I went to the ER with what ended up being a contorted ovarian cyst the size of a football. The most comforting thing was when the hospital's obgyn said that she was not comfortable doing the necessary procedure and that they'd find someone who was. I ended up getting one of the most highly regarded obgyns in the area and even he said that it was the largest he had removed. Confident and capable doctors instill confidence in patients. I love the doctor I ended up with and I have so much respect for the obgyn who was not willing to go outside her comfort zone with my body. I think true humility (not to be confused with self deprication) has to be one of the most important qualities in a surgeon.
You don't have to answer if this is too personal or you are just not comfortable talking about this in any more details, I'll understand completely. Out of curiosity thought: did you think you had just gained weight or did you think you were pregnant, because a mass that's size of a bloody football has to be visible on the outside right? I don't know what size you are of course but if I would have a football size mass in my stomach I would look like I was 7-8 months pregnant.
My sister had an unqualified ER doctor hold her at a hospital that did not have the proper tools necessary to diagnose basically the same thing you had and at 10 she lost her ovary due to it. The other one was too small. The doctor who ended up removing her ovary said it could be saved if the doctor had actually sent her sooner.
@@Ananaskaneli I had one that was about 12 cm wide and could feel it when I laid down on my stomach, but I didn't notice the change in sensation until after we found out it was there. I was overweight and that probably factored in too. By the time I had the surgery I had lost 100 lbs and I did notice my abdomen was softer and smaller once it was out.
I remember years ago reading a book written by an emergency room physician about the show ER, and when he talked about this episode, he said that it was so incorrect that he was afraid of getting sued for malpractice just for watching it. 😂
Wait. . . The ER doctor said he felt like he should be sued for malpractice. He must be one of the few doctors watching the show that didn't realize this was based on a true story about rural medicine but re-worked to fit the staff at a large chicago hospital like county general. When initially aired they even let people know it was based on a true story from the rural setting.
@@DanDeGaston The event this is based on actually had a good ending. Both the mother and baby lived. The writer of this episode, Dr. Lance Gentile, based it on what would've happened if everything had gone wrong. It did happen in a rural hospital though with not many doctors on staff.
Daniel de Gaston if there are truly no Ob’s available like in a rural setting that’s one thing. But when reworked to a major hospital, it absolutely is malpractice. Setting matters. If you are the only doctor who can intervene and you have no other choice that’s one thing. If there’s an OBGYN in the same building that’s another. What actually transpired on screen was absolutely terrible medical practice.
We would NEVER keep a pregnant woman in the ED like this. We’re terrified of pregnant woman here. You have a headache and you’re more than 16 weeks pregnant? You re going upstairs!
When I was working in the ER, the pregnant woman were fast tracked threw admission and then wisked upstairs on the private elevator that connected the ER to OB. We basically didn't let them stand up if they were feeling pressure so they rode in a wheelchair to OB.
Oh, no. She would go straight up to OB. Only time we ever did a stat c-section in the ER was when Mom a few weeks from due date was found unconscious and pulseless on the floor. It was worth a try at least to save the baby when nothing helped the Mom.
Literally every doctor show in an emergency: Doctor with huge ego: " Even though I've never done this and have no training, I'm gonna do it" *someone dies*
There were other episodes where they would be talked through a procedure that they had never done before and the patient came out ok. I think part of their out was it was a teaching hospital so if you did something you had never done before you were always learning. Dr. Greene was a good doctor on the show and fans were upset when his character was killed off. I would not call him arrogant, I would say he got frustrated with the Obgyn's because he kept trying to get someone down there and they kept refusing, or the head of the dept was busy or not in. If you watch the episode you would see why he did the delivery, etc. This is just some assorted clips and does not give full context.
@@melindoranightsilver9298 I disagree. Dr Greene is competent, but you'll note the disdain he had with the attending OB when he asked about inducing labour. And she only gave permission to induce. Up until the point of delivery, he could have just stopped and asked for help. There was a point where Dr Lewis asked why he should deliver here in the ER, and his response was guided on ego, not self-awareness of his competence. If he could have taken that brazen attitude when he decided to deliver (and later cut her open) the mother, and used it to shove her on the gurney up to OB down their proverbial throats it may have had a better outcome.
I ended up with a doctor like that on my case 4 years ago when I was in admitted through the ER with a severe knee injury (and I have Hemophilia B), I tried to fire him off my case with no success because he was putting my life at risk and then luckily my mom, an OBGYN herself, showed up from a red eye flight, pointed out everything that he was doing horribly wrong (which I had already done but no one would listen to the 19 year old hemophiliac who knows more about hemophilia than just about any doctor that is not a hematologist) chewed him out, embarrassed the heck out of him in front of all of the nurses present and made it clear that he would be sued for malpractice if he didn't get the hell off my case. Doctors with god complexes are the actual worst and they exist in real life, not just on TV. Unfortunately, the damage that that doctor caused left my knee permanently disabled, I lost my career at the time and I deal with that pain every day, if that doctor had of just payed attention when I told him that he was fucking up big time, I might still be able to run, jump or ride a bike, now I will never do that again.
@@SeabassFishbrains Clearly you did not watch the show because if you did you would not be saying that about the doctor in this episode. He made mistakes I agree but on the show he was typically the doctor you wanted. There sere far more arrogant doctors/surgeon's on the show. Greene was more of a father figure, meditator, nice guy. A fantastic doctor on the show where many doctors and nurses looked up to him. He was the type of doctor who would take care of his patients and liked to see it through. He did learn from this episode.
I am addicted to these "doctor reacts" episodes. I'm a pediatrician so when I get frustrated watching TV, I just make my husband mad for ruining the show/movie for him, lol. This is like watching with a friend who is yelling at the TV with me!
