"Help!" "Something bit my foot!" "Sir, get in the boat." " Now!" " Come on." " Yeah, we should go down there." " They got him." " We should go down there." " They got him." "They've got him." "Third time's the charm." " Please, stay in the boat!" " Our new shipment's arriving today." "Just what we need." "More cocky imperialist doctors." "No, what we need is new blood." "I'm sick of looking at the two of you." "Baby docs are all the same." "Don't give a crap about the work." "Just padding their résumés with Third World do- gooding." " Let them." "I just need one good one." " Help me!" "Get him up!" "See, they're gonna drown his ass." "Okay, so maybe they don't got him." "I'll open up the clinic." " Over here!" " Why's he gotta be such a show- off?" "There are worse places to practice medicine, Papito." "Don't I know it." "This is it." "Señorita, when you're ready to go back to the airport, you call me, okay?" "Oh, thank you, but that won't be necessary." "This is a one- way trip." "You're here to work at the clinic?" " Yeah, I'm a doctor." " Take the card." "He's right." "You should definitely take the card." "Okay, hold on." "This might hurt just a little." "Hi." "I'm supposed to check in with a Dr. Zita- " "Goody, another American." "Saved by the great white hope." " I'm sorry?" " Dr. Zitajalehrena Alvarez." "Zee." "Why don't you drop those bags and go see if you can help?" "Okay." "Please, stop!" " Whoa, is that a- -?" " One ugly- ass fish." "That is not just a fish, that's a stingray." "Their venom is particularly potent." " What, are you a vet or something?" " Infectious disease." "Hi, I'm Mina Minard." " Lily Brenner, emergency med." " Tommy Fuller, plastics." "I need you to stay still, buddy." "Try staying still with a fish inside your body." " I need drugs, man." " I'm sorry." "I don't have drugs for you." "What kind of crazy- ass witch doctor doesn't have drugs?" "The kind that survives on donations." "And there's a box on your way out." "Hi, we're the new doctors." "What can we do?" "Hold his shoulders, brace his legs." "No, no, no." "Get the hell away from me." " Settle down." " Grab a foot." " Okay, on the count of three." "One, two- " " No, no, no!" "No." "No." "All right." "Hey, hey, hey." "Look at that." "Welcome, doctors." "Okay, we're the only medical center within 200 miles." "We're slammed all the time." " Do you have a surgical suite?" " On the patio." "How do you keep it sterile?" "When you got a guy bitten by a 10- foot crocodile, you get the teeth out, worry about infection later." "Forget what you saw in residency." "Practicing tropical medicine in a Third World country is a different game." "Here, it's 1952." "You don't have high- tech, you don't have big pharma." "You have your brain, you have your instincts." "You use them well, you'll learn more here in a week than doctors learn in a year of residency." "You're standing in the middle of the greatest medical resource on earth." "This is the tropical rain forest." "We have plants that cure viruses, tree sap to heal wounds, insects that stop gangrene." "This is where medicine was born." "You up for it?" "Great." "Because out of hundreds of doctors, I picked you three." "So don't screw it up, is what he's trying to say." "Dr. Otis Cole." "His bark's worse than his bite." "Okay, they're both pretty bad." "When in doubt, hand out ibuprofen." "Dr. Cole, we've been traveling for days." "Before we get started, is it cool if we hit the beach?" "You know, get our swim on." "Hey, ladies." "Dr. Otis Cole just personally asked me to look after one of his patients." "You realize we're objectifying one of the greatest humanitarians of our time?" " Just admiring his credentials." " This place is awesome." "Not only are there no malpractice suits, but there's surfing." "And you know how many days a year it's sunny here?" "All of them." "Sunblock." "I got you guys some samples from the office." "That's nice." "Thank you." "Yeah, I think there's like three topless beaches right around here." "And you do not want those to shrivel up before their time." "I've seen it happen." "It's tragic." "All right, I'll see you guys later." "Going on a house call." "This is gonna be so cool." "You brought your own trauma kit?" "Well, I figured for the jungle, you need flares, tourniquets, field splints." "Girl Scout." "So guilty." " Hey, you lost?" " English." "Hey." "Do you have any idea where this village is?" "They said it's near a river, but there's like 80 rivers on this thing." "Really?" "You getting stuck