Ridiculous medical mistakes on TV

[adventure_rn]

We've all heard it: nurses can't watch medical shows without getting annoyed about how inaccurate they are. Lately, I'm finding that the most ridiculous medical mistakes happen on police procedural dramas (Law and Order, Criminal Minds, etc.); at least the medical shows have people with medical backgrounds advising them.

Anybody have some funny tv medical mistakes to share??

Last week I was watching a rerun of Criminal Minds. The victim had been drugged with haldol by her kidnapper. When the police rushed in to save her, the EMS gave her a bolus of narcan and she magically awoke. It was a flipping miracle!! ?

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[RestlessHeart]

I had to come back here and post. Im sitting here watching a show where a woman had triple bypass surgery. This woman is in her mid to late 60s, the picture of health etc. So they take her back to surgery on a narrow gurney, no side rails, no IVs, No "machines" etc.

She comes back from surgery in less than an hour....same bed, same position, NO IVs, NO pumps, NO side rails, nary a wrinkle in a sheet and only one attendant...the doctor himself.

Now, Ive had 30 + surgeries over the years, none cardiac granted...however NO Doctor ever wheeled me back to my room and I know ALL the docs involved personally. I had IV on tops of IVs....catheters, .bed rails, both sides upper and lower and a freakin room full of people I wished would go away and stop telling me to open my eyes etc.

WHO researches these dang shows anyway and why wouldnt they want them to be more life like?

Ok, moving on

[amoLucia]

I remember the old TV show M*A*S*H actually DID have a medical consultant MD on the credits. Some of most outrageous occurrences I ever saw occurred on MASH.

I wondered what the h*ll did he do to collect his fees? I want a job like his.

[BeckyESRN]

A few nights ago the husband and I were watching a hospital scene of a non-medical show, the character had a seizure and the TV doc said "Give him 15mg of IV Ativan NOW":roflmao:

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

A few nights ago the husband and I were watching a hospital scene of a non-medical show, the character had a seizure and the TV doc said "Give him 15mg of IV Ativan NOW":roflmao:

Well, that will definitely stop the seizing (among other things)!!!!!

[Davey Do]

BeckyESRN said:

the TV doc said "Give him 15mg of IV Ativan NOW"::):

brillohead said:

Well, that will definitely stop the seizing (among other things)!!!!!

It would almost be like what Dr. Venkman gave to Dana Barrett in "Ghostbusters".

[4mranch]

I remember watching an episode of ER and Noah Wyle's character ordered a STAT bolus of 20cc normal saline. I thought, why not just spit on him it'll be just as effective.

[sevensonnets]

I was watching SVU one night. The officers were interviewing a victim of something or other and he was just talking normally. Then the monitor starts to beep. A brief glimpse of the monitor appears to be VT. A man in white just about knocks the door off the hinges and screams, "He's crashing!" Then he proceeds to do CPR with the bed at about 45 degrees. What is the nurse doing? She's holding the patient's head down with the palm of her hand! No 02 or anything!

[BeckyESRN]

Law and Order SVU rerun: Bad dude is in the hospital on a morphine PCA (bed up in the air and all side rails down), Ice T is talking to him and Bad Dude is awake, alert, and getting really angry then all of the sudden Bad Dude exhales and is dead-a beautiful flat line on the monitor. Ice T yells for help and looks at the PCA and says that the Bad Dude overdosed himself on morphine...just no.

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

Oh, what was I watching the other day where I saw a real clanger? Oh yeah... there was a kid being treated for respiratory distress on NCIS: New Orleans. He was maybe about 10. He was sitting up talking, still in the ER (IIRC) not in the ICU, but the monitor to his right had a PA catheter waveform and a pressure of 15/10. Sure.

I always wonder how they get those monitors to say those crazy numbers on TV. Like, do they have some IT guy programming it and they're like, "Yes, make that purple wavy line say it's 60 and the blue line should be, like, 80, and the green heart one should be like 47. Yes, yes, much drama, soooooo drama. Make it so the alarm that says 'SpO2 poor signal' is constantly flashing. This is so legit, guys."

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

I can't remember if I posted already before the meme on pg 20. If this looks familiar, disregard.

I used to watch Strong Medicine on Lifetime. Some of the nurse portrayals made me crazy... like in one episode the male CNM main character was functioning as a bedside nurse while the MD was large and in charge. Pretty ED nurse the young handsome dr. had become sexually involved; nurses went on strike, and she said to the MD something like "this isn't working. I'm labor, you're management."

The one that took the cake though, was a woman in the ED in a hyperthyroid crisis. One of the lead MD characters (an OB-GYN...there's another mistake) diagnosed her, and when she realized what was going on she yells "Thyroid storm!" Then barks 3-4 orders to each of the little nurse minions standing there, neatly lined up. I can't remember all of them, but one was "beta blockers." That was the entire order: beta blockers.

Watching "Web of Lies" on You Tube -- if you haven't seen it, it's one of those true crime documentaries, but about crimes involving the internet. One episode featured a Munchausen by proxy mom who posted every fabricated/induced detail of her son's illnesses over social media. He eventually dies. The narrator says the child was "on life support," and the mom finally ordered the "life support" to be stopped. Said life support was a simple O2 mask.

[verdeacres]

I didn't read through all the posts, but my favorite is some of the scenes with a dialysis machine beside the bed with red stuff in the tubing and the blood pump running. Where is the blood coming from? The person in the bed does not have a catheter or an access!!!

[haunani, BSN, RN]

I know this one's probably been mentioned, but I'm just now starting Sons of Anarchy with my husband, and noticed how the premature baby went from a tiny, scrawny little thing to a nice, pink, plump newborn in just a few days, lol.