I'm currently applying to med schools but my undergrad was in chemistry (with intentions of going to industry) so my friends got to listen to so many rants when I finally watched breaking bad
When my second baby was being born, she had decels and they moved me and then moved my baby. That was so painful. Everyone in the room was so calm, but they brought in the head nurse to do the procedure, so I had an inkling something was serious. However, the staff acted like nothing was wrong, and they didn't scare me or my husband at all. Even when they were considering an emergency c-section, my doctor was calling out instructions like "Hold the OR for me," and "Is the gurney waiting at the door? Are we ready to go?" she sounded like she was discussing the weather. It wasn't until the next day, when my baby was safely nursing and I was off pain medication when my OB finally said, "You gave me a bit of a scare, for a while, there, baby girl" to my little newborn.
@@feliciabuchanan9803 Was she ok? My baby is currently breech sideways, and I'm at 37 weeks. I'm scheduled for an aversion this week, but I'm still so worried.
@@gabriellewilliams2094 She ended up with ecoli in her blood, from swallowing feces. She was in the hospital for 13 days at her two week check-up. She didn't gain weight after that so we gave her pedia sure. I didn't mean to scare you, she has her own baby weight now that she has had a daughter.
That is very similar to how the medical staff was with my son! They were so professional and confident. My son had a very rare complication at 32 weeks gestation. His heart rate jumped between 230-280 and stayed there until they did an emergency Csection almost 48 later. (They did it within hours of him hitting 280bpm) Anyways, it wasn’t until several weeks later when he was about to be discharged from NICU (he was there for 5 weeks) that they really told me how scary it was. They lovingly waited till they knew he was totally OK before they told me the entire L&D team & Peds team & Peds cardiac team was holding their breath. 😆 Hospital staff I didn’t even know came to congratulate our little guy and give their well wishes.
My doctor was the same way while I was hemorrhaging. I was screaming and crying because there where nurses literally standing on my stomach to try and get the hemorrhage to stop but my doctor would look up and say hey, hey we’re okay. It’s gonna be fine. There where also two nurses standing beside me holding my hands, now I know it was to hold me down but they where so calm and sweet and one would rub my head when they started pushing again. I knew something was wrong when they literally screamed, get the doctor in here now, but I didn’t know how bad it was until it was over and I looked at my doctor and it was like once the crazy was over her facial expressions showed her fear finally. I said what just happened and she said honestly? I said yes I need to know what’s going on. She looked at me and said you had a very bad hemorrhage and I thought I was going to lose you for a few mins, but you’re okay now and we will monitor you very closely so this doesn’t happen again. She’s been my doctor ever since with my pregnancies after that. My husband said that was the scariest moment of his life and there was so much blood coming out of me he thought I was dying.
Curiously, this episode's writer (Lance Gentile) also served as the show's technical advisor, and had been an ER doctor for some years. He claimed he got the idea from when a colleague ended up doing an emergency C-section in the ER, although in that case there were OB/GYN nurses present who helped him through the procedure. Gentile took that and cranked it up to what he described as his ultimate nightmare as a doctor (by taking away the OB/GYN personnel and losing the patient), while admitting that this scenario was pretty unlikely ever to happen.
Thanks for the info on what inspired this episode! I was about 13 yo whenever the this show aired and was absolutely obsessed with ER. I remember it aired on Thursday prime time, back when you had to have a VCR to record it if you were busy, back when families would get all hyped to watch things together as a family, I really miss those days. ER was not perfect but pretty damn close, more realistic than any other hospital drama to date. My folks were divorced and both remarried by then, Dad is respiratory, Mom RN, Stepmom RN, and Stepdad Medic. All worked at a large metropolitan hospital, no matter which home I was at we watched it together and my folks would be screaming at the TV, and if any of us were not able to watch when aired and had to record VHS, we all better not spoil the episode for one another lol. Now I am sitting here by myself screaming at my laptop lol. I followed my family's footsteps starting as an EMT at 16, then Medic, then RN, and then worked at that same hospital in the ER gaining experience for my PHRN to become a flight nurse. Sadly due to severe health problems of my own I was never able to fly. The hospital is a great Trauma Center, but no Labor/Delivery Unit, my Dad actually flew with neonates, to the woman's hospital. Its just so funny bc while watching this I was screaming, where the hell are the labor delivery nurses!!!!! Most seasoned labor delivery nurses can be a better asset than a ER doc in a situation like this, and where is the pediatrician as well? This episode was so chaotic, like who is running the code, nobody calling clear during defib, stuff being dropped all over the place, what about proper bsi, this was before leurlock syringes it's so easy to get stuck, wow, I am seeing this show through my parent's eyes now! I think it is time to binge watch on a rainy, maybe popcorn, pizza and have a ER viewing party with all my folks, I'm blessed to have 4 parents that put me first, my dad's call my moms and I, the cackling hens or the cackling nurse ratchets some days lol. God bless all the OB docs like Mama Dr Jones and L/D nurses!!!!
*Every medical drama ever* Writers: It's possible that X happens? Specialist: yeah...I mean, there's a 0.000000054% that it happens. If you add the possibility of everything else you combined in the scenario it would be almost impossible to happen. Writers: almost but not impossible. Right? Specialists: yeah...I mean... Writers: say no more.
This was based on a real case just insanely rural area and the areas only Ob was in a hospital 2 hours away. Was induced in the OR not ER. Doesn't work well when you put the story in Chicago versus very rural hospital
I mean why if they can't admit her to OB, why wouldn't they have stuck her in an ambulance and send to another hospital? If you can't treat the patient with the right people, you find the right people, and get the patient to them.
Stephanie Howe They still should have sent her to another hospital if they couldn’t get the right doctors. Keeping her in a place that doesn’t have the right specialist puts her at much higher risk, especially since she was stable at the time. They are not in a part of the country where hospitals are far enough apart to make the trip more dangerous than not having her in the right department.