on a house call on your first day?" " You must have pissed off Cole." " Oh, no, no, no." "It's not like that." "He's trusting me with one of- - Who are you?" "I'm Charlie." "I'm the translator." "I work for the clinic." "How old are you?" "If you don't know what that means, you might need my help." "Dr. Cole said the patient has TB." "I'm not gonna expose a kid to that." "You're right." "I'm sure you'll find your way over treacherous mountain terrain to a very remote village just fine." "Hey, wait, wait." "You might wanna bring some water." "It's a walk." "I can handle a walk." "Wrong way." "Come on, gringo." " Gringo?" "What's gringo?" " It means "white person."" "Ladies, I have 40 patients waiting to be seen, not to mention I'm down another doctor." "Oh, is that the woman I saw leaving today?" "She seemed really upset." "Radio distress call just came in." "We got an injury in the jungle." "I could use another hand out there, if you don't mind." " I'm ready." " I could go." "Why not?" "They seem to be dropping like flies today anyway." "I'm trained in triage protocol." "Oh, me too." "And I've got a trauma kit already packed." "Okay, well, you just got yourself your first field trip." "Come on." "So this is how you get around?" "It's better for jungle roads, if you can call them that." "Okay, let's do this." "Doctor, you hang on like that, you're roadkill." "Dr. Minard, what- -?" "What are you doing?" "Patient presented with limb stiffness, numbness." "I did a full- body check for lesions." "I don't wanna alarm you, but I haven't been able to rule out hemorrhagic fever." "That's very thorough, doctor." "But sometimes it's not hemorrhagic fever, it's just good old- fashioned tennis elbow." "We're in one of the biggest hot zones for infectious disease." "How does someone get tennis elbow?" "Oh, from using a machete?" "Or from playing tennis." " Oh, please, stop." " I told you it's a walk." "No, this isn't a walk." "It's an Ironman." "I'm being punished, aren't I?" "This is the reason why Americans are fat and lazy." " They only drive." " You know why?" "Because we invented streets for ourselves." "It's called civilization." "You should really try it." "Wait, did you just call me fat?" "Patient Dr. Cole was treating is over there." "Great." "The doctor is in." "They're all sick." "Which one was Dr. Cole treating?" "His wife." "She's dead." "Keeton, thank God." "This guy just slammed right into a tree." "There's blood everywhere." "There's gonna be internal injuries, then." "Where's the patient?" "Tell him that his family has advanced tuberculosis." "All right?" "It's a bacterial infection." "It needs to be treated." "He said he doesn't want medicine." "Not for him or for the children." "These children are dying of a totally curable disease." "I can save their lives if he'll just let me." "He says medicine from Dr. Cole is what killed his wife." "That doesn't make any sense." "The antibiotics, they take time to start working." "They made his wife worse, so he made her stop taking the medicine." "Well, then it's his damn fault that his wife is dead." "I'm not gonna say that." "Well, then I've done everything I can do here." "We'll go out on the same line." "We can both reach him." "No, one line won't hold three people." "Maybe not even two." " Hold that there." "Can you lift her shirt?" " What are you doing?" "You're lighter than me." "Go out on your own." "I'll get as close as I can and talk you through it, okay?" "Okay?" "All right." "Hold with the right, brake with the left." "These things are safe, right?" "Hold with the right, brake with the left." "Okay, brake." "Brake!" " Use the brake!" " I'm trying!" "It's stuck!" "Sir?" "Sir, can you hear me?" "Sir?" "Sir?" "His arm's caught in the roller." "I think he's in- " " I think he's in shock." " Then we need to move fast." "You're gonna have to tourniquet the extremity and cut the flesh free." "Cut his arm out?" "We need to get him down before he bleeds to death." "You got a better idea?" "You have un frío, a cold." "It's very common." "Make certain to reloj, to watch, if make fiebre return aquí for visita." "Look alive, doctora." "Our Ebola rush starts around noon." "That's hilarious." "Go to hell." " Sir!" " Calm him down, Brenner." "I'm trying." "Sir!" "The more he moves, the more he bleeds." "You gotta try harder." " I gotta get down." "I can't die up here." " Hey!" "Hey!" "You stop that right now!" "What's your name?" "Ed Greenman." "Okay, Ed Greenman, you listen to me." "You are not going to die." "You're