 When I first learned what was being done to my patients, I was overcome with surprise, then anger, and then with shame. Patients come to us on the worst days of their lives. We use our years of training to diagnose and treat potentially fatal conditions. I chose emergency medicine as a specialty because it was, to me, the most direct way to treat patients in danger and distress, to bring people on the verge of death back to health and to the people they love.