absolutely love it. The season is 15 episodes long, with each episode being one hour of a 15-hour shift in the emergency room of an underfunded Pittsburgh trauma hospital. It’s all in real time (much like the show 24) making every moment quite literally life or death. The drama is less about the interoffice relationships like other popular medical dramas (though it’s definitely still there) and more about the frenetic nature of a packed emergency room where anything can and will happen at the worst possible time.
Whereas a typical medical drama may have two or three medical cases per episode, The Pitt easily reaches into the high teens. Before our lead even starts his shift in the pilot episode we learn of nine cases from the night before that still need care heading into the morning. Let’s take a look at that pilot as an example. Here are the cases in the order they are seen:
39-year-old veteran hit by a drunk driver
Pregnant teen needing mifepristone
Small bowel obstruction waiting on surgery
A man nicknamed The Kraken who is waiting for a bed in the Psych Ward
An unhoused woman who burnt her hand using a Sterno
Man with a 9mm gunshot wound to the left shoulder
Woman with cirrhosis and upper GI bleed
Man with a blood alcohol level of .420
Man who got in a bar fight and is missing his tooth
Woman pushed onto subway tracks with a degloved1 lower leg and fractured ankle
Man who saved that woman who then fell and hit the back of his head
Runner who has a heart rhythm disorder which leads to his heart stopping
Three elderly patients from nursing homes after morning bed check
Lethargic 4-year-old who won’t wake up
Woman who can’t stop vomiting accompanied by her teenage son
Middle-aged man with upper abdominal pain
Whew!
The other thing I love about this show is the extensive use of complicated medical jargon. I would say roughly 99.2% of the terminology being spoken goes immediately over my head, and I can feel my brain get foggy and my eyes glaze over a bit. But there is something so satisfying about a medical professional who knows exactly what is happening to a patient and rattles off a string of nonsensical terms and everyone in the room knows exactly what to do. After watching The Pitt I would watch an episode of Doc, and the medical jargon used on that show feels like an ELI5 (Explain Like I’m 5) version of a medical show in comparison. Not satisfying!
As of this post’s publishing, the first five episodes of The Pitt have dropped on Max. That means we’re one-third of the way through the season. And THAT means we’ve seen enough from all of our doctors to determine who is actually the best at their job. When the going gets tough, who do I want by my bedside treating me in my most vulnerable moments? There are a total of 16 doctors, residents, interns, and medical students that we are currently following on shift. But for this experiment I’m going to narrow it down to my seven top choices.
Here is my Top 7 ranking for who I want treating me should I ever find myself in a crowded trauma hospital waiting room in Pittsburgh.
7) Dr. Frank Langdon
Look, I’m not crazy about Doctor Langdon. He’s too callous for my liking, and his cynicism and sarcasm feel more mean-spirited than playful. That being said, he’s a damn good doctor. As one of two senior residents he’s essentially second-in-command and responsible for the other residents and medical students on staff. He seems to be a good teacher to them — at least on the medical side, not the interpersonal side. But when he’s under pressure (like when he’s trying to intubate a throat filled with blood) he stays calm and gets the damn job done. Let’s hope he learns a bit more tact in the coming weeks.
6) Dr. Trinity Santos
Doctor Santos is a post-med school intern with a lot of confidence and eagerness to prove herself on her first day in The Pitt. She works quickly and effectively, and actively tries to find situations that will help her learn something new. What more can you want from a doctor?
Unfortunately, she’s also a bit cocky and antagonistic towards the medical students (and residents) that she believes she is better than. At this stage in her career I honestly don’t mind it. Project confidence and the skills will follow — even if you mistakenly order a BIPAP for a patient without resident approval and almost kill him.
5) Dr. Melissa King
As a second-year resident who just finished up a stint at the VA, Dr. King2 is another new face to The Pitt who is ready and eager to show off her skills. She’s extremely knowledgable, and has an excellent bedside manner as well. Her biggest issue is a bit of social awkwardness, however, that leads to one of the series’ greatest moments where Dr. King has to step away from the ER in order to destress by rapping along to “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion. She just gets me.
4) Dr. Yolanda Garcia
Doctor Garcia gets the least amount of screentime of all our doctors, but she still makes quite an impact. As the resident surgeon, she is only involved when needed — particularly if a patient comes in who requires immediate surgery to save their lives. And when she arrives she definitely makes an entrance. For example, when our poor woman with the degloved3 leg is brought in Dr. Garcia hears the diagnosis and immediately quips, “And I thought my heels were painful.” LOL. Insensitive? Perhaps. Hilarious? Absolutely.
I’m very intrigued by Dr. Garcia’s insistence on aiding young Dr. Santos — a stark contrast in how she treats literally everyone else on staff. What’s the deal there? Does she see herself in the new intern? Some type of mentorship?
3) Dr. Heather Collins
As the other senior resident on staff, Dr. Collins is bright, personable, and seemingly no-nonsense. She absolutely knows her stuff, and is ready at a moment’s notice to take charge when needed. She seems to have some personal issues with Dr. Robby as it was revealed the two briefly went out. But they still seem to have some chemistry. Oh, and she’s newly pregnant. But I’m sure that won’t come into play at all in the next 15 hours.
2) Dr. Samira Mohan
Doctor Mohan may be number two on my list, but she is far and away my favorite character on the show thus far. She is incredibly empathetic, and the care of her patients is always top of mind. She takes the time to listen and understand her patients, and as a third-year resident she’s going to need to lead with empathy as she progresses in her career. She literally stops the medics from antagonizing a Black woman suffering from the painful effects of Sickle cell disease, which leads us to learn she is simultaneously studying racial disparities in the ER. A true visionary!
Unfortunately, that type of care is seen as a detriment to the department as Dr. Mohan is nicknamed “Slo-Mo” for spending too much time with her patients. For a trauma center as busy as The Pitt, residents are monitored to see how many patients they see per hour. And let’s just say Dr. Mohan is not fairing well in that area. But if I’m the patient, that is exactly the attention I want and demand. So, that lands her high on my list.
1) Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
We can talk about the other doctors all we want, but this is Doctor Robby’s show. After all, the show was originally conceived as an ER-spinoff following Noah Wyle’s character4. This is his shift that we’re following for the next 15 hours, and as the senior attending physician everyone in the ER — including the staff — are his responsibility. You could easily excuse any brashness or attitude he has while dealing with that kind of pressure. But Dr. Robby is anything but that. He is calm, assured, and, most importantly, in control.
He’s empathetic when he needs to be (as when he tries to give hope to parents grieving their braindead son), and firm when he has to be (as when he assumes the responsibility for giving a pregnant teen an abortion drug in order to shield Dr. Collins from malpractice).
Most of all, he cares. He cares for his patients, for his residents, for his nurses, for the living and the dead, for everyone. He’s exactly the one I want caring for me.
Just, please God, don’t give me a degloved leg.
I could have spent my entire life not knowing what a “degloved” limb is, let alone actually seeing it.
Naming a white doctor “Dr. King” during the month of January is unintentionally hilarious.
I can’t believe I’m saying it again.