While Grey's Anatomy is one of my favorite shows to watch, I was disappointed to see how the bone marrow storyline played out. They should have taken this important mitzvah and made a public statement about it. They could have used it to educate it's audience and perhaps encourage them to be screened to be a donor. As most of you know, my son Eric has donated bone marrow twice. This is no simple process. Once the initial swab test is done and there is a potential match, then the donor goes through extensive DNA testing to make sure the match is perfect. After the match is established, there is still more testing to make sure the donor is in top health and able to undergo the procedure. This step can also include injections over several days to promote cell growth. Finally, the week before the procedure, the recipient goes through chemo to kill her blood. There is no turning back for the recipient, without the transplant there would be no way to live. Fifty percent of donations work. For the recipient, it's a last resort. For the donor, it involves either a surgical donation or one similar to giving blood. Eric, my son, was only a candidate for the surgical procedure. This is done under general anesthesia. Eric's donation was partially successful. "Francis", his recipient, accepted his bone marrow, however, there was not enough. Eric underwent a second surgery, which proved successful. Now, one year later, as Eric is making plans to meet Francis, he has found out that she has been back in the hospital. The meeting has not be set up. Most of these tv doctor shows are far from the real facts. But they do entertain and I just have to remember it's only tv.
This is what the vegan heart doc had to say:
"Grey's Anatomy is one of my favorite shows, not for the fact that it has anything to do with medicine, but that it's got funny and interesting plot lines. However, I hope that those of you who aren't in the medical field don't get the impression that Grey's Anatomy resembles any sort of medical reality.Surgical interns don't scrub into surgeries. They spend their time on the "floors", taking care of pre- and post-surgical patients, doing the "scut" work. They don't date their supervising physicians, let alone socialize with them. Saying things like, "I'd like to get a chem panel, CBC, and CT of the head" doesn't make you look smart in the real world. And since when do orthopedic surgeons and obstetricians supervise surgical interns? They don't.The most recent plot line pushes reality even further. The surgical interns are sent out to a mass casualty in Seattle. One intern finds a man crushed by a car, and without any tools, she's asked to save his life. Conveniently, she has the head of the department of surgery on speed dial on her cell phone, who talks her through the process of drilling holes into the man's skull in order to reduce the pressure in his brain. I would have preferred seeing her stand by as he dies. That's reality -- interns don't drill Burr holes in brains.Another subplot is that intern Meredith Grey, the main character, falls into the river. She's eventually pulled out of the water by her boyfriend McDreamy. Having been under water for at least several minutes, if not longer, she is in cardiac arrest. CPR is performed for what seems like an inappropriately long period of time. She is pronounced dead. Then in previews for next week's episode, you see one of her co-interns insist that CPR is continued, that not everything has truly been done. Let's just put it this way -- after prolonged CPR, the odds of coming back are exceedingly slim. This sends an awful message to the lay public, that you're not really dead, that you can't give up on CPR ever. A message that will take away from the dignity of dying patients everywhere.Medical shows are fiction. But writers need to realize the impact of their scripts on how people perceive medicine. "
To learn more about bone marrow transplant, go to: www.giftoflife.org.
This is what the vegan heart doc had to say:
"Grey's Anatomy is one of my favorite shows, not for the fact that it has anything to do with medicine, but that it's got funny and interesting plot lines. However, I hope that those of you who aren't in the medical field don't get the impression that Grey's Anatomy resembles any sort of medical reality.Surgical interns don't scrub into surgeries. They spend their time on the "floors", taking care of pre- and post-surgical patients, doing the "scut" work. They don't date their supervising physicians, let alone socialize with them. Saying things like, "I'd like to get a chem panel, CBC, and CT of the head" doesn't make you look smart in the real world. And since when do orthopedic surgeons and obstetricians supervise surgical interns? They don't.The most recent plot line pushes reality even further. The surgical interns are sent out to a mass casualty in Seattle. One intern finds a man crushed by a car, and without any tools, she's asked to save his life. Conveniently, she has the head of the department of surgery on speed dial on her cell phone, who talks her through the process of drilling holes into the man's skull in order to reduce the pressure in his brain. I would have preferred seeing her stand by as he dies. That's reality -- interns don't drill Burr holes in brains.Another subplot is that intern Meredith Grey, the main character, falls into the river. She's eventually pulled out of the water by her boyfriend McDreamy. Having been under water for at least several minutes, if not longer, she is in cardiac arrest. CPR is performed for what seems like an inappropriately long period of time. She is pronounced dead. Then in previews for next week's episode, you see one of her co-interns insist that CPR is continued, that not everything has truly been done. Let's just put it this way -- after prolonged CPR, the odds of coming back are exceedingly slim. This sends an awful message to the lay public, that you're not really dead, that you can't give up on CPR ever. A message that will take away from the dignity of dying patients everywhere.Medical shows are fiction. But writers need to realize the impact of their scripts on how people perceive medicine. "
To learn more about bone marrow transplant, go to: www.giftoflife.org.
