Hopkins
ABC’s show Hopkins, a miniseries on the life and times at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, is finally real life in a hospital. There have been a lot of medical dramas from the good days on ER to the current Gray’s Anatomy. None have come close to what life is like at a top medical center. This one is the real thing. It’s so accurate in details, it’s jarring. From the Vocera prompt to the clip and drop with pagers, the scarcity of head lights, and the eager-beaverness of med students that makes them just that annoying, it’s right on. Watching it is like being at work without actually having to get up and do something. This is it, people. The fatigue and frustration and endless hours.
There was a moment there that most fictional dramas never get right because Hollywood writers have no clue, in their offices, what it’s like to walk those halls. A family was pushing a surgeon for good news after their kid had had a free flap done. He told them there were no major problems and the outcome appeared to be a good one. They pressed him about the risks of nerve damage. He said none was obvious as of this present moment. They pressed him again for any more news. What they wanted was a guarantee. And no real surgeon on this earth will ever give out false hope, the one true malpractice. He couldn’t tell them it was all going to be alright and their kid would be fine. And yet there was nothing negative to say. But he couldn’t tell them nothing bad would happen. Real surgeons know you should never, never say that if you value your license to practice medicine. Unlike the John Carters of the world, they know a momentary temptation to tell the family what they want to hear needs to be overcome and cooler thoughts must prevail. For how happy they’ll be then when you tell them everything will be fine won’t do you much good when someone takes a turn for the worst and it’s those same people will come attacking you with the “YOU SAIDs”. Your very words will be held against you. That’s reality in American health care today and that’s why your doc may seem like he doesn’t give you straight answers. He can’t. He values his livelihood too much, as he should.
It’s a really well-done documentary. Watch it if you have the time.
Posted on July 26th, 2008 under General, Life • 
Print
• 
Email
• RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback