A talented young doctor was dismissed for breaking hospital rules to save a patient’s life. As she was being escorted out,

«Nobody asked you to do that.»

That afternoon, he signed her termination papers.

She packed her belongings silently, mechanically placing her stethoscope in her bag and removing her name badge.

A young intern approached. «Dr. Grant, what you did was amazing. That man is alive because of you.»

«And I’m jobless because of it,» she replied with a sad smile.

«That’s not fair.»

«Fair doesn’t exist in bureaucracy. Only rules do.»

She walked through the emergency department one last time. Patients she had treated over the past year waved goodbye; many didn’t know she’d been fired.

In the locker room, she sat alone for a moment, staring at her white coat on the hook—the coat she had worn with pride, representing all her work since leaving the military.

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