@@stephaniehowe0973 Seriously. She had been stabilized at one point. Rush her to OB or another hospital. This shit takes place in a major city that's densely populated. Hospitals are only a short drive from each other, like by a few minutes. That short few minutes in an ambulance to get her to someone who is equipped to treat her would have saved her life. Or even just fucking: BRING HER UP TO OB AND UPDATE THE DOCTOR LIKE SHE SAID THE ER DOCTOR SHOULD HAVE DONE. Like towards the end of the episode the OB finally got over there and was pissed that she wasn't informed when shit took a turn for the worse and that the patient hadn't been brought to OB.
Firat of all Check yourself. Its a Story. I ALSO said take her up to OB. None of you are Dr's I have had friends to be transfered takes Forever for some reason.
I´m glad. Having kids isn´t easy or something you want to do unless you really want to, it might mess up your body, might mess up your relationship and your life in general. I´m 30, pregnant with my second kid and this is in no way meant as a rant. Just.... I´m glad that you, as a teen, said what you said. There´s no need to rush. You have all the time in the world.
Fun fact: _Your chances of becoming a teen mom decreases to 0% if you do not date any boy in your teenage years. No sex equals no babies or STD'S._ I'm terrified of talking to people regardless of how they identify.
There's a lot of respect to the fact that even though you know it's fake and got upset at the inaccuracies, that you got honestly emotional when the patient died. I felt that.,
Two immediate thoughts: 1. No ER in a hospital with an OB department would keep this patient for longer than it takes to stabilize mom’s seizure. Like ever. 2. I’m so distracted that the dad is Bradley Whitford.
A reoccurring theme with this show is that the hospital is a county funded understaffed facility and it’s quite common to see all patients in the er bc of the lack of space or beds. This was also in the 90s.
An over confident ob resident almost killed me. Sometimes it’s not a lack of training, but a lack of listening to the patient when they tell you something is wrong.
J. D. - me too. The resident tried to turn my baby from posterior to anterior without any experience, help or real knowledge. I had to literally fight him off to make him stop before he killed my child. As a nurse I knew how it was done. He didn’t. Maybe a lot of this episode shouldn’t/wouldn’t happen but sometimes it does. I worked as an OB nurse and had a baby in the 1980’s and some of what I saw and experienced was just as unbelievable and just as horrific. Doctors make mistakes and some try to cover them up. Other doctors help them do just that. I’ve seen it. I ended up in community health and away from the hospital that was so mismanaged. These things really happen and often they are buried along with the patient.
Anna S. I’m glad things worked out for you! You are right, other doctors cover up for each other. I didn’t make it to my hospital to deliver; so I wasn’t with my doctors’ group and they didn’t have privileges at the hospital I was at. After everything went down after the delivery the doctors I saw told me to follow up with my own doctor a week later. The doctors at the hospital all acted like everything was fine, yes emergency but well handled. I knew it wasn’t. The first thing MY doctor said when he saw me, “ you almost died, they almost killed you.“ He was so upset how things were handled but the attending at the hospital made it seem like everything was just fine and he avoided me the rest of my stay. My doctor was upset the resident was by themself for so long. When my case obviously wasn’t typical the attending should have been brought in right away instead of 2 hours later! And it was a l&d nurse that saved my life. She shouted at the resident to stop and yelled at another nurse to get the attending. It was a madhouse. My 3rd baby and the most chaotic delivery room I’d ever had. This shouldn’t happen to anyone.
I had an ob like that when i was pregnant with my second child. i went to the hospital on Thanksgiving 2017 due to my health at a rested stand my pulse went up and i almost passed out, and i was put on bed rest. well my OB found out the next check up and yelled at me, because of it and said i shouldn't be on bed rest without her concent. after that when it was the next month just before Christmas i had more complications and she just blew me off saying i was worrying too much when i knew something was wrong; and then 2 weeks before my c-section date for a planned c-section i went into labor and she and the nurses which i don't know why i always got stuck with the nurses who never had kids didn't believe me that i was in labor and it was all because i didn't dilate.( now to let you know i never dilated with my first child i had to go into an emergency c-section with my first child, because i didn't dilate and my induced labor went on for 2 days), but my second labor went on for 2 weeks because my new doctor didn't believe because i didn't dilate. well im glad my second child came out fine and healthy but my uterus was see through when i finally got to my c-section (on my planned c-section date). and i believe it is due to me having a cocky ob who wouldn't listen to me and acted like she knew everything and didn't need to listen to her patent when i know my body and i know when something wasn't right with my body.when i got my c-section i chose to have my tubes tied which i glad because of all the trauma my body went through with my pregnancy, and now i have a knew obgyn and i love her she's awesome and explains everything to me. when im uncomfortable she jokes with me to make me feel better and helps me relax; because she knows i have anxiety. the cocky ob knew i had anxiety too and never tried to help relieve it when it was most important.
J. D. yes! my mom when she was having my brother KNEW the epidural wasn’t working right and tried to tell the delivery team, and they didn’t do anything until her hand went numb, and she had to involuntarily have a natural birth... they should have listened when she said she felt pins and needles and when she continued to feel contractions
With my first, the nurse midwife actually mocked me around hour 17 of active labor. As she was doing it, another nurse (not assigned to me) poked her head in, checked monitors, stuck her head in the hallway and hollered something. Next thing I know, seven people are coming in the room, including the head of the department. I will forever be thankful for that nurse, because my son and I very really might have died if she hadn’t intervened
A pediatrician shouldn't work with geriatrics A cardiologist shouldn't perform a Gastric Bypass An OB/GYN shouldn't do a kidney transplant **AN ER DOC SHOULDN'T INDUCE AND DO A C-SECTION WHEN THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING**
Sorry, WAY late reply, but Skits From The ER has a skit in which they think the patient is going to have the baby *right there.* Nurse 1: Is that? … Nurse 2: (confidently) Don’t worry. I got this. (Pause). HELP! HEEEEELP! Somebody HELP! It’s got a funny ending which I won’t spoil. You should check it out. But it makes it clear that having to deliver a baby in the ER is an ER nurse’s worst nightmare. One of them, anyway. They desperately want to get a pregnant patient outta there and to L & D, which I didn’t know.
