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!! ?
"You didn't have a heart attack. Your heart was in atrial fibrillation. We shocked you back to normal rhythm. We're going to send you upstairs for an EKG and echocardiogram."
Gerneral Hospital circa late 80's. Patient was having a seizure post brain surgery. First intervention by sexy nurse in short dress? Stick a temp probe in seizing patients mouth. "Patient has a fever Doctor". Note...patient was an adult.
Gerneral Hospital circa late 80's. Patient was having a seizure post brain surgery. First intervention by sexy nurse in short dress? Stick a temp probe in seizing patients mouth. "Patient has a fever Doctor". Note...patient was an adult.
At least they didn't stick the temp probe you know where!
Four things...I think only one was already mentioned.
1) Pt. rips out their IV, not ONE drop of blood drips out.
2) The lead character gets shot...it is always in the upper right or left chest, and they are somehow always fine...never a pneumothorax. Just a dressing and they don't even go to the hospital.
3) Lay people, and sometimes medical people, giving IM injections in the neck!
4) (What I hate the most.) The unconscious or comatose patient in a hospital room with a nurse and the family at the bedside. The patient starts to wake up...the nurse runs out of the room saying, "I'll get the doctor!"
I love seeing how well rounded Hollywood doctors are- not only are they emergency and trauma physicians, they're also trauma surgeons, they give medications and wrap wounds, they answer phones and after they perform an emergency craniotomy, they follow their patients to the ICU. And all of that only takes up a small portion of their shift!
Yes! Lol, I was telling my ex (an internal medicine resident) about Grey's Anatomy, and how the surgeons spend all of their time drawing their own labs and conversing about the patients' social lives at the bedside.
His response: [takes a moment to compose himself] "Yeah, no."
Four things...I think only one was already mentioned.
1) Pt. rips out their IV, not ONE drop of blood drips out.
2) The lead character gets shot...it is always in the upper right or left chest, and they are somehow always fine...never a pneumothorax. Just a dressing and they don't even go to the hospital.
3) Lay people, and sometimes medical people, giving IM injections in the neck!
4) (What I hate the most.) The unconscious or comatose patient in a hospital room with a nurse and the family at the bedside. The patient starts to wake up...the nurse runs out of the room saying, "I'll get the doctor!"
Yes on all four counts
1) Always
2) I love when the bullet goes straight through the person's head or chest, and they're like, "Luckily it just scratched the surface." Yeah, no.
3) What are they even aiming for???
4) Yes. In addition to the 'nurses are incompetent' element, I love that these patients go from GCS 6 to a GCS of 15 in a matter of 10 seconds. Same when they awake from surgery. Nope.
Also, TV shows that completely misinterpret muscle wasting during ridiculously prolonged comas.
Kill Bill: Legs are badly atrophied, so the heroine uses her arms to move her legs around and drag herself down a hallway and into her car. Her legs are more atrophied than her arms? I couldn't do all that with only my arms even before being in a coma for 6 months. I mean, I'm no Uma Therman, but c'mon.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: After over a year in a coma, hero-turned-villain Faith claims "That's the thing about a coma. You wake up all rested and rejuvenated, and ready for payback." Actually, you wake up atrophied and brain-damaged, if at all.
Thought of another one...checking for a pulse by wrapping a hand around the front of the neck and pressing on the ol' carotids. And speaking of checking for a pulse, the times when they feel for a pulse and in less than 2 seconds the person sadly shakes their head and says "s/he's gone" :cry:
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Two honking huge, beefy guys having a knock-down, drag-out fight using not only fists, but objects around them that present themselves just-in-the-nick-of-time, and that goes on for a ridiculously long stretch of time.......NO swelling of the eye or jaw, NO bruising, NO blood, NO pain, NO puking from exhaustion and dehydration from all that sweating and panting. Just a smudge of a little make-up on the chin +/ or brow, from not-so-special-effects folks. At least one guy able to walk away as if nothing much had happened, but if the theme is a buddy movie, they BOTH walk away!
Also, and this is an old Hollywood film device for jerking tears: when the w/c bound person *GASP!* stands up from his/her chair; someone exclaims, "What are you doing? Be careful! Watch out!" Then the 2 dramatically hesitant steps, and the formerly unable-to-even-stand-without-assistance character then has absolutely NO trouble supporting body weight , is able to walk with a measured gait. Then all those around said person smile/laugh/cry/clap.(The music swells...)
It's a red rubber Robinson catheter taped to George's upper lip. A totally extraneous piece of medically unnecessary equipment for dramatic effect.
In pictures below, Robinson on the left, Dobhoff on the right. (Sorry Jensmom7) but your description and use of the Dobhoff or generically called enteral feeding tube is dead on.
I think it looks like a Miller-Abbott tube, a naso-intestinal tube that had mercury in the balloon. It was super long, and it would, hopefully, pass into the small intestine to relieve SBOs. We had a GI doc who loved them, but the hospital made him inject the mercury into the balloon and pass them into the stomach.
I think it looks like a Miller-Abbott tube, a naso-intestinal tube that had mercury in the balloon. It was super long, and it would, hopefully, pass into the small intestine to relieve SBOs. We had a GI doc who loved them, but the hospital made him inject the mercury into the balloon and pass them into the stomach.
And of course, not warranted for chest pain.
Mercury??? Are those still in use today? That sounds like a sentinel event waiting to happen.
Thanks for sharing--you learn something new every day.
I was yelling at the TV when watching the doctors on "House" put in a central line with no gloves, or anything else remotely close to sterile procedure.
[takes a moment to compose himself] "Yeah, no."
:cry:
ixchel
4,547 Posts
New Netflix show Bloodline -
Character goes to ED for chest pain.
"You didn't have a heart attack. Your heart was in atrial fibrillation. We shocked you back to normal rhythm. We're going to send you upstairs for an EKG and echocardiogram."