This week we spend the hour with stories from Harborview Medical Center, the Level 1 Trauma Center covering four states and nearly 100,000 square miles. We hear the story of a tragic house fire in Alaska that gave rise to a world-class medevac system. We visit a clinic serving refugees, and a club where staff and patients blow off steam by laughing at nothing. We get to know psychiatric patients getting counsel from people who have been in their shoes, and meet a doctor whose life changed when he was called to help a pregnant woman gored by a yak.

Harborview, owned by King County and operated by UW Medicine, takes on the most dire emergencies from all over Washington State, as well as all of Alaska and parts of Idaho and Montana. It’s also Washington’s biggest safety net hospital, committed to providing care to indigent patients.

Since its founding more than 140 years ago, Harborview has occupied a special place in the Northwest. In this hour-long special broadcast, we bring listeners inside the iconic hospital, and get a taste of some of the life-and-death stories that unfold there every day.

"Sound Effect" is your weekly tour of ideas, inspired by the place we live. The show is hosted by 88.5's Gabriel Spitzer.