Guy Montag's wife, Mildred, has taken a massive overdose of sleeping pills. Fortunately, she survives. When the attendants arrive, they use two machines on her: one, to pump her stomach; the other, to give her a complete blood transfusion. The idea is that every last trace of poison must be removed from the bloodstream, otherwise it will affect the brain at some point. This is a society in which everyone's supposed to be happy and carefree, so this invasive medical procedure is designed to make sure that the remotest hint of anything that might lead to unhappiness or depression is expunged once and for all.

Neither of the two attendants are medically qualified. They are essentially technicians who go about their business with a matter-of-fact air. They see dozens of people like Mildred every week and so are pretty numbed to the whole procedure. The men see themselves as nothing but handymen like plumbers or carpenters—going into people's houses, fixing a problem as quickly as possible, and then moving on to their next job. They don't see people like Mildred as human beings to be treated and helped, but as problems to be fixed. The attendants' attitude speaks volumes about the lack of value placed on human life in this society.