Involved in the scam or not? I know he was arrogant, but someone else mentioned this, and I wanted to get feed back from you all if any one of you knows for sure. It was mentioned the anesthesiologist being in on it, the doctor played by Rip Torn. Is he in on it? Or is he just an arrogant asshole? I mean, at the end of the movie when she is in Widmark's office, she says to him, "YOU'RE George"-implying that she thought the anesthesiologist was Dr. George. So was Widmark alone or was Rip Torn involved too?
The movie is vague about it, but I surmised that he was innocent. A major theme of this movie is ego. I think Dr. George (Rip Torn's) character shows how a professional's ego can implicate him in a conspiracy in which s/he has no actual involvement. He was so confident in his abilities and those of his subordinate staff he failed to investigate the irregular coma cases that set off alarm bells in Dr. Wheeler as soon as her friend failed to wake up after a routine D and C. That was why he minded Dr. Wheeler looking at those ten patient charts. It was his hubris, not any fear of getting caught doing something nefarious. This is proven by the fact that he left the charts/files out int he open in the same room when Wheeler later read a few of them after the old security guard let her in. If he had anything to hide, he would have locked them up or altered the operating room number on at least a few of them. He just didn't want her to see them because she was younger, a woman, and not an anesthesiologist. Ego.
Good point. HOWEVER, being the chief of anesthesiology, I am wondering how could he NOT know, when that WAS his job-feeding the patients the gas they needed to be knocked out in order to have surgery and ultimately obtain the organs for harvesting. I still wonder about it. Thank you so much for your answer/input.
I think he did suspect something was amiss and that's why he borrowed those ten charts from the medical records section. But when he looked though each chart, he couldn't see any errors in the application of the anesthesia. And why would he? The oxygen line would have been turned on and kept on for the appropriate amount of time in each case. He would have no idea that CO is actually coming through that line from a radio-controlled device mounted above the ceiling. Now you might say that he should have noted the fact that in all ten cases these comas were occurring in operation room 8. I think that's where his hubris came in to play. He might have overlooked it while someone like Dr. Wheeler is coming in with a fresh set of eyes (as well as the inside information from the janitor). Dr. Wheeler also had the boldness to talk to the pathologists about how they'd go about killing someone with anesthesia to see if her theory had legs. Dr. George may not have had the disposition to engage in that kind of banter. He may have so much faith in the hospital and his staff that the idea that anything but oxygen could be coming through that line was anathema.
Omg-you are SO RIGHT!! I LOVE the way your brain works-and I hadn't thought of this-he WAS looking at it in the application of the ANESTHESIA, NOT the fact that a simple number (8) was at the bottom of the charts, and he DID have WAY too much faith in the hospital, as well as in his abilities, and his superior intelligence. Thank you so much for the thoughtful response! I sincerely appreciate it.
Wow, ReneeFindley! I'm sorry I didn't check back earlier. What a nice thing to say! I'm happy to offer my take; I'm glad it helped you appreciate Coma even more!