In my 35+ years parenting a minor, I'd concur. During my 3rd delivery they were so desperate not to deliver me they couldn't help repeatedly saying I was NOT having my baby. Tho I continued groaning out, yes I am. Before they made it inside. Chiding me I wasn't in a room yet as they tried to stop me getting my pants off. Got the shock of their lives & some guttural squall of something like I told you so, when I won the pants war and they saw his head was out. 🤣 I delivered about sunrise in January of 1991 right then in an ER hallway eyeballing a janitor propped on his mop handle in wonder. It was a 47 minute start from home to ER delivered labor. For extra fun he was my biggest at 8lb 4oz, 3 weeks early. My body said, get. out. 😂 I have great L& D stories for all 5 😁
I’m glad you went through with posting this - the misconceptions and errors that you addressed are so important. I imagine if I were pregnant that episode would horrify me and make me worry more about delivery, so I’m glad to see someone pointing out the dramatic parts and falsities of these medical shows. I loved this show as a kid and I watch the majority of the medical dramas now and I love them too, but when you review an episode of one of them and point things out and explain what’s happening or what would actually happen, it’s quite comforting. The reality you put into the fiction helps people feel faith and trust in medicine and I appreciate that so much!! ❤️👏🏼
Horror stories like this episode are partly why I'm terrified of getting pregnant. I don't have kids and don't want them because of shows depicting women in horrific pain, being violated, and DYING because of inept doctors. I've had nothing but bad experience with doctors in my life up until the most recent (and I'm never letting her go!!). I dunno. Maybe it's one of those things where you only ever hear about the bad stuff rather than the good when it comes to pregnancy, childbirth, and kids.
As someone who is currently pregnant and four weeks or less away from delivery, I can confirm this was horrifying and her explanations were extremely comforting. Videos like this are why I love this channel so much 🌺
Shanna Wheeler I do think it’s really easy to see the field of medicine as hectic and even sometimes irrational because of how it’s depicted on TV, and not having the education to know the difference between what are probable medical situations and pure drama. I hope MDJ and other channels like hers can show you how much more success than error there is in a day of medicine. As a medical office assistant who has been the assistant of several doctors, I can tell you from a clinic (not hospital) perspective that there is much more positivity in a day than negativity, a lot more happier patients than not. I think if you asked the majority of mothers, they would say something was off with their pregnancy, whether it’s excessive nausea, increased allergies, pelvic pain, etc., but that it’s worth it for the reward. These extreme medical situations are entertaining to watch on TV but not realistic, because people don’t want to watch an hour of doctors treating broken ankles and kids with fevers and then standing in front of computers charting for 20 minutes like a real ER. There’s always pain with pregnancy at some point, but for most women it’s very manageable up until delivery, and then there’s drugs! OBGYNs are generally pretty exceptional humans, they go to school to make sure you safely deliver a healthy baby (amongst many other things!), and you can always choose your OB, find someone you vibe with. 😊
That would be an interesting series a doctor in the "real world" is watching a medical drama and getting mad at the inaccuracies and winds up being sucked into the show.
I remember crying when I watched this episode of ER. I was aware of many of the inaccuracies, but watching Anthony Edwards's character and the rest of the cast suffer the consequences of his hubris was hard. Watching your reaction was harder. I always love your reactions because your emotions are so genuine. Your channel a rare mix of science eduction, ethics, and compassion. Thank you.
I would expect ptsd in the husband tbh. Husbands can come out with ptsd even during a relatively straightforward labour, let alone one where their wife dies.
My baby is sitting on my lap watching this with me and you have him cracking up for some reason and he’s trying to lean forward towards you which is what he does when he wants someone to get him. He must like you. 😂
This one hits pretty hard. I ran to the ER with upper quadrant pain, 31 weeks pregnant. My bp was in the 160/90s and I had mild proteinurea, headache and vomiting and deep pitting edema. My mother begged them to admit me to L&D and they just gave me iv fluids and sent me home. The doctor Said it must be a stomach virus. About 15 hours later, I lost the feeling in my face started grand mal seizures. I had eclampsia and HELLP.
You are such an excellent teacher. As a retired RN, I worked both L&D and ER, and all of this is unbelievable. There isn’t a DR in an ER who would have touched this with a 10ft pole! That pt would have been sent up to OB the minute she walked in the door. Or if no OB doc was available, TRANSFER her to a hospital where there is! This was so stressful to watch. When he said the word “thingies” I rolled my eyes so hard! Also, no medical professional would yell at each other like that, especially within earshot of the husband.
I hate when people demonize scalp electrodes for babies because a scalp electrode literally saved me from an emergency c section due to low heart rate with my youngest and because as a nurse I know how safe they are. It drives me crazy.
My oldest had the scalp electrode and the internal monitor. I'll never forget how a little room-temperature water came out the end of the monitor tubing... poor baby freaked out! He'd never experienced anything but a nice warm environment and then he got what was, to him, a big splash of freezing water on his little head!
Honestly, with that ending, I really liked the episode. It was a tragic story of how terribly you can mess up when you’re in a position of power. The unrealistic-ness added to it. That guy was too cocky, he was in way over his head, and this was the result. The worst thing he could have done. He went too far and he killed someone. Had he been wiser, humbler, this woman likely would have survived. It’s a reminder of what it means to be a doctor.
I thought of that, too, and I really like that interpretation. However, I probably wouldn't have thought of that if I hadn't watched this episode with Mama Doctor Jones's commentary. I don't know anything about how medical professionals are supposed to work together, so I wouldn't have realized that Dr. Green was being undeservedly proud. I'd just think this was a tragic accident. I imagine a lot of other people would have thought the same. So, this episode has great potential to create unnecessary fear in people who don't understand where the actual medical screw-up was.
