Residents are generally discouraged from thinking. But aside from that, this is not that situation at all.
It could be that this story is bogus.
But your statements are not sufficient to discard it yet. From what I can surmise, the confidence level of a fourth year surgery resident would be very close to that of an attending. Surgery is a huge revenue source for hospitals. Seems to me a fourth year resident would be close to the top of the food chain.