Medical dramas are becoming more realistic. But if you’re looking for the full truth about what a doctor does, don’t watch them. They are about something else.
In a Chicago hospital, two doctors, a more experienced intern and a resident, were leaning over an unconscious patient, trying to determine what was wrong with him. Attending Green looks at the chart and says, “Partially compensated metabolic acidosis. The patient’s temperature is taken, the tongue is examined, and mechanical injuries that can result from seizures are noted. “Meningitis?” – the resident asks thoughtfully. – Yes, it may be possible. A lumbar puncture is needed. Have you ever had one? Uh-uh… No, but I observed it once. You will see once, you will do once – and you will learn. The resident’s eyes bulged at the thought of having to remove the patient’s cerebrospinal fluid… This is a scene from the first episode of the 1990s television series “Emergency Hospital. The show was the first to use a variety of simulation techniques to portray medical procedures as realistically as possible, including the famous lumbar puncture.
The TV series “It’s Going to Hurt” is based on the memoirs of Adam Kay, who spent several years working in a London maternity ward. Dr. Green’s famous line sounds like it was written by screenwriters, but in real life, this is exactly how they teach students and residents. “Emergency Room was largely copied from the endless series General Hospital, which has been on ABC since 1963. Recently I saw the classic scene again – in the very first episode of the comedic and sometimes really funny (although the humor is rather dark) TV series “It’s Gonna Hurt”, produced by the BBC in cooperation with the American cable channel AMC. The action takes place in a London maternity hospital that is overworked and clearly underfunded. On a chaotic morning, Dr. Adam Kay (Ben Whishaw) asks a naive intern, played by Ambika Mood, if she has ever performed a C-section. She says no, and the senior colleague says the classic line, “See it, do it, learn it,” and they immediately find themselves in the operating room. It’s Going to Hurt” strives for the maximum realism typical of modern medical films in terms of setting, procedures, acute situations, and dialogue. What sets it apart is its depiction of how exhausting and destructive the work of a junior doctor in the National Health Service is, as well as the cynical professional humor you won’t hear in “Emergency Care. Does that make “It’s Going to Hurt” the most truthful of all medical films? It certainly offers a fresh perspective, even if it doesn’t show everything. There is always the question of the limits of permissible openness in such images. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what will happen next. Episodes The end of the story: Advertising in podcasts.
The line between reality and fiction has always been blurred in hospital dramas. The American television series of the 1950s, “City Hospital” and “Medic”, marked the beginning of this genre. Their creators used various techniques to enhance the sense of reality. Each episode of “Medic” began with the appearance on the screen of a supposedly real doctor, actually played by an actor, who gave a scientific lecture about a case that the characters were about to deal with. The series was dedicated to “the medical profession and all the men and women who work in it. Over the next decade, producers began to make extensive use of consultants, always informing the audience. And they continue to advise screenwriters today, with varying degrees of success. Mostly, it’s a matter of clarifying details rather than eliminating implausible storylines. Since then, medical dramas have moved toward greater realism. Their writers have long understood that this is what attracts viewers. Medical literature is full of stories that need little embellishment, and almost every doctor or nurse can tell at least one case with a plot practically ready for a movie.
According to critics, “Emergency Aid” raised the bar of realism to a new level, but practicing doctors were still dissatisfied. “Emergency Aid” has become a significant phenomenon. The personal lives and conflicts of the heroes are mixed with the social problems typical for the Chicago district and the everyday life of the Emergency Aid Department, in the depiction of which the camera did not avoid dirt and blood”. The scriptwriters peppered the characters’ speech with special words, which posed a problem for the actors. George Clooney, who played pediatrician Doug Ross, looked at cheat sheets behind the scenes and wrote down tricky words on hospital sheets. Excerpts from “Emergency Aid” have even been used as teaching materials in medical schools. “The heroes of “Emergency Aid” taught us how to treat patients and set standards for future work, showed us how we should be and how we should not be,” wrote Ellen Rothman, a graduate of Harvard Medical School. However, “Emergency Aid” contained some pretty fantastic moments. In order to create a dynamic plot, the writers compressed time to fit the story of a disease into one episode. The results of complex analyses in the movie come in a matter of hours, not days. Doctors perform manipulations alone, which in real life require a whole team. Inexperienced interns perform responsible surgeries. Actors handle blood samples in a way that would surely lead to contamination. Patients easily tolerate cardiac arrest. Not to mention helicopter accidents right outside the clinic entrance. Characteristically, the action…
And yet the main thing is emotional, not scientific truth, insists Dan Sefton.
“The best of these movies are about simple and important things: life, death, risk, and love,” he says.
