Have you ever seen a medical emergency in a movie and thought to yourself, "Is that really how that would go down?" Well, now you don't have to wonder anymore, because Reddit user u/ServeChilled asked medical professionals to share the most "medically inaccurate thing" they've seen portrayed in movies/TV shows, and their responses were pretty wild. Here are the 15 most striking comments:
1."People can't be reanimated with defibrillators once they've flatlined, like it's always shown in the movies. If your heart has stopped, only drugs injected in it will kickstart it back."
2."Affairs aren’t as prevalent among doctors as TV would have you believe. Also, during residency, no one is having sex in the call room. Everyone is too tired for that."
3."When someone is not breathing or doesn't have a heartbeat, CPR doesn't magically bring them back to life. It keeps the organs somewhat alive until the person can be actually resuscitated by a professional (with drugs)."
4."You never go in just to get the bullet out of a shooting victim. You go in to stop the bleeding and repair the damage, but you only take the bullet out if you happen to come across it. An exception is if the bullet is in a spot where it would cause more damage, or for evidence if the patient will let you do this."
5."People waking up from long comas with no neurological damage. They just open their eyes and hop right up, raring to go. In reality, you would be severely atrophied, most likely have brain damage, and would need months of rehab."
6."Do not ever, EVER pull it out. Doesn't matter what 'it' is — you stabilize it. Leave it in, because it's plugging the wound. Knife stuck in up to the hilt? Leave it in. It's the most effective way to prevent blood gushing out of the wound."
7."No medical show can accurately portray the smells. Pus? Yeah, it has a pretty distinctive smell. Clotted blood has its own smell too (most women are probably somewhat familiar with that one). Many people also poop while they're asleep during surgery, so we have that joy too."
9."'Suck the venom out!' I'm not even a doctor and I know that's wrong."
10."EMTs never run into the Emergency Room. When we do visit the ER, we usually slowly walk in with a 450-pound dialysis patient or an intoxicated college student on the stretcher."
11."When someone needs CPR, we are usually going at it for a while — inserting central IV lines, running multiple tests at the bedside, switching off and on who is doing compressions, etc...We don't give up after 30 seconds."
15.And finally, "Shows like Grey's Anatomy show five doctors coming to a patient's rescue when stuff goes down. In reality, five nurses run to help and run the show until one doctor comes from wherever they were."
Have you noticed something that movies or TV shows misrepresent about the medical world? Let us know in the comments for a chance to be featured in a BuzzFeed Community post!