gonna live, okay?" "Now, I'm gonna have to cut your arm." "I'm gonna try not to cut too deep, but it's gonna hurt." "And then I'm gonna tie you to my harness and we're gonna get the hell off this thing." "Stay superficial so you don't sever the radial artery." "Right." "Don't watch it." "Ed, look at me, look at me." "Look at me." "Talk to me, Ed." "Talk to me." "So, Ed, what brings you to the jungle?" "I came here when I was 25 on my honeymoon." "That was the best trip we ever had." "We even did the zip line." "Somehow, it didn't seem quite so high 40 years ago." " I probably shouldn't even be up here." " You and me both, Ed." "You and me both." "Bleeding's under control, but we'll take you back to the clinic and check for internal injuries, okay?" "Not bad for your first day back." "What?" "I spoke to your chief resident back in the states." "Took a pretty long leave of absence." "Well, I lost somebody." "So I took some time." "But I'm good now." "I'm a doctor, right?" "So..." "It doesn't make it any easier." "Well, we should go." "It's a long ride back." "Yeah." "I hear bad words in Spanish." " What's wrong, loca?" " What's wrong?" "I'm slammed and I haven't figured out how to clone myself." "And?" "She left." "Again." "They all leave." "So I don't know why I waste my time training these useless americanos who don't even bother to learn Spanish." "Because you're a great teacher and, you know, you have the patience of a saint." "Hundred pesos says they're all gone by the end of the week." "Maybe not so much the patience." "But deep down, there's a heart of gold in there, woman." "Heart of gold." "Only for you, cariño." "Ed, your arm's gonna be fine, but it looks like you're starting to bleed internally." "And how do you fix that?" "Well, with a small rupture, the spleen can heal itself." "But if it doesn't, we operate." "Surgery in the jungle." "I thought zip- lining was scary." "There any family we should contact?" "Your wife maybe?" "She passed away a few months ago." "I'm sorry." "Been promising her for 30 years we'd come back here." "But you get busy." "Had a mortgage to pay." "I finally retired, booked this trip." "And I guess I waited a little too long." "Can't we airlift him out and get him to a city hospital?" " They have a CT- " " The airlift can't land till tomorrow." "Just get him on packed cells." "He's weak from blood loss." "You're still here?" "I told you, it's just chest congestion." "You can go home." "Home." "Or not." "How was your field trip, Plastics?" "Your patient's dead." "No, I had her on a triple- drug regimen for over two weeks." "She was improving." "Yeah, and then her husband stopped the meds." "The whole family's got TB now and he doesn't want anyone treated." "I don't know the exact procedure here, in terms of AMAs and stuff, so I had the guy sign that." ""I am refusing treatment against medical advice."" "This is a joke, right?" " A little makeshift, but I think it'll work." " I mean you- " " You're a joke." " You don't know anything about me." "Oh, I did my homework on you, Plastics." "You drank your way through medical school." "Barely made it through residency, but, hey, it's no big deal." "I mean, you were never really trying to be the best doctor, right?" "Just good enough so you could do surgery in a strip mall." "That's the real tragedy here, man." "You're not stupid." "You're lazy." " And what was I supposed to do- -?" " You are supposed to be a doctor." "First light, you will haul your ass back up there and you will treat those people." "Every last one of them." "Or don't bother coming back." "It's 3 a.m." "How is it this hot out and it's 3 a.m.?" "Hi." " Oh, my God." " Right?" "They've got a cage match going out there, scorpion versus tarantula." "I just lost 50 pesos." "What are you doing?" "Oh, my God, I just had an orgasm." "See?" "It's not that bad." "We have a fan, I got to save a guy's life on a zip line today." "You got to save a guy's li- -?" "You win." "You know, on the website for this place, they promised us a perfect beach." "Oh, there's a beach." "Just have to kill yourself to get to it." "I wanna live, but I want the beach." "I can't go anyway." "I gotta go check on my patient." "Yeah, at least you have a patient to check on." "I handed out Band" " Aids today, like a school nurse." "I traveled 5,000 miles, for what?" "They know everything about us." " What's he talking about?" " They did their homework on us." "Whatever." "So much for a clean slate." "Just follow the fan." "You must think I'm a real