Shocker: TV doctor shows not always accurate

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If you depend on “House” or “Grey’s Anatomy” for your medical knowledge, you may be a bit off base. Researchers in Canada have determined that actors on TV medical shows don’t always respond properly to medical situations. Imagine that!


The research from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia will be presented in April to the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto. The research focused specifically on seizures and found that doctors and nurses on TV series responded inappropriately to seizures nearly half the time.

The researchers screened 327 spisodes of “Greys’s Anatomy,” “House,” “Private Practice” and “ER” for the study. They found that 59 seizures occurred in the plot lines. Inappropriate responses by the “doctors” and “nurses,” such as holding the patient down or putting something in their mouth, occurred 46% of the time.

Rather than recognizing that television is not real life, the researchers are calling for people with epilepsy to lobby the TV industry to adhere to medical guidelines for first aid management of seizures.

RBR-TVBR observation: TV shows and movies are about drama and telling a good story. Pretty much anyone would find fault with a Hollywood depiction of their own profession. Artistic license frequently requires that reality not get in the way of a good story line. After all, how boring would a horror movie be if a young girl alone in a creepy house had the good sense not to answer a knock at the door in the middle of the night?