Recently one of my colleagues was in a physical altercation with his Program Director. It was not intentional, and the two do not have a history of bad blood. It is a long, complicated story, but basically, my colleague needed off in order to see his friend, who is very sick in the hospital. The program director took his time with getting back to my colleague..almost a month! My colleague ended up confronting his director as to what was taking so long and if he had any idea of possible dates. My colleague has been "dicked around" by his director before, and during the confrontation my colleague got very frustrated, and ended up punching his director. There has never been any ill will between the two, nor was there any malintent in terms of the confrontation. He is one of the top interns in his program, and is amazing at what he does. He has a clean record, and will be completed the program in May. He contacted his director at home that night after the confrontation, but the director told him that he had to speak with the hospital board. He is very concerned as to what is going to happen. I think that the worst thing that will happen is that he will perhaps be put on probation, or even suspended. He on the other hand is afraid that he is going to get kicked out of his program. In my opinion, being an intern of surgery, which are one of the toughest to come by now a days, having a clean record, and having no replacement(the hospital can't even afford to give him a single day off for dr's apt's due to lack of coverage), I don't think that he will be kicked out. Any opinions would be GREATLY appreciated. THANK YOU.