During the course of the novel, working in the hospital takes a psychological toll on Basch. His personality and outlook change, and he has outbursts of temper. He has adulterous trysts with various nurses (portrayed in great detail) and social service workers (nicknamed the "Sociable Cervix") and his relationship with his girlfriend Berry suffers. A colleague, Wayne Potts, who had been constantly badgered by the upper hierarchy and haunted by a patient (nicknamed "The Yellow Man" for his fulminant necrotic hepatitis, who goes comatose and eventually dies possibly