This article discusses sexism and medical inequality.

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Pitt season 2, episode 14.One of the major storylines of the penultimate episode of The Pitt season 2 concerned a woman who was misdiagnosed thanks to a mishandled EKG, and it caused Dr. Robby to blow up at some EMTs. The Pitt has a long history of social commentary, especially issues surrounding medicine and healthcare. Previous episodes have tackled everything from the nationwide nursing shortage to racism in the emergency room and even biases based on ageism.

That social commentary and advocacy didn’t stop in season 2, and this week’s episode tackled issues women face while dealing with heart attacks and heart disease. In The Pitt season 2, episode 14, a woman came into Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center complaining of chest pain. Dr. Al-Hashimi initially said that she was negative for a heart attack on her electrocardiogram, but Robby saw that the EKG’s leads were placed too low.

The patient then went into V-tach, and Robby and Al-Hashimi had to shock her heart back into rhythm. As Robby then explained, the paramedics who brought her into the hospital put the EKG leads too low on her torso because she had larger breasts. Robby hypothesized that the EMTs didn’t want to risk a sexual assault charge, and so they put the EKG leads lower down so they wouldn’t have to touch the patient’s breasts.

Later on, Robby read the EMTs the riot act. At one point, he even called out to the women in the emergency room and asked if they would prefer “death with modesty or life with brief nudity.” Robby thoroughly shamed them, and he also mentioned that women are misdiagnosed for heart attacks, partly because of issues like healthcare workers not wanting to touch their breasts. Dr. Al-Hashimi then thanked Robby for speaking out on the issue.

As with many other issues on The Pitt, Robby was talking about a problem in the real world. According to a study from the National Library of Medicine, cardiovascular disease is under-reported in women, and they were more likely to be misdiagnosed with gastrointenstinal or anxiety-related symptoms. As a result, women were also likely to receive diagnostic tests like EKGs, less likely to be referred to cardiologists, and less likely to receive a coronary intervention than men are.

This systematic review showed that women were offered fewer diagnostic tests for CVDs and medicines than men and that in turn influenced their disease outcomes. This could be attributed to the inadequate knowledge regarding the differences in manifestations among both genders.

Interestingly, that study did not cite the exact same issue The Pitt did. The issue in The Pitt was that the EMTs didn’t place the leads for the EKG correctly, whereas this study suggests women are less likely to even receive an EKG at all, let alone have one done improperly. This doesn’t mean that The Pitt got this aspect wrong, however, it likely just means that there hasn’t been enough academic research devoted to the issue.

As with its other moments of social commentary, one of the best things The Pitt can do with an issue like this is raise awareness. Thanks to The Pitt, some women will be more prepared to advocate for their own medical treatment, especially in relation to heart attacks. This may even inspire more academic research and possibly even widespread change in the healthcare industry on how women are diagnosed for cardiovascular disease.

Robby publicly shaming the EMTs for improperly placing their EKG leads was a nice moment and a good bit of advocacy, but it also revealed a bit more about him as a character. Some viewers may have noticed that Robby is somewhat misogynistic in The Pitt. He gives male students and doctors preferential treatment while dismissing or berating their female counterparts.

This moment, however, proves that Robby isn’t knowingly being bigoted in his approach to his female students and colleagues. Robby likely thinks of himself as a feminist, considering how loudly and openly he advocated for better healthcare for women this week. Robby probably doesn’t even realize he’s being sexist towards his students. While that doesn’t excuse his behavior, it does give a bit more insight into his mind.

Release Date (Thursdays @ 9 p.m. ET)

Additionally, this outburst from Robby shows that in the right situation, he can actually use some of his aggression to good ends. Robby has been floundering this season and lashing out at anyone who messes up near him. It’s mostly due to his mental state and him being overwhelmed, as Robby’s go-to reaction to being overwhelmed is lashing out. That has been a bad thing this season, but episode 14 just proved that it can also be used for good.

When Robby has a worthy target instead of one of his students and colleagues, his aggression is actually useful. We saw a glimpse of it in The Pitt season 1, when Robby shamed the parents of a measles victim into giving him life-saving treatment. Now, Robby is using his stress and aggression for good again. After this talking to, those EMTs are almost certainly going to put the EKG leads on the right way in the future. Robby may have saved a woman’s just life by lashing out at the right people in The Pitt.

](/db/tv-show/the-pitt/)

R. Scott Gemmill

Amanda Marsalis

Joe Sachs, Cynthia Adarkwa

Dr. Michael ‘Robby’ Robinavitch