In Season 1 Dr. Greene was Chief Resident. He later became a great Attending and almost - if not for some intrigue - Chief of Emergency Medicine. I‘d like to think that this taught him a valuable lesson.
@@LeBatteur It did! There was a malpractice suit storyline extending through much of Season 2. (Although in the real-life event, which happened in a rural hospital, there was fortunately a happy outcome)
@@sarahshock6805 I actually think you're not supposed to realize that he was being over-proud. So this was based on a real event in a rural hospital in which there really was no one else available, and the writers had to write their way around the fact that they were in a Chicago hospital. But in the very first episode of ER-which was like 6 episodes before this one-Greene delivers a baby. I think that, in the world of the show, it was either implied that he had prior training or that deliveries happen the ER on a somewhat regular basis. (That said, you are supposed to realize that he messed up by missing eclampsia.) Now, did it create fear in people? Sure, but what medical show doesn't? Grey's Anatomy has literally featured hospital shootings and parts of the hospital being blown up-TWICE. The Resident opened with a surgeon's mistake costing someone their life, followed by a *successful* cover up among the medical team in the OR at the time. I'm not sure it's the job of medical shows to not scare people.
I was a teenager watching this show when it first aired and I remember this episode because it was basically a "Dr Green royally effs up" episode 😬 and his character was portrayed that he was the best, kindest, most caring... Total heartbreak to see him make all the wrong moves (then and reliving it now!) Thanks for opening up old wounds lol
I think you have to have been a fan of the show to really get the impact of this episode. It all drama but it about him making small mistakes and then ending up costing a life. He faced consequences for it after this episode. But I found my self rooting for him to make it right even rewatch it. It meant to be emotional.
When I was pregnant with my oldest I had a severe asthma attack. It was about midnight but I contacted the on call OB & luckily it was my OB he told me come in immediately & I would be admitted to OB. That time of night I had to go in through the ER & they actually didn’t want me to go up & questioned me why I was going up when they could handle it in the ER. It was a cluster f of me being talked down too & treated horribly for contacting my OB & his decision to admit me. We had to have my OB contacted again for him to have it out with the ER staff because he had been waiting on me. Then they transported me up to OB. They worked me up & gave me everything I needed & went home the next day. I’m telling this because all I could think about was this episode even though it wasn’t the same issues. My local hospital ER has a horrible reputation. In fact there is 1 doc who seems to always be there (he was there that night) & he’s a complete. To this day if I have to go to this ER I refuse to see him. If he comes in I request someone else or leave (because again he’s an ass & will talk down to you)
I'm so glad you and your family say no to this guy. Lots of A&Es have that one idiot that makes everyone's else job harder. Who will over rule nurses and other docs, just for a power trip. There are usually crap at the job too.
I was pretty little when this show originally aired but did a big rewatch recently. This ep not only sticks with the viewer, it has lasting implications for the character. The father sues him and as a doc his super shook up. My first thought when I saw your post about this video was “dang, people really pushed for the MOST stressful episode!!” You are too good to us ✨ Hoping you had a hot cup of tea on standby after this one.
Yeah, Dr. Greene's lawsuit and lasting emotional issues after this episode was a major plot point in the series for a few seasons. The whole episode may have been over-dramatized for TV and riddled with medical errors, but it was a really good episode and I appreciated that this wasn't treated as just a one-off bad experience that they never talked about again. These issues have real lasting effects, not just on the family, but on the doctors as well.
Things like what happened in this episode, even though to say they all could have been avoided would be an understatement, is the exact reason I decided to quit nursing school when I wanted to be an OB nurse. The compassion was there, the interest was there, I was prepared to do the work, the dedication to the field was all there, but something (I don’t remember what it was exactly) made me have a sudden epiphany about the true limitations of my mental capacity as it regards to potential exposures to the worst case scenarios on a semi-regular basis. I had to ask myself how many of those exposures would it take before it took an extreme toll on me & admittedly & regrettably, the answer was not that many. Which I felt, at the end of the day, would affect my ability to be a good healthcare provider so I ultimately decided that it wasn’t as a good of a fit for me as I thought. I don’t know how you do it MDJ, but I admire you because even though you get to be there for the happiest moments in people’s lives, there is always the potential for it to become the absolute worst & you accept that willingly & face that head on every day that you answer the call. At the risk of sounding cliche, you are indeed a hero.
I’m a nurse midwife who does not catch babies and it’s for this reason. I tell people “most of the time it’s amazing…but when it’s bad, it’s The. Worst. Day. of someone’s life”. I can’t walk into work every day knowing I could potentially be part of something that ruins someone’s life.
"Medicine is a team sport that requires excellent communication." Yes! Saying "I don't know" does not mean "I am incompetent" or "I am a failure". In any field. Unless you are a professional knowledge bank, I guess.
I'm a grad student. It's like being a professional knowledge bank. Not knowing something is absolutely made to feel like failure. It's ridiculous and toxic in a lot of cases. There is a knowledge base in your field that you should know. If you're far enough along then you should be an expert with what is going on with your research. But sometimes shit goes sideways (especially in things like coding and experimentation) and if you don't know why, then you don't know. It's time to ask for help. And the person you ask should not be hateful and superior to you when you reach out.
Not just medicine, but any profession! I am a computer programmer, and we are constantly consulting with each other. While it is rare to just not know something, it is very common to ask "I'm not certain, can you come double check my work?"
I am a CNA and a nursing student. I have heard it said so many times. Know you limits. It makes you a better provider when you know your limits and ask for help. The moment you get cocky or feel confident you will make a mistake. Never stop learning.
