How much is a Hollywood medical consult running these days?

[SKloggGirl]

I was just very sadly misguided to see "The Day After Tomorrow" in the theater. Note to self: When you see a mass of people waiting in line for a movie, run the other way.

I can't even begin to explain how many ways the movie was horrible, and thus hilarious when seen with equally incredulous people. The movie is a spoof/characature of itself.

On a more forum-related note, though, if you're interested in how horrible a quality of medical writing can actually make it to the final "version" of a "blockbuster hit," go see the movie. I long ago resigned to the fact that accurate medical writing in Hollywood was not to be expected... But this -- the "medical" parts in this movie -- were horrendous. With a multi-million dollar budget for a movie like this, how much do you think the physician "consult" would be for some sort of quality review. Seeing movies like this reminds me of how grateful I am for the science in my background and even much more for a med school education. I hear that and a token will get you on the bus.

At the least, it will save me many an hour in future lines of people.

Oh - and even better was the thick layer of political propaganda that covered the overlay of melodrama. It was so unsubtle that it was pathetic. The movie was the perfect, absolute microchosm of everything that I detest about Hollywood.

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[Al Pacino]

Saw the movie today...

The girl who had the cut on her leg: It appeared that the wound on her leg had become infected and possibly gangrenous. She was spiking a temp and appeared to be obtunded and tachycardic. It sounded like septic shock to me. How realistic is it that penicillin was so effective in helping to "revive" her?

What were the other medical mistakes in the movie?

 

[SKloggGirl]

What were the other medical mistakes in the movie?

Hmmm let's see. Some of the ones that most comically stood out to me:

1) The librarian was diagnosing the girl's "septic shock" from some miraculous, diagnostic medical dictionary when she states something to the effect of: "the only treatments for this condition [of infected wound and septic shock] are Penicillin and ...." ** DRAMATIC PAUSE... NO COMPLETION OF SENTENCE FOR ADDED MELODRAMA ** The implication there was that the alternative treatment was amputation. Besides the horrible script writing, that treatment is equally useless as penicillin at the point of sepsis.

2) The little girl with leukemia -- when everyone is evacuating the hospital, the physician makes up some crap about needing an ambulance to transport the girl anywhere. There was nothing in the girl's care that necessitated them staying there, awaiting either their death or an ambulance. And where is this space ship ambulance going to take them when the entire city was supposedly collapsing to necessitate the evacuation in the first place?? The girl was on oxygen; that's it. But how convenient for more Hollywood melodrama -- the physician sits there reading to the girl, insisting to await her own death if the girl must face hers. Very moving poetic concept, but completely out of place in this movie in light of the horrid script writing.

3) Dennis Quaid's character -- when he is trudging the 150 miles on foot in the blizzard conditions between Philadelphia and NYC (I won't even touch this absurdity), his companion passes out from the harsh conditions. So then Quaid must pull his friend along the snow as extra luggage in the same fashion you might drag a dead animal beind you after a good hunt. As the "eye" of the storm approaches, Quaid's character seeks refuge underground in some shaft somewhere; he opens the cover to the hole and basically throws his friend in the hole first -- HEAD first . Then, ten minutes later, the friend wakes up with a little white (clean) bandage around his head, asking how long he was "out." He shouldn't have had a spinal cord left in tact.

Again, all of these things, when you write them out, could seem tolerable, but in the context of the overall ridiculousness of the plot, script, and acting, they were tremendous sources of comedy. Thank God because otherwise we certainly would have left the theater.

 

[Jalby]

My name is Josh, I am a democrat, and I liked the movie. It's called fiction.

But hey, it is a little bit unrealistic about global warming. It's not like we are having massive amounts of hurricanes across the country, the coldest weather on the east coast in record and california having the hottest winters in history.

 

[Jalby]

Oh, and it's getting 4 stars average rating out of 1410 on www.moviephone.com.

 

[leviathan]

Oh, and it's getting 4 stars average rating out of 1410 on www.moviephone.com.

Yeah, but go to IMDB.com, the only movie site I trust, and it has a 6.3/10 rating, which by IMDB standards is something that is bearable to watch, but not any good. If you want to see another movie that just makes me cringe at the complete lack of any scientific sense, go see Godsend. Or don't....unless you want to pull all your hair out.

 

[WakeMedHeel]

Do you people have any fun at movies?

 

[SKloggGirl]

Do you people have any fun at movies?

Oh don't get me wrong -- I had a blast, laughed my a-- off... My point: not the intended purpose of the movie.

Ben Stiller, Steve Martin -- as-intended fun at the movies any time. Dennis Quaid, hollywood melodrama, and political propaganda -- only fun if rediculous enough to laugh AT, which was the case here.

 

[MErc44]

actually he threw the guy in the wendy's restaurant feet first, he just hit his head. it was pretty lame with the librarian though, correct me if I'm wrong...and i know you nerds will haha, but if you have septicemia aren't you pretty much dead. Also, penicillin if administered it will create lots of LPS fragments in the blood stream if the bacterium is gram + which will activate the compliment cascade and eventually cause DIC and shock. I think thats right but not sure.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

actually he threw the guy in the wendy's restaurant feet first, he just hit his head. it was pretty lame with the librarian though, correct me if I'm wrong...and i know you nerds will haha, but if you have septicemia aren't you pretty much dead. Also, penicillin if administered it will create lots of LPS fragments in the blood stream if the bacterium is gram + which will activate the compliment cascade and eventually cause DIC and shock. I think thats right but not sure.

The LPS from gram - bugs activates the complement and clotting cascades, as well as triggering a huge release of TNFa and IL-1, all contributing to DIC and shock. I imagine that if you made it to a hospital you might be ok, not real sure though. I read somewhere that they can give you some corticosteriods before giving you antibiotics in order to minimize the response to all the LPS floating around, but I cant remember where I read this.

 

[MErc44]

gram- what a stupid mistake, I think i should have said peptidoglycan fragments after administering penicillin. I think you are f%cked unless you get to the doctor immediately. I believe Jim Henson died from shock