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.
In the hospital world a third year resident is akin to a good AA second baseman. They are risking more than $100K in school loans that have to be paid off. Its just not likely.
But the folks around here seem to want to believe what they want, rather than what makes sense.