nut job." "I lose someone I love and hop on a plane to the jungle." "Not at all." "I didn't come for a vacation." "My wife, Cora, I brought her with me." " I'm sorry?" " She's in my duffel." "Her ashes." "Got it." "Figured I'd take her to the place she loved the most." " You heard of Lago de Luz?" " No." "Cora called it the firefly lake." "At night, the algae lights up." "Looks like millions of fireflies trapped just underneath the water, flapping their wings, trying to break free." "It's like nothing you've ever seen." "It's beautiful." "And that's where you're gonna say goodbye?" "That was the plan." "Life sure has a way of changing your plans, though." "Yeah." "It does." "Ed?" "Ed?" "So, what's your plan?" "My plan is to express the dangers of refusing treatment." "How is that any different from what you did yesterday?" "Well, this time, I'm gonna turn on the charm." "So, what's your plan for tomorrow?" "You're a little bully." "You know that?" "I'm cutting through the peritoneum." "Man, it is ugly in there." "Yeah, it looks like more than just a spleen." "Oh, we got multiple trauma sites." "Liver, mesenteric artery, hepatic vein." "It's way worse than I thought." "He's bleeding out." "Get a clamp on the spleen." "We don't have enough AB neg to handle this much blood loss." " Switch to O neg." " Only one unit left." " What?" " Never have enough of rare types." "We don't have enough blood?" "Okay, pour in the fluids, mobilize the spleen, tie off the liver." "You, come with me." "For the love of God." "You're back?" "I told you it's a virus." "I can't do anything." "Crap." "She's not breathing." "Get me epinephrine." "You're gonna put coconut in his veins?" "The water from green coconuts has the same electrolyte balance as blood plasma." "They used it in World War II when they ran out of fluids." "But there's got to be another way to get him stable." "This is- " "Could go door to door asking for blood donations, but that could take a while." "I've done this more times than any other guy here." "Oh, you have?" "How many times?" " Once." " Great." "Okay, now, when I cut, you catch." "I hope you played little league." "What?" "No, I never played anything." "I was on the debate team." " Okay, are you ready?" "You can't miss." " I know." "If it breaks, it's unsterile." "No, if it hits you on the head from up here, you're pretty much dead." " Right." " On one, two, three." "Oh, my God, I did it." "All right, let's go for another." "Come on, breathe." "I have no idea what you're saying." "Give it to me." "Come on, lady, breathe." "Breathe already." "Scalpel." "He's bleeding out." "Okay, open the net." "Okay, needle." "Okay, tubing." "Hang it." "Fever is spiking." "Tell him she doesn't have much time." "A couple days at most." " He says no." " And him?" "Tell him I can barely feel his son's pulse anymore." "Stop saying no, damn it." "I get it, okay?" "I don't speak the language." "I'm just a dumb American." "If you came to Chicago and barged into my place, I would call the cops on you." "I don't get to come in here and tell you how to take care of your family." "All right?" "You're a proud man." "I respect that." "I'm a proud man too." "I don't listen to anyone." "My parents told me to go to college and study hard, and I just partied." "They told me, "Go to med school, take care of people."" "And I learned how to put boobs into strippers." "They tell me, you know, "Stop screwing around, be a man, be someone- " "A son that we can be proud of."" "And I tell them to get out of my life." "I can't go home now." "It's been a year and I can't go home." "I lost my family because I was proud." "I don't want you to do the same thing." "Come on, man, let me help you." "I'm just talking to myself now." "He says okay." "He wants to shake your hand." "Spleen's out." "Sponge stick." "Give me your hand." "I want you to hold this bleeder while I tie it off." "I'm not a surgeon." "Here, you are a surgeon." "Here, you're a surgeon, you're a paramedic, you're search and rescue." "If I need you to run labs to the city, you're the mailman." "You're anything I need you to be." "Now, don't pinch off the vessel, just keep a steady squeeze." " I got it." " BP's coming up." "Nice work, Dr. Brenner." "You'll never believe what we just did." "A coconut transfusion." "And it actually" " It saved the guy's life." "That's great." "Very happy for you." " Are you okay?" " If I could find a damn steroid." "All they have is Ecuadorian tree sap, so..." "I was looking for rare complicated diseases and