Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Bad Blood, Bad Writing

After watching the episode of Grey's Anatomy called 'Bad Blood', it is time to call out the writer, Jeannine Renshaw. Usually, ‘Grey's’ will leave well enough alone when it comes to laboratory medicine, but this episode crossed the line in so many ways. Basically it was about a trauma victim who was a Jehovah Witness with a living will that explicitly stated no blood products to be transfused. Of course one of the self righteous characters had to try and smuggle a unit of blood into ICU to transfuse to the patient, and was caught by the wise and all seeing Christine Yang. How many transfusion medicine practitioners were appalled at this scene? Does the general public still accept the notion that blood and blood products float through the hospital setting to be used at the Doctor's whim? One couldn't help but notice that the unit in the scene had been pierced, so it was basically useless. Couldn't the scene had been a bit more realistic, or at least a disclaimer at the bottom stating that in an actual hospital blood and blood products are diligently monitored? After all is television the medium that has those disclaimers in car commercials "driven by professional driver in a closed course"? What is most frustrating is that after all the work that has been done to regain the public’s trust in transfusion medicine; one episode can blow it back into the Stone Age.