Luka Kovač quotes from E.R.

Luka

I feel like crap.

Abby

You don't look so good either.

Luka

Thanks a lot.

Luka

Why do you want to be a doctor?

Erin

I don't know. Good at science.

Luka

I became a doctor to take care of people. To heal them. [lies down]

Erin

You do. Every day.

Luka

But strangers, only strangers. And not tomorrow. [falls asleep]

Romano

[after he talks to a patient's mother] What are you doing? Holding your own private M & M with the kid's mother.

Luka

She wanted to know how her son died.

Romano

One word: peacefully. And leave it at that.

Luka

She deserves to know.

Dr. Romano

What? What, the truth? The truth is you killed her son. You want to tell her that?

Romano

Okay, cowboy, I've got a vascular surgeon, an anesthesiologist, and three surgical residents waiting upstairs in an OR suite that rents for five grand an hour.

Luka

He wants to stay with his wife.

Romano

Well, isn't that touching.

Luka

She's dying.

Romano

Yeah, well, if doesn't die faster, he's going to be dying with her.

Luka

I've explained all that.

Romano

I'm going upstairs. If he's not up there in five minutes, I'm going take out your spleen.

Kerry

Luka, why is Jessie Callahan still in Trauma 1? I'm curious because you pronounced her dead an hour ago.

Luka

Her husband wouldn't go up to the OR unless she passed, so I unhooked her leads and pronounced her. Why?

Kerry

Good God! What happens when he comes back down from surgery and finds out his wife is still alive?

Luka

I'll tell him it was a miracle.

Luka

What is it with this country? Nobody takes responsibility for anything. Always looking for someone else to blame, someone to sue.

Frank

If you don't like it here, go back to Croatia. Not near as many lawyers. A lot more land mines, though.

Her boyfriend cheated on her and she went on a banana-split spree.

Luka

So you called 911?

I didn't. She did. She wanted to get her stomach pumped. She must have ate, like, 50,000 calories. Sometimes she binges and purges.

Luka

Sometimes? She's lost her gag reflex from sticking her finger down her throat so many times.

Susan

Luka, obviously she has an eating disorder.

Luka

No. I'll tell you what an eating disorder is. It's when a mother hasn't eaten in six days because she's giving what little food she has to her three children. She just cost the hospital three thousand dollars and for what? So she doesn't put on a pound? [walks out]

Susan

Luka...

It's cheaper than liposuction.

So, what brings you here?

Luka

Dr. Weaver. She told me to come.

Well, why do you suppose she wanted us to meet?

Luka

You tell me.

That's not quite how it works.

Luka

Hey you're a doctor. Someone comes to me with a problem, I tell them how to fix it, so...

Let's start with you telling me...

Luka

My problem?

What's on your mind.

Luka

My family died during the war in Croatia. So I came to America. I had a relationship with someone I cared about, which I then ruined. So I started looking for the answers in the wrong places, you know like sex, drinking, living fast... Killed a patient I should've saved and then I almost killed a medical student in a car crash so... woke up one morning and everything I had was gone. Gone or broken. [pause] So what do you have for that?

Well, Dr. Kovac, it's not something I can really...

Luka

That's what I thought. You should get back to work. Tell Weaver I showed up.

Luka

[about a Croatian boy who needs surgery] After all the talk, we won't save this boy for only one reason: because we don't want to.

Kerry

It's more complicated than that, Luka.

Luka

Yeah, you're right. There's also the money.

Luka

[in the Congo] In the beginning there's always a lot of talk of national pride and patriotic speeches, but after a few weeks it becomes this; nothing but death and sadness. These people just want what everyone else wants: their kids to have something to eat; to see them grow up, laughing, happy. They don't care where the border is or who gets to call themselves president. They just want this to stop.

Carter

I don't even begin to try to understand the politics here.

Luka

You are an American, Carter. You believe that if people are given a chance to convert to democracy, the world would be a better place.

Carter

What's the alternative? Military dictatorships?

Luka

You fight wars from the sky with bombs and missiles. Then your planes land back on the aircraft carrier and the pilots watch Drew Carey on satellite TV.

Carter

Hey, American soldiers died in Iraq.

Luka

Yeah, but your children don't starve to death while your men fight. Your women aren't raped. [long pause] I remember watching the television, reading the newspapers, saying that we had to fight and then my family was gone. I couldn't remember why it was all so important. What difference did it all make? My children were dead.

Carter

What should I tell Weaver?

Luka

Whatever you want.

Carter

Can I tell her you're coming back?

Luka

I don't know.

Carter

Don't do anything stupid.

Luka

[smiles] Like what?

Carter

Like get yourself killed.

Luka

I was raised in the church. Catholic. I used to go twice a week with my mother. It was beautiful. I liked the music, the singing.

Do you still go?

Luka

No, I stopped when my children and wife were murdered. I couldn't believe in a God would allow such a terrible thing to happen. (pauses, ironically) It's really hard to feel the Holy Spirit's presence on a day like today.

I could put together some packages for you to take to the Congo. I've heard that's a pet project of yours. Quinamax would be wonderful for all the important work you're doing over there.

Luka

You want me to take your over-priced antibiotic to Africa?

It has great coverage for pnemococcus and AIDS flu.

Luka

Why hasn't there been a new drug for malaria in three decades?

That's a really good question...

Luka

Because there's no profit in treating poor people! (picks up a trash can and throws all her marketing products in it)

My company is...

Luka

Your company spends twice as much in marketing as it does in development! Which is why prescription cost has tripled in the last 10 years! Get out of here. I want you out of here. (walks towards the door)

If this is a bad time...

Luka

Frank, I'm gonna go get some coffee. Page me if you need me!

O.k. Dr. Kovac if you can... (Luka empties out the trash can in the dumpster) You know, I'll just come back when you're not so busy!

Pratt

She was my patient!

Luka

Yes, and if I hadn't treated her, she would still be here. Now she's at home and feeling better.

Pratt

So that's it. This is how I'm supposed to learn? Either I do it your way, or you take it away from me?

Luka

Pratt, I'm trying to teach you that the way you practice medicine here is inefficient.

Pratt

Oh, and letting babies die is?

Luka

You really think you saved that kid today? For what? 24-hours nursing care? He's probably gonna require a lifetime commitment. Are you gonna be around to give it to him?

Pratt

Listen, I'm sorry I'm not in some mud-hut doing amputations with a pocket knife. We have the technology and expertise to give that kid a chance! What's the sense in having it, if we don't use it?

Luka

That kid has about a 5% chance of having a normal life! You have any idea how many other kids we could have treated with those resources?

Pratt

I do everything I can for my patients! That's how I practice medicine. This is Chicago, not the damned Congo. Maybe you should just go back to Africa.

Luka

Maybe you should go to Africa.

Pratt

I know you didn't just say that to me.

Luka

Maybe then you'd learn that there's more to being a doctor than ordering tests and calling consults for every patient just to cover your ass.

Pratt

Stay away from my patients. From now on, I present to another attending.

Luka

You sent that man up for a pulmonary angiogram?

Neela

Dr.Lewis wanted to be sure before heparinising.

Luka

What's your opinion?

Neela

I'm not sure my opinion matters.

Luka. You got a minute?

Luka

[to Neela] If you don't think it matters, then it doesn't.