NaBloPoMo - Day 6 - Yeah, That's Not How That Works

I was looking back at some of my old postings, and it seems I've never written about my work on a television show... I met a fellow ED doc a couple of years ago who was the medical consultant on a TV show called "The Night Shift." I got to work with him for a week, learning what it takes to put a TV show together and get the medicine right...

I worked with the supporting actors and went through the scene showing them how to hold surgical instruments, put on sterile gloves, checked the make-up for realism, etc... I met one of the cinematographers who showed me the awesome cameras they use to film the scenes. I talked to stuntmen and got to see things get blown up. It was an incredible week.

I don't know how judgmental you are when you watch television, but you need those medical consultants or else you end up with scenes like this...

Now, if you have any medical training, you would recognize this as a BVM (bag valve mask) which is used by paramedics and us to deliver oxygen. That tube it's connected to...? That's an ETT (endotracheal tube) or breathing tube which is usually used when someone has to be put on a ventilator because they can't breathe on their own.

In this scene from "The Blacklist" a couple of presumed surgeons are sticking the breathing tube into the side of the patient's chest and using the BVM as the reservoir for the blood they are draining out of it... yeah, that's totally not how that works. They really could have used a medical consultant because any doctor knows that that's not the equipment you use when you need to drain blood from someone's chest.  Heck, anybody who's been in a trauma, had a collapsed lung or open heart surgery knows that's not the equipment you use...

And that's why this scene is currently making the rounds on my medical doctor sites on Twitter and Facebook... so we can laugh at them... and make me miss being back on set... showing them how to do things the right way...