Code Black is the new medical drama, airing Wednesdays on NBC, that not many people will have heard of by now. It welcomed decently at 8 million viewers for the primetime network. Here are some thoughts I have about the first episode, ‘Pilot’. A lot of things might change with time such as facts and medical reality, however, it is obvious that Code Black is on the run; the ER is insanely busy at all times and they are short staffed.
CHARACTERS TO WATCH FOR: Dr. Hudson and Dr. Rorish seem to be the main conflict and possible romantic interest in the storyline for the rest of the series, but who knows…
REAL OR NOT RATING: ★★
(1 being the worst, 5 by being the best.)
REAL– HOW THE REAL WORLD WORKS:
- How real was the killing of the middle-aged John Doe whom doctors found shot in the parking lot, to save his life? Very real, though difficult and more complicated procedure than presented during the show. To replace patients blood with saline and repair the injuries may take longer than it did on Code Black. In the real life surgeons have about five minutes to repair the injuries after replacing the blood with the saline.
- A 10-year-old Norwegian boy Sebastian or ‘Basti’ as referred to by his parents who rushed him into the ER and the doctor diagnosing him with pneumothorax. The attending then offered to insert a chest tube in the boys’ chest to a resident who obviously wants to impress Dr. Rorish so proceeds with the request.
FAKE– CRINGE WORTHY SCENES THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN:
- However, bringing the elderly patient who’s had a stroke back to life with tPa is not as realistic because it doesn’t just take 10 minutes to wake up from aphasia (caused by a
stroke). - What is most unlikely, that a patient would stay that still with no anesthesia. Sebastian stayed still and calm while a doctor was inserting a chest tube into his body. That doesn’t happen in real world.
- Fired resident pops in to a pregnant patients’ house and finds the patient unconscious because of the carbon monoxide in the air, which they failed to identify before.
- The same resident delivers a baby while stuck in traffic in the ambulance car, she’s been talked through the procedure by Dr. Rorish and Dr. Hudson on the phone.
- In the meantime, two attendings who run the ER are performing other procedures, one of them was cutting a hole into the head of a boy who appeared to have a hematoma. Extremely unrealistic as Dr. Rorish was also on the phone guiding resident on performing a C-section.
