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Medical Bloopers in Philippine Drama

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Watching Philippine drama’s its common to see scenes that have conflicts between rich and poor, romances between 2 characters, revenge of villains and dramatic endings. Its just recently that I have noticed medical scenes in a drama more closely because of the recent primetime offering of ABS-CBN called Habang May Buhay starring Judy Ann Santos. The story revolves around Judy Ann being a nurse and her quest to help her mother recover from a tragic love story that lead her to develop psychotic behavior. However this article is not intended to make a review about the soap opera but to examine some medical bloopers around Philippine television past or present.Photobucket

When I was not still a nurse, I used to believe that the things they do in a medical related scenes are the actual scenes you can see in a hospital. A lot of cases are shown in an emergency or intensive care unit setting. However, when I started to work especially in a toxic area, the medical ward and now at the Emergency room, now I realized that most scenarious are a bit funny and unrealistic. Lets site some examples below:

1. A patient was defibrillated but she has still clothes on it. 

2. A patient on cardiac arrest was not intubated, still they placed O2 cannula. (Dahil May Isang Ikaw)

3. I wonder why the nurse always carry patients chart.

4. A patient was intubated and yet she can talk (Tayong Dalawa, Marimar)

5. A patient was intubated but was still with O2 cannula. (Babaeng Hinugot sa Aking Tadyang)

6. A woman had delivery, when the baby came out, there was no vernix and was already cord dressed. 

7. A doctor pronounced the patient dead only with a stetoscope or sometimes a flat line on the cardiac monitor only. 

8. Doing chest compressions on the stomach (Habang May Buhay)

9. A patient was pronounced dead but continued to do CPR (Habang May Buhay)

10. A patient was operated (EX-LAP) but was only given O2 cannula. (Dahil May Isang Ikaw)


Although its called a teleserye or just a soap opera, I guess they have to be more creative. Every year we produced thousands of nurses and eventually will recognize some errors in medical scenes. Its not required though to tell everything what happened in a medical scene like injecting drugs such as epinephrine, dopamine or run a saline bolus like we do in real-hospital sett up because still most people especially the masses will not understand it and it will be plain boring if it happens.

Next time you are watching medical scenes in a drama, think again. 

Posted by marcopolo at 2:05 pm | permalink

Previous Comments

ate mark dagdag lang ako sa mga scenes sa habang may buhay….

Scenario 1:
Rabies or Tetanus?
There was a patient was rushed in the ER with the CC of Seizure, of course the doctors ordered for O2 inhalation, lab tests, history, etc. There are 2 parts of the scene of that episode that really made me really laugh… is that the doctor diagnosed as RABIES…. OMG!!! if i recall correctly… Rabies patients are usually wild or very silent when it was admitted… but the CC was SEIZURE!!!! Rabies DOESN’T HAVE ANY SEIZURE EPISODES NOR STAGES…. according to the history of the patient, she had her CORNEAL TRANSPLANT… if that’s the history then I PRESUMED THAT THE PATIENT had a TETANUS! NOT RABIES! (Dumb ass!). Also if the patient really had a “rabies” then the patient must be isolated at all times without any watchers!!! if the patient had a TETANUS… then the room must be dark and quiet and without any stimulus!! Duh!!! the most striking event of that episode is that…. when the patient had a cardiac arrest, the doctors DID REALLY INTUBATED “RABIES” patient!!! and do CPR!!!! DUH!!!! they really don’t know about medical precaution!!!! Pero mas matanggap ko pa kapag TETANUS ang gi-diagnosed ng mga doctor kesa RABIES… ;-(

Scenario 2
Matet de Leon’s daughter
Knowing that Nurse Jane had a patient who is VERY DYSPNEIC AND HAD A DIFFICULTY OF TALKING…. What did Nurse jane do? Wala!!! she didn’t refer it to the doctor!! then she didn’t have any initiative like placing the patient into HIGH BACK REST! (i remembered that the patient was placed on low back rest… tsk tsk tsk) also she didn’t stop the patient from talking instead she let the patient talk knowing that the patient is already dyspneic… what’s worse is that, when the patient went on CP arrest… they didn’t intubate the patient, they do CPR for a few seconds then pronounced dead!! (hahay… baliktad talaga dapat ito gi-intubate not the ‘RABIES’ patient)

Scenario 3
Nurse Jane is also a surgeon?
Duh!! very obvious episode wherein she helped a criminal named Nathan who was badly injured due to gunshot wound! You know what did nurse Jane did? She didn’t called up a doctor instead she just SUTURED the gunshot wound without doctor’s order or supervision!!! without knowing if there was a deep penetration of the bullet or none!! also she’s the one who prescribed the medicines for Nathan! (Naging doctor na pala ang mga nurses!! hahaha!!)

Scenario 4
are you a head nurse or supervisor?
do you remember some parts of the episode wherein Nurse Jane’s Head nurse (or Supervisor?)kept on walking around the hallway and holding a clipboard or chart? duh!!! as far as i remember…. Her role in that teleserye was HEAD NURSE!! Then how come that she’s kept on walking around the hallways and bringing a chart or clipboard? as far as i know… The head nurse MUST BE ALWAYS at her area NOT on the CORRIDORS and doing some kind of rounds!! that’s the work of a Nurse supervisor!!! (kindly re-assigned her role! hehehe)

Scenario 5
Provide Privacy
Recently, Nurse Jane’s mother (aling rose) was transferred to Briones General Hosp. (where Jane works)… there was a mistake in that…. Knowing that Aling Rose was a psych patient and admitted at the private room…. Aling rose must be provided with privacy at all times!!! there was an episode wherein Nurse Jane strolled her at the corridors WITH SOME WATCHERS OUTSIDE THEIR ROOM! (tsk tsk tsk… bad example yan!)

Scenario 6
is Nurse Jane a reliever?
Very obvious indeed!! SHE DOES HAVE MANY COSTUMES!! From white uniform to multicolored scrubsuits!! from ER to Special areas to ward! Saan b talaga si Jane naka-assigned? at ano pala dapat uniform nila! hehehe….

still more to come….

;p

Posted by pael at March 6, 2010, 5:33 pm

saan ba mabibili yun uniform na sinusuot nya

Posted by marilou baltzar at April 6, 2010, 9:53 am

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