My daughter and her doctor had a miraculous delivery, her uterus ruptured, she was still in the labor room, nurse caught it within moments baby was delivered C section so fast. Both survived my grandson just turned seven. He was bruised everywhere and stayed in NICU for so long. But a miracle happened that day.
This episode should be showed to doctors as a lesson in what could happen when you let your ego get in the way and you don't really know what you're doing.
The 90s had plenty of lawsuits too. And yes, Dr. Greene gets sued. The husband appears in a later episode. Fun fact: it’s Bradley Whitford. (In a ton of things, one of the most recent, Lawrence in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”)
I feel like my husband would probably sue. He would be out for blood tbh. I'm a bit laid back, so idk if I'd want him to sue but not like I'd be around to tell him that.
I cannot stop laughing 😂 I remember this episode VIVIDLY because it traumatized me as a kid-watching it now as a pregnant mama and healthcare worker, with your hilarious and justifiable outrage, is so cathartic
The crazy part of all of this is that while yes, this would never happen today... when women first started having their labors in hospitals, I'm sure there were plenty of doctors forcing their egotistical will onto a laboring woman. This actually happens in less developed countries where they hold her down as the force their procedures on her. It's insane, but this type of attitude towards a laboring woman is still around. It's few and far between and typically much much older male doctors/surgeons who have this attitude who have long since closed their mind off to new or less traumatic labor. While yes, there is a lawsuit in the show, plenty of those old school stuck in their ways doctors get away with traumatizing women because of the "You're labor complaints are meaningless because you got your baby, didn't you?" Yes there has been a lot of progress in obstetrics, but it wasn't all that long ago we were still in the shadow of dark ages of female reproductive care. And I only hope the intent of this show airing back in the 90s was to infuriate people about this kind of attitude and maybe even helped to start a discussion that has influenced the demand for better treatment of women in labor we see today. But if you dig into PTSD associated with child birth, it's still very much an issue we need to keep talking about and addressing. So thank you Mama Doctor Jones for toughing it out through this episode, which I feel is intentionally bad to show as a reminder how awful things can go when a doctor's ego goes to their head. Best case people get hurt, worst case they die. You saw the train wreck coming a mile out and that shows how a professional should handle a situation. Not like he did here.
This! 👆 Although my mind couldn’t help but go to that absolutely tragic case in Ireland recently (as in less than 5 years ago, I believe). Even in developed countries sometimes doctors egos overtake human life. I won’t say the details of the case here bc they are truly heartbreaking and I know a lot of viewers are pregnant or trying. But if you know, you know 💗
The husband being able to watch the emergency surgery is crazy. In the hospital i delivered at its even normal to send the husband out of the room when the woman gets an epidural. They even did it in my case even though my husband is a doctor and works at the hospital i delivered at. He actually was about to have his first night shift in his pediatric rotation when our son was born (but obviously got someone else do the shift as soon as I went into labor). The attending pediatrician asked him if he wanted to do the newborn check on our son under her supervision but my sweet hubby just stood there and couldnt even remember how to walk xD
I had to have my c-section under general anesthesia because I'm not a candidate for an epidural or spinal, and my husband wasn't allowed in the room for the birth.
Dalai Mami Same thing happened with my mother. ER is my favorite medical drama, but even when it was on air, the biggest issues was how present loved ones were during traumas. It didn’t happen even back then.
That's on awesome story, my husband was out of the room while they where preping me for surgery but as soon as they started he when in and even filmed the C-section.
I’m a retired post partum nurse. I spent a lot of time with the L&D staff. I remember watching this episode with my daughter and yelling at the TV that this would NEVER happen in a hospital with L&D. That patient would have been out of that ER so fast she would have little time to breathe let alone die there. My daughter still teases me about my visceral reaction to a poorly thought out TV show.
It's not poorly thought out. It's called ER, It has to happen in an ER. If they had gotten her to L&D, diagnosed the pre-eclampsia and safely delivered the baby and saved the mom, there's no drama, no acting, no emmys.
That whole forceps bit cracks me up. My IUD had slipped and the doctor at the ER told me my OBGYN would have to remove it because it "wasn't his forte". It nearly fell out when the NP at the OBGYN's office went to take it out.
Same here! My GP told me I needed to go to a gyn to get my IUD removed because she didn't have the correct tool to remove it. I'm glad she stayed in her lane.
The obgyn that inserted my iud made a big deal about being in my period during insertion and removal and needing a special tool when removal time came. The NP that removed my iud grabbed the strings with hemostats and pulled it right out
I could tell how distressed you were discussing the zavanelli. Just because someone is a doctor doesn't mean they are competent in every specialty. I'm training to be a midwife and this gave me anxiety too. I had to remind myself it is only fiction 😂
Yeah, TV has apparently no distinction between specialities in careers. All 'science' is the same, all 'technology' is the same, it's absurd, lol. (I work in tech)
You are 100 %right, a degree doesnt equal competence. My last c section I had a young female BRAND NEW OB hospitalist, That JUST started, that day, i was literally her first real patient. SHE WAS HORRIBLE. SHE WAS CRUEL . SHE SENT E HOME WITH NO PAIN RELIEF BUT A SCRIPT GOR ANTIDEPRESSANTS ????
@@wonderwend I have trouble watching shows that try to make it realistic but are really unrealistic if you know anything about the topic. House is my favorite medical show because it's not really trying to be realistsic the whole point of the show is that he deals with unrealistic cases. It also makes fun of it's inaccuracies a lot.