I almost lost a woman to asthma." "They say when you hear hoof beats, you gotta think horses, not zebras." "Really?" "It's that simple?" "God, you really are a Girl Scout." "Look, I'm trying to be your friend here, but you're making it really hard." "At my hospital, they liked to weed out the weak." "You had to fight to get on cases." "Made it pretty much impossible to learn anything." "So I started moonlighting at County, picking up shifts." "I was doing eight hours at County and 12 hours in my residency." "And one day, after 72 hours without sleep, this kid came into the ER with a fever." "And I thought it was the flu." "I mean, 20 kids a day came into that ER." "It was always the flu." "So I sent him home." "And he died." "Three hours later." "I got kicked right out of residency." "There- " "It was bacterial meningitis." "All it would have taken was a spinal tap, but I was too exhausted to do it." "So sometimes it is zebras." "You have untreated asthma." "You had a severe attack." "I didn't" " I didn't see it before, because I didn't see it." "This is an inhaler." "It'll help you breathe." "I only have a few, because I brought them from home." "See?" "It's no big deal." "It's..." "Status post splenectomy and liver laceration repair." "Bled down to a crit of 22." "Five liters of O2, two more units of blood when you land." " Dr. Brenner." " They're taking you to a city hospital now." " You're gonna be fine." " The fireflies." "Talking about fireflies since he came out of surgery." "Can't leave." "The fireflies." "I promised her." " Okay, rápido, vámonos." " No, no, wait, wait." "They can't take him away yet." "There's something he's gotta do before he leaves." " What are you talking about?" " The lake." " The one with the algae that lights up?" " Lago de Luz." " We have to take him." "He needs to go." " It's a half- hour by boat." " Medevac's gotta get back to the hospital." " Well, they'll wait for us, right?" " There's no time for sightseeing now." " It's not about that." "It's- " "He has his wife's ashes." "He came all the way- " " Listen, Brenner, we can't- " " You listen to me!" "He came down here to do one thing, to say goodbye, and he got so close." "We can help him finish what he came here to do." "We can help him say goodbye." "He needs to say goodbye." "We saved his life today." "Now we can give him a chance to move on with it." "What if we'd been lost in the jungle for like 20 years?" " No." " But it's just you and me, naked, braiding each other's hair." " Because it'd be long." " No." "Okay, but I'm super buff now from hunting and gathering and there's no other dudes on Earth and it's up to you and me to carry on the human race." " No." " Well, you're not a humanitarian." "Are you the one that treated my grandmother?" "I'm sorry that she had to almost die to get my attention." "My grandmother is 80 years old and today she took her first real breath." "She said that because of you, she finally knows what it feels like to breathe." "No, no, no." "So kind, so kind, so- - Not necessary." "Well, thank you." "Well, this is it." "Lago de Luz." "It's just a pond." "A microscopic organism." "When it's disturbed, the chemical reaction causes the phosp- " "Fireflies." "Ed." "Are you ready?" "We made it, Cora." "You're with the fireflies now." "You made it, sweetheart." "Thank you." "My fiancé." "That's who I lost." "And that's why I left residency." "You ever seen the Southern Cross?" "Right there." "Those five stars." "Yeah, they say Magellan used it to find true south whenever he got lost." "It gave him the strength to keep going." "Keep going." "What the hell are those tontos doing?" "Getting themselves killed." "Hundred pesos says the bitchy one's anaconda lunch." "Yeah, I get on that." "I hope you're planning on sharing that." " How far did you get this time?" " Airport." "Sat there for two days, ate bad airport food and prayed on it." "Oh, by the way, God says you're an ass." "Well, he never did like me all that much." "I'm glad you're back." "Well, you need me here." "And I'm not gonna throw away all the good I can do in this place just because you're not able to..." "Whatever." "I'm back." "You coming to bed?" "No." "I know you miss her, but she's gone." "She's not coming back." "I won't wait up." "Over here." " So this is our beach." " It looks like a postcard." "You can look, but you can't touch." "If there was ever somewhere to start over, it's right here." "Come on." "I'm" " No." "Okay, you are both crazy!" "Come on, Fuller!" "Jump!" "Jump!"