I get the useless, drunk, abusive part... But what makes you call him a grade C doctor? Both Deanna and Aaron told the group of lives he had saved and surgeries he performed. He may be a bad person, but there is nothing presented that would make us question his medical skills. Of course, we could certainly question his willingness to use them or even abuse them.
Some skills can be learned in the apocalypse. Learning to be a doctor can't simply be learned easily. Sure, people can be taught how to suture and how to dole out a few antibiotics, but that's not nearly equivalent to being a doctor. The many years of medical education, clinical experience, and clinical judgment can't be easily taught during an apocalypse like this.
And your statement about crude measures being enough isn't accurate at all. Without simple medical care, people die of what we consider silly mundane things. Physicians are able to recognize and treat these problems. Laypersons who have learned basic medical skills likely will not have the knowledge base to diagnose and treat these problems. In an apocalyptic scenario such as this, there is more to be concerned about than a crude patch job. In a trauma situation, you need to be able to both stop the immediate bleeding, stabilize the patient, surgically correct what needs to be corrected, keep the patient alive and in homeostasis, and prevent infection. Saying that "crude measures are enough" is WAY oversimplifying things, and is frankly just plain wrong.
But what do I know? I'm only graduating medical school next month...
And by the way, it's poor form to cut up my post, quote it, and then reply as if that was my complete thought.
