The episode opens up in a floating pan-galactic emergency department where we see the typical goings on of a regular earth hospital except all the people are aliens. Suddenly, Jerry, the comically pathetic father of the Smith household, and his family come bursting through the main doors with Jerry laying on a gurney vomiting costic acid from a mutant bacterial infection, one that Rick (mad scientist/smartest man in the universe/grandfather to Morty) had invented and left in the second fridge drawer in the kitchen. The alien nurse reassures the family that they have come to the best hospital in the galaxy and that Dr. Glip-Glop would be able to cure him. Jerry vomits on Dr. Glip-Glop and turns him into a raging monster at which point Rick promptly vaporizes him thus abruptly ending the patient/provider relationship. Later in the episode, Jerry wakes up cured from the infection and is informed by another alien doctor that he is in an alien hospital. Jerry takes this all in stride, but is confronted by a group of alien diplomats who explain to Jerry that they need his penis in order to perform an emergency heart transplant on an important civil rights leader whom is also in the hospital. At first the doctor explains the general anatomical details of the procedure, then the diplomats try to shame him and berate his species for their childishness and lack of wisdom which angers Jerry. He brashly agrees to the procedure to spite them without consulting his wife, Beth. The doctor then describes the procedure pre-operation in very sterile medical language while drawing on Jerry’s “peri-area” at which point Jerry starts to become uncomfortable with the whole situation and asks to talk to his wife. The doctor graciously obliges and tells Beth that they will be replacing Jerry’s penis with a state-of-the-art prosthetic handing her a brochure of all the latest models they have on offer. Beth flys into a rage about the whole situation while flipping through the brochure and the doctor, in a very unconvincing tone, tells her that he “understands” which Beth obviously doesn’t buy and is prompted to more anger. But once she gets a good look at some of the models, she calms down and starts seriously considering which prosthetic she and Jerry would like best. After a heated spousal argument, the doctor shows Jerry into his office to afford him one last opportunity to “use” his penis before the procedure. There is alien pornography open on his desktop as well as extensive medical records of other patients including the civil rights leader… and obvious HIPPA violation if there ever was one. He tells Jerry not to look at the medical records and leaves him in the room alone. The rest of the episode goes haywire and ends with Jerry getting shot to death by security guards and brought back to complete health by the super sophisticated alien medical advancements at the hospital.
Throughout the episode, Jerry’s relationship to his medical team (namely just his doctor) is very distant and only serves to drive the plot along. The doctor acts like any normal, disinterested physician would toward a hopelessly naive and emotionally stunted patient would. He tries his best to be patient and stay calm by presenting himself as a professional clinician. He distances himself from the chaos surrounding Jerry which allows him to do his job and serve other patients, but doesn’t do anything to help Jerry stabilize. This causes Jerry to fly out of control and hold him hostage while he is in the middle of doing the heart transplant. Jerry then gets completely blasted to bits by security but is then brought back by the miracle of advanced alien medicine. I think this shows that we as clinicians need to be at least somewhat invested in our patient’s care in order to develop an appropriate therapeutic relationship and to keep our patients from getting gunned down in the OR.