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!! ?
Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
Another Criminal Minds episode, the one where Derek Morgan was kidnapped and tortured. As he's being loaded into the ambulance after his rescue, he "codes".... the monitor shows the squiggly line, and they shock him with the paddles, and the monitor shows the flat line -- only problem is, there is NOTHING on his chest -- no electrodes and wires, no paddles, NOTHING to provide the monitor with the line it's supposed to be showing.
Then afterward, he wakes up in the non-ICU hospital room after three days of unconsciousness, and he has oxygen on via nasal cannula, but the tubing doesn't come down in front of his neck... it just hooks over his ears and then disappears into the pillow.
Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
A few more Criminal Minds episodes later, and now Morgan's wife was the victim.... in the hospital, nasal cannula in the nose and behind the head instead of in front of the neck.
What the eff, people? Have your medical consultants ever actually worked in the medical field????
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
I always loved Dixie's cap, mini dress and high heels. Who says a nurse can't be fashionable?
My late mother (ICU RN) always commented on Nurse Gloria "Ripples" Brancusi on Trapper John, MD wearing high heeled white pumps on the floor. "She must not do much", my mother said.
One of the CSI spinoffs, I was watching reruns.... victim intubated, paralyzed by the crazy bad man; rescued, is blinking yes/no at the officer. Rolls her eyes up and seizes, diagnoses with a stroke. Still intubated in the next day's scene, and the doc says "GCS is 3, in otherwords, she's braindead". Hello? Aren't all intubated, paralyzed pts a 3???
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
My personal pet peeve is Liz Webber Lansing Webber Spencer Webber on General Hospital. One day she's an artist and the next day she decides to be a nurse. Within months, she's "the best nurse at General Hospital." Must be -- she's in the ER, the OR, the ICU, L & D -- no matter why a patient is admitted to the hospital, she's his nurse.
Your reference to soap operas jogged my memory about a few observations (aside from every patient having either amnesia or a brain tumor). There is an apparently huge hospital, but you only see one or two doctors who are taking care of everyone, regardless of what they are in for. They are easy to spot, because white lab coat=doctor. They are invariably male. They are always wearing some cheap piece of crap stethoscope around their neck that looks like it came from a flea market BP kit. Geez, buy a few Littmanns for the props department, OK?
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
I don't know if this would really qualify as a medical mistake, but soap operas are notorious for ridiculous medical situations. On an episode of As the World Turns (which I can't believe is still on; my grandmother used to watch it in the 1960s), a woman had sex with a man who wasn't her husband because she drank some cough syrup that made her hallucinate that it was him.
I know this is an older thread, but I had to comment on one episode of SOA that made me laugh (there were lots of medical mistakes in that series ever since Tara became the MCs Dr and performed all her stuff on the club's pool table). But the one that got me the best was when Jax gave Wendy a "speedball" shot of heroin and speed into her left deltoid and she instantly crashed! Ummm, no! I've worked in drug and alcohol rehab and that's called a "miss", basically when a drug addict misses the vein and muscle pumps the drug. It takes a ALOT longer for the effect to hit the person. So, there is NO WAY Wendy would have felt the "speedball" in a matter of 2 or 3 seconds the way it showed on the show... And that's just ONE example of the mistakes in the show (which I LOVED the show by the way). If I were to go and describe all the mistakes of Tara performing procedures on the pool table and the drama at the hospital itself, that would add another 10 pages to this thread!
Didja' ever notice that in lots of TV hosp rooms/doctor offices/mini clinics there always seems to be an IV pole standing nearby with 2 (it always seems 2) IVs 'ready to go'? Like the bags are already spiked and assumedly primed. Just waiting for some EMERGENCY.
To be honest, I've even seen hanging IVs in my real MD/DDS offices.
Like what's the deal? Once a bag is spiked, the clock starts ticking ... I can't believe that the bags would be discarded every day. I mean the 24 hour clock has winds down. Is that fiscally sound?
Recently I'm watching very first "medical movie" from early 1960's "Dr. Kildare". Relatively few mistakes, of course there's 1960's so AMI 3 week bedrest, general anesthesia on mask, almost never ETT. For acute respiratory failure (even on the field) - trach (metal obviously). But yesterday I saw order: 10 mg Morphine SQ (patient not on vent) and 100 mg (!!!) heparin (way not specified). Hmmm
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character Kayla (Wolverine's wife) is killed, but not really. She reappears later only to say that they gave her a "shot of hydrochlorothiazide. It reduces the heart rate so low it appears to have flat-lined." I can only say....What???
brillohead, ADN, RN
1,781 Posts
Another Criminal Minds episode, the one where Derek Morgan was kidnapped and tortured. As he's being loaded into the ambulance after his rescue, he "codes".... the monitor shows the squiggly line, and they shock him with the paddles, and the monitor shows the flat line -- only problem is, there is NOTHING on his chest -- no electrodes and wires, no paddles, NOTHING to provide the monitor with the line it's supposed to be showing.
Then afterward, he wakes up in the non-ICU hospital room after three days of unconsciousness, and he has oxygen on via nasal cannula, but the tubing doesn't come down in front of his neck... it just hooks over his ears and then disappears into the pillow.
GAH! Nursing has ruined me for television!!!!