They Cover this stuff up. They did that to my daughter. I wasnt in a Position to object. No choice but when she had seizures they pretending they didnt know why and accused me of having herpes
I really appreciate you providing your professional insight into this episode. To me, a layperson, it just seems like a perfect storm of hubris, arrogance, refusal to admit you're in over your head, and slowly watching the situation slip completely out of your control. You hit the nail on the head that the communication was ridiculous. Why they didn't take her up to OB themselves early on even though the resident said to keep her down there, I'll never know. But again, the hubris, the "I've got this, I can handle anything" attitude. Dr. Green (the main doc) was never quite the same after this episode. I believe he was going through some marital difficulty during this timeframe and that may have played into the control aspect where he refused to relinquish control of the situation to more experienced docs -- the old "I don't have control of my personal life right now so I'll maintain total control of this professional situation well beyond the point I should have" situation. And you're absolutely right that when it first aired, it had a real ripple effect amongst pregnant women who reached out to their OB/Gyn's in a panic about the possibility of developing preeclampsia. On a positive note, it made people more aware of the condition in general, so anything that educates on a complex topic can't be too terrible. It's still one of the best episodes of ER I've ever seen and I've watched most of the seasons. Makes me cry every single time I see it. Literally a trainwreck plowing right down the tracks.
I remember when this show aired.. I had just had my daughter, first pregnancy with un-diagnosed Postural Orthostatic tachycardia and extremely low natural blood pressures so that when it became elevated it was in normal range.. My Doctor was just starting his practice and we were his 3'rd patient referred by my previous doctor because he didn't deliver babies any longer, so we met when I was 20 weeks and Bp's were within low normal. He didn't catch my pre eclampsia and let me go two weeks overdue. Come in 6 cm dialated to the hospital go through labor, push for 2 hours. Baby coming out sunny side up get's stuck with her head out, when I threw up, and she gets stuck on my pubic bone and her umbilical cord gets compressed. They had to do a zavenelli procedure, and emergency C section where they basically cut a T shaped incision to get her out she came out with a 0 apgar score (was an 8 at second reading) and then I started to bleed.. Bled around all of the sutures they put in. Turned out I had HELLP syndrome. I lost so much blood they were afraid to move me 2 floors to ICU and brought ICU staff down to L and D for me. 17 units of blood in something like 2 days. I only remember 2 things about those 2 days.. My husband making me look at the moniter which showed my heart beating 180 BPM because of the low blood volume and him looking white as a sheet. And them showing me a picture of my daughter 8 hours after she was born. ( weirdly they say I was lucid and oriented and answering questions) 2 weeks in ICU. Miraculously stopped bleeding when the doctor came in to tell me they had scheduled an OR to do a hysterectomy because they couldn't stop the bleeding. The ONLY reason why I am still here, is because my doctor had enough confidence to say I need a specialist this is over my head.. And the Specialist OBGYN was coming out of an OR right as things went south with me so was right there when I needed him to be... 29 years, and two more kids later.. and I am a grandma of 2. Because my Doctor asked for help... My husband threw up when this episode was playing and told me he couldn't watch it since he'd seen it in real life.
I´m pretty sure that the whole point of this episode was saying: ALL OF THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULDN´T DO. Mark not admitting he wasn´t comfortable with the procedure, not doing it in the right room, having too many cooks, the anxiety, etc, etc. The whole episode is a series of unfortunate events (and mistakes) that leads to the patient´s death.
i’m rewatching ER and I just got to this episode, I had to come back to MDJ’s video and see if someone made this comment! thank you for distracting me from how sad this episode is for a sec lol
I feel really bad because this is one of my favorite episodes for ER, and yet it's so inaccurate (and I've ragged on Grey's Anatomy for being inaccurate). But I think the point of the episode is not necessarily to demonstrate a perfectly calm, reasonable occurrence...but the result of an epic tragedy and almost a bad fever dream. Dr. Mark is a great doctor who loves medicine...who goes in to do something he CANNOT do, because he loves medicine and wants to be there. He doesn't know when to step back. He became emotionally invested in these patients (mother and baby), because he himself was a father struggling with a distant daughter and a wife who didn't want him anymore. This couple was happy and in love. All during the episode they show such sweetness to each other, the father is a model husband. They are incredibly excited for their new baby. Dr. Mark sees this and he is emotionally beating himself for not being a better man and a better husband. That's why he tries to overcompensate in this episode. He is devoted to keeping this couple together, the same way he wishes he could have kept his marriage together. It really is the culmination of a long cycle of nightmares for Mark. He has lost control of his family, of his love life, and now his job. He could have been fired for what happened here. It was absolutely insane. But as a heartbreaking character arc, it's the peak tragedy for what could have happened to Mark. It takes him a long time to recover from this scene, maybe until the end. It's a terrible example for medicine, but fantastic for a story about a man who has lost control of almost everything he cares about in life. And it really pushes him to be a man when he meets Elizabeth and has Ella. That's why it won the Emmy's. Great review though! I cringed a lot myself. But I still love the show and the episode. I do get why it's really hard to watch for a lot of people. This scenario would be horrifying for basically any family.
I also like this drama, but it is obvious that this case is wrong. I think the screenwriter deliberately wanted Dr. Green to do wrong things and make mistakes, otherwise he would be too mythical in the drama.
I would love to see you and Dr. Mike do a collab!! He gives such great wisdom but also always admits when those trained in certain fields like an OBGyn need to be contacted.
This episode hit me hard 😢 I feel like if I was taken to labor and delivery when I arrived in an ambulance instead of taken to the ER, my son would probably be alive today. I gave birth(25 weeks along) in the ER bathroom, very scared, young and alone and the ER Dr didn't even let me see him, I don't even know what they did with his body. It still haunts me to this day. *Edit to add that this video encouraged me to ask the hospital why everything happened the way they did, now they opened an investigation.
I was pregnant at the time this episode came out. I had Pre eclampsia at the time. I went in for my biweekly appointment the very next day and my Dr asked if I had watched this episode. When I told him no he told me to not watch reruns. I was induced at 36 weeks and everything went back to normal after delivery.
MDJ! Never seen you this stressed! And, actually watching to the end, as a woman who was treated shoddily resulting in the death of my son 37 years ago, I so love that you care. Because my "doc" didn't.
When I was in labor and told the Dr I wanted a vaginal birth, she told me "not if I decide differently." I did end up having a c-section because every time I had a contraction my son would stop breathing. So glad my Dr went against my wishes.
While I get where that doctor was coming from, she could have said it in a less rude and arrogant way. If I said I’d prefer X, Y, or Z and doctor says “not if I decided differently” I’d be irritated…but more importantly, my trust in them would drop dramatically due to the arrogance behind someone who makes a comment like that (you still had a right to your express a desire to have agency over your own body, and she was treating you as if you didn’t/she didn’t care about your wishes. (Frankly, a simple “that isn’t possible to safely do in this situation” would have been less obnoxious. I’d also feel like they saw me as “lesser” and unworthy of being spoke to respectfully . I’m glad you and your child are fine, and she did what was best, but she also sounds condescending and…again, arrogant. Something like “Ultimately, I we’ll do what keeps you and the baby healthy and safe,” would have been less obnoxious. I have a chronic health issue and deal with a lot of doctors…some of the rude things they say, and the way they treat you, can be quite frustrating. Saying that to a woman (or behaving that way in general) during the most vulnerable moments of a her life wasn’t necessary. You can be straightforward and frank about a situation without being an ass.
They actually do set up, in earlier episodes, a serious antagonism between the ER and obstetrics (especially the ob resident), as well as the general dysfunction of the ER and the hospital. (It leads to staffing changes, etc.) So yeah, you're spot on in calling out the dysfunction, and Greene's arrogance. They were the point, tho.
Thank yoy Kelly !! everyone needed the context! Yeah, Green fucked up AND Coburn was an ass jajajaja its funny how DEPPLY I cared about someone saying that jajajajajjaja Still mourn Green, Lucy, and Pratt... ER rocks...
I had a Zavenelli procedure with my second daughter. The doctor literally saved my babies life. She came out gray and not breathing. Thanks to God and that doctor that my daughter is ok.
I used to watch ER when I was in high school with my mom who is a general internist. At the beginning of every commercial break she would turn to me and say "none of that was real" and explain why. It was only the later seasons though so she never got to do the run down on this one.
Not gonna lie though 16:57 where the doctor "knocks over" the tray had me laughing. She just blatantly pushed it over! Great acting there. How did this get an Emmy?
Honestly, TV has come a long way over the decades. There was a time where movie and stage actors looked down on TV actors as being less talented; it was probably true in the past.
@@UncoordinatedPixie Basic acting with props isn't so different from the 1990s that you don't know how to "accidentally" knock over a table. "Sleight of hand" on stage goes back centuries, god only knows how long - since the first time someone had an audience they wanted to entertain!
I'm an early career Psychologist and I love how you address competency! I am passionate about ethical practice amongst other mental-health care professionals and I love seeing your ethical passion shine!!
Why do I have a feeling the ER doctor did this because the "If you feel comfortable" thing bruised his ego and he had to stroke it back to life and "show her he could do it"?
If I were that dude trying to boost my ego, I would've picked a stable routine C-section to start. Lol, this was like asking a first grader who just learned to write sentences to hand in a 10pg paper on a deadline.
@@rjkbuny You're kind of missing the point of the episode. Up until this point Dr Greene was presented as a medical God who could do no wrong. The whole point of the episode is for him to get in over his head and to make mistakes.
18:45 is exactly what the character arc was about for Dr. Greene in this episode, more than one person told him "it's perfectly acceptable to wait for an OB", which is why I still love this episode even with the wild unrealistic moments. The whole point, really, is that he got overconfident in his abilities, and this was the lesson he needed.
Had an intro uterine monitor used with my 1st delivery, and the nurses were cracking up, because my daughter got it in her hands and was playing with it🤣
I'm laughing so hard right now because when we went in for my first check up at 14 wks (insurance hoops were hell to jump through) and I swear kiddo was trying to grab or hit the ultrasound wand (maybe the intro uterine monitor) I don't know and didn't ask. My husband was amused but embarrassed at the same time.
This was so great, thank you! Very interesting having been traumatized by it at 18, and watching it now at 45, after having kids. Still everytime I hear pre-eclampsia, I immediately think of this episode. Seeing it now, it really is less about the pregnant couple than Dr. Greenie’s internal struggle, his wife left him in the previous episode. He wants to be a hero and I think his breakdown at the end is him realizing he ruined a family by his actions.
The medical consultant was the writer: Lance Gentile. Under instructions from the show to "rough Dr. Greene up" (because Greene to that point had been "too perfect"), he wrote the episode based on (1) a colleague's experience of delivering a baby (successfully) in the ER when there was no OB around (he worked at a rural hospital), and (2) trying to conceive of the scariest thing that could happen. www.yahoo.com/entertainment/s/er-loves-labor-lost-oral-history-emmys-129154528630.html
Considering it won an Emmy and was lauded as one of the most powerful episodes on one of TV's most successful shows of all time, I would say they would be pleased. It was intended to all go wrong for Dr. Greene - that was the core plot of the drama in this episode. Had it been an 80s sitcom, it might have played out differently. If I was one of the doctors who were consulted for this, I'd feel quite honored.
@@scottw9318 So I take it you're not a doctor. There was nothing to be proud of in this episode, and it just shows the disconnect between reality and "dramatic license".
@@shells500tutubo I feel like you're missing the point of the episode. It wasn't to just show a super-dramatic unrealistic medical emergency, it was to knock Dr. Greene down a few pegs and to show that everybody makes mistakes. And sometimes, those mistakes in a medical situation can kill people. Greene refused to acknowledge he was in way over his head, and it cost that baby her mother. There are plenty of doctors out there whose hubris resulted in tragic consequences for their patients. In this situation there wasn't anybody willing to challenge Greene and his control of the situation and everybody else watched it unfold as well. It's more about how arrