TV and Movie Anesthesia Errors

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HollywdAnesth

HollywdAnesth

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I am a recent Anesthesiology residency graduate living in Dallas. Now that residency and boards are out of the way, I have decided to use some of my free time watching television shows and movies that involve medicine and point out all of their flaws. It's even worse than I thought it would be when I started.

So far I have done Lost, Saved By the Bell, Breaking Bad, and Doogie Howser. I should have some Grey's Anatomy material in the near future.

I've got a few posts in, and I don't know why I never thought to post it here. Read it and let me know what you think. Good or Bad.

http://killertvmd.wordpress.com/
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Very detailed. You must really have a lot of time on your hands. :) Those aren't the shows I would have started with since I am not a fan of any of them. But to each their own.
I didn't realize Doogie was such a ladies man.
BTW, I met you many years ago. You were a pretty cool guy, as I recall.
 
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how about this.

the practice of anesthesia and the specialty of anesthesiology has never been portrayed accurately on television or in the movies.
 
Pretty funny (and detailed) stuff on your site.

Recently on Grey's Anatomy, I think an attending anesthesiologist signs up to go back and do a surgical internship!
 
Grey's Anatomy is going to give you seizures...
 
Gern Blansten said:
Those aren't the shows I would have started with since I am not a fan of any of them. But to each their own.

BTW, I met you many years ago. You were a pretty cool guy, as I recall.
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I started with Lost, because I had seen all of the episodes and already knew what I wanted to say. Grey's Anatomy is going to be a bitch.

Where did you and I meet?
 
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:thumbup::thumbup: Funny stuff! Your site is a good distraction from studying for Step 1. What are your thoughts on 'Scrubs'? When I was an RT, I thought that it was the most realistic medical show out there, not from a technical standpoint, but from an issues stand point. I still hold that view, but I'm just a second year student. :D
 
RT2MD said:
What are your thoughts on 'Scrubs'?
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I loved Scrubs' first 4 -5 seasons. The second season was especially good.

As far as attitudes of residents, it was spot on. If you've read House of God, there are several things that were lifted directly from that book. I didn't really have many interactions with janitors, though I doubt none of them were as funny as The Janitor. Most of our environmental service staff barely spoke English too.

From what I can remember, there are a few minor issues. Dr. Cox does a TIPSS in one episode, then a coronary angioplasty in another. Just stuff like that.
 
My favorite part about Lost was the number of times they poured water down semi-conscious people's throats, which always seemed to magically resuscitate them. Although I guess an enchanted island would have enchanted water...
 
'
 
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3 episodes into Grey's Anatomy, and I'm already horrified. I know I'm not even close to the episode where the patient is awake under anesthesia.

I'm thinking about suing for libel.
 
Evidently, (though we already knew this) errors and omissions and creative writing minds are not limited to anesthesia when trying to make the absurd seem....surd....

This is a screen grab from the new trailer of bob zemeckis' (forest gump, back to the future, etc) new film with Denzel Washington, "Flight." This grab is a shot of the flight (piloted by Denzel) before it crashed - and you guessed it, almost everyone LIVED.

LOLOLOL. :laugh::laugh:

ScreenShot2012-06-07at34655PM.png


I'm sure Jet could let us know if a 727, (or whatever this plane is, MD80) could EVEN FLY LIKE THIS!!!!!!!

For me at least, give me a flying Delorean where I am supposed to suspend my belief from the get go, a Millennium Falcon, a Temple of Doom, a shark with a memory, but don't ask me to believe in something "in between." Suspend it, or don't ask me to. At least, that's how I try to write - for the most part. :)

D712
 
Knowing the very little I do about "lift" and how it causes a plane to stay in the air and the shape of the wings etc, my guess is that this would not "fly." But then, I am not a pilot. I recall reading about a discussion where a pilot got his jumbo jet into trouble and turned on it's side and was able to "barrel roll" it on over instead of trying to right the plane back the usual way. The discussion was heated and many said that story was just urban legend. Then there is the video of the hot shot military pilot who was a known risk taker. His commanding officer refused to let the normal crew fly with him and he flew with him instead for a B-52 (I believe) demonstration run. The guy tried to turn it sharper than it was ever intended to (like you might see a fighter jet turn-completely on it's side). The way it was explained on the video, the giant plane, when turned on it's side, no longer had "lift" created by the wings and plummeted into the ground in a huge fireball. It is one of the most dramatic and sad plane crashes I have ever seen video of.
So, my guess is that flying upside down in a jet liner is not a survivable option. It would seem to me that the shape of the wing that creates "lift" would work the opposite and cause the plane to plummet downward in a very rapid manner.
 
Narcotized said:
Absolutely no question positive fact a 727 CAN fly like that....
..........until it barrels straight into the earth at some astronomical speed into a huge fireball.
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precisely. point being, all LIVED on this "flight." ;)


Gern Blansten said:
Knowing the very little I do about "lift" and how it causes a plane to stay in the air and the shape of the wings etc, my guess is that this would not "fly." But then, I am not a pilot. I recall reading about a discussion where a pilot got his jumbo jet into trouble and turned on it's side and was able to "barrel roll" it on over instead of trying to right the plane back the usual way. The discussion was heated and many said that story was just urban legend. Then there is the video of the hot shot military pilot who was a known risk taker. His commanding officer refused to let the normal crew fly with him and he flew with him instead for a B-52 (I believe) demonstration run. The guy tried to turn it sharper than it was ever intended to (like you might see a fighter jet turn-completely on it's side). The way it was explained on the video, the giant plane, when turned on it's side, no longer had "lift" created by the wings and plummeted into the ground in a huge fireball. It is one of the most dramatic and sad plane crashes I have ever seen video of.
So, my guess is that flying upside down in a jet liner is not a survivable option. It would seem to me that the shape of the wing that creates "lift" would work the opposite and cause the plane to plummet downward in a very rapid manner.
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The exact moment depicted in this movie. Pilot chooses a barrel roll to correct an otherwise uncorrectable dive. I also saw that B-52 roll once, unreal. Yeah, these planes I don't think generate that lift with an inverted wing, camber seems backwards, they don't have the thrust of a fighter jet proportionate to its size. I'll pay my 15$ and watch the movie (LA Arclight pre-seat selection ticket prices.)

D712
 
doctor712 said:
precisely. point being, all LIVED on this "flight." ;)




The exact moment depicted in this movie. Pilot chooses a barrel roll to correct an otherwise uncorrectable dive. I also saw that B-52 roll once, unreal. Yeah, these planes I don't think generate that lift with an inverted wing, camber seems backwards, they don't have the thrust of a fighter jet proportionate to its size. I'll pay my 15$ and watch the movie (LA Arclight pre-seat selection ticket prices.)


D712
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I remember $4-$5 movies. It's moment like these that define age/era. It's like when I was a kid and told my Dad about how our school lunches were a few dollars. He would tell us his lunches for $0.25, white milk was $0.01, and chocolate milk once a week was $0.02. I was blown away by those prices, now I'm sure in 10-15 years any kids I have will be blown away by movie prices when I was their age.
 
pie944 said:
I remember $4-$5 movies. It's moment like these that define age/era. It's like when I was a kid and told my Dad about how our school lunches were a few dollars. He would tell us his lunches for $0.25, white milk was $0.01, and chocolate milk once a week was $0.02. I was blown away by those prices, now I'm sure in 10-15 years any kids I have will be blown away by movie prices when I was their age.
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Yeah ... so-called "healthy" 3% annual inflation destroys 90% of a currency's value in one person's lifetime. But it's good for us.

Now sane people throw their pennies in the trash because they're not worth the time to roll up and exchange for money.
 
That's because fox can really play. ;-)
 
THAT was the video I saw. Dude rolled a 707 when they were showing it off to potential airlines. That pilot heard it from his bosses after that.

D712
 
doctor712 said:
THAT was the video I saw. Dude rolled a 707 when they were showing it off to potential airlines. That pilot heard it from his bosses after that.

D712
Click to expand...

So, are you talking about "flying" that way or are you talking about a single barrel roll? Hard to know from the screen shot if that was just in the middle of a roll or if it was "flying" that way.
 
ranvier said:
Pretty funny (and detailed) stuff on your site.

Recently on Grey's Anatomy, I think an attending anesthesiologist signs up to go back and do a surgical internship!
Click to expand...


I've seen this happen. When I was a medical student one of the attending anesthesiologists was in the OR as such on June 30th, then rounding in the ICU as the Neurosurgery intern the next morning on July 1st. I couldn't imagine voluntarily going back into that meat grinder.
 
Gern Blansten said:
So, are you talking about "flying" that way or are you talking about a single barrel roll? Hard to know from the screen shot if that was just in the middle of a roll or if it was "flying" that way.
Click to expand...
Well, if you notice, that 707 drops PRETTY hard and fast when that pilot rolled it, I have no doubt many planes could do that when up at 40,000 feet, they'd just end up at 30,000 feet, or less. The plane in the screen grab (SPOILER ALERT: was "flying" that was as a way to get out of a stall situation, no time to pull up). So, I should have been more clear when I said "flying." Of course I'm sure the filmmakers extended that inverted flight in the movie as looooooooooong as possible without getting themselves nauseous (no pun intended.) :) D712
 
doctor712 said:
Well, if you notice, that 707 drops PRETTY hard and fast when that pilot rolled it, I have no doubt many planes could do that when up at 40,000 feet, they'd just end up at 30,000 feet, or less. The plane in the screen grab (SPOILER ALERT: was "flying" that was as a way to get out of a stall situation, no time to pull up). So, I should have been more clear when I said "flying." Of course I'm sure the filmmakers extended that inverted flight in the movie as looooooooooong as possible without getting themselves nauseous (no pun intended.) :) D712
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That would seem to go against the laws of physics that make flight possible. I will defer to someone who has more knowledge of the subject than myself.
While watching the video of the jet being rolled last night, I found another video of the same pilot doing a barrel roll while back hand pouring tea into a glass sitting on a platform near the planes instrument panel. He did not spill a drop. There were many physics explanations of why it worked in the comments. The video seemed legitimate and was pretty impressive. I would link to it but youtube is blocked at work. The pilot's name was Tex something. He seemed like some sort of legend the way people were talking about him.
 
Is this the video you were speaking about? The pouring tea part starts at about 2min 30sec. The whole video is pretty cool...


[YOUTUBE]9ZBcapxGHjE[/YOUTUBE]
 
pgg said:
Yeah ... so-called "healthy" 3% annual inflation destroys 90% of a currency's value in one person's lifetime. But it's good for us.

Now sane people throw their pennies in the trash because they're not worth the time to roll up and exchange for money.
Click to expand...

Yeah.

Family dinner conversations went like this

Me: Why do my school lunches cost so much more than your lunches did?
Dad: *silence as he eats steak* Carter *eats more steak*
 
And it would appear my thread has been hijacked by a discussion of airplanes... get it?
 
Sorry, errors bug me too. ;-)
Carry on!! I expect to see St, Elsewhere,
3lbs and Scrubs here soon!!

;-)
D712
 
PMPMD said:
Not accurate, but I love these 2 movies that involve anesthesia:

Green for Danger (1946)

Coma (1978)
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For those that still care, I am still writing the blog. I am currently trying to get current on Grey's so I can be ready for the upcoming new season 9 next month.

I just finished recapping Awake, and will have it up soon likely tomorrow.

I just purchased Coma after watching this awesome trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9lG4ybZ8QM

I am going tThe trailer alone is too awesome to pass up.
 
This really was not an error but it scared the S!@# out of me when I saw it. Their is a new scary movie out there cannot remember the name. But this girl is looking in her throat with a flashlight in the mirror. Her airway is a textbook Mallampati 1 then emerging from around her uvula two fingers peer out. Scary as heck.
 
narcusprince said:
This really was not an error but it scared the S!@# out of me when I saw it. Their is a new scary movie out there cannot remember the name. But this girl is looking in her throat with a flashlight in the mirror. Her airway is a textbook Mallampati 1 then emerging from around her uvula two fingers peer out. Scary as heck.
Click to expand...

The Possession
 
They are doing a remake of coma for TV, can't remember what network but saw an add for it the other day.
 
Are you the one who writes Hollywood Anesthesia?

Awesome blog. I've learned a lot reading it.

Awake is one of my favorite films as well. You point out things that seemed so obvious once I actually read your post about the film.

Thanks for the great blog, man (or woman).
 
Did anyone watch The Mob Doctor last night?

My favorite part was when 2 doctors are making out in the call room and one asks the other how a female patient is doing. The response "Well, she needs an operation, it's a ruptured ectopic pregnancy..."

A little girl was bleeding to death and they think this is the perfect time for call room nookie. Unreal.
 
Anybody ever see Chuck? Devin is supposedly a cardiologist, and tells his girlfriend that he has time before an emergency intubation at the hospital.
 
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