I literally cannot watch "medical" tv series. They bore me, and I completely ruin it for anyone else around. There are usually plenty of inconsistencies, and I will pick the show apart.
I was watching "Royal Pains" the other night. It's a great show, if you haven't seen it, but the medicine and god-like abilities of Dr. Hank are kind of House-like. It's definitely a character drama/comedy, and should be taken as such. Here are a couple examples I've seen so far:
The PA was on scene for a guy with a flail chest. He was on a sailing yacht, when one of the booms swung around and nailed him right in the lower right ribs. She never wrapped it, weighted it, or anything else. Just let the guy scream while she complained that, being on a boat, there was nothing she could do because she didn't have equipment. Finally, they devised an torture device consisting of salt water fishing hooks, pulleys, and a sandbag weight to pull the flail segment outward. This meant, of course, that she had to sink the hooks in, go around each rib, and out the other side.
Pretty horrible, considering you could have just taken the sandbag, tied it to his chest, and got the same amount of relief without all the horrible "OMG YOU'RE PUTTING FISH HOOKS INTO MY CHEST AROUND MY BROKEN RIBS! I'M CONSCIOUS OH GOD WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS WITHOUT KNOCKING ME OUT FIRST!?" pain.
Of course, he also ended up with a collapsed lung and passes out. She treated for a pneumo, and rightfully so. 14g, carefully find the space.... And she proceeds to lift the needle above her head and SLAM it into place as if she was trying to beat a snake to death with a club. He immediately comes back to consciousness, probably from the hit more so than the air rushing back into his lungs. Now, instead of just covering it with an occlusive dressing and just simply lifting the one side every so often, she went through the trouble of constructing a relief valve out of a cut exam glove, KY lotion, and a rubber band.
Another time, a girl on some banned medication from the Ukraine went out into the sun, and turned her skin Smurf blue. I'm talking as blue as the Star of Life at the top of this page is blue. She didn't know this until later, of course, when her obscure knowledge of non-FDA approved meds kicked in after looking at the bottle. Until then, though, she was talking normally, was absolutely fine otherwise, but the very first thing our supposedly knowledgeable PA checked for?
"I don't understand. She's not cyanotic, but she obviously looks like it. What else could it be?"
In no way did this girl look cyanotic, unless she was also frozen in addition to deprived of oxygen. But hey, it's Hollywood, right?
There are other issues too, but the only other real complaint I have are all these freaking rare disorders showing up in the Hamptons. At least on House, he's a diagnostician. People with unexplainable illnesses come TO him because of what he is and what he does. Dr. Hank shows up, and all the sudden Kuru and weird, inexplicably appearing medication allergies are popping up in one of the richest areas of the country.
I roll with it, don't get me wrong, as I love the shows characters. But when they start in on the medicine... Well, a grain of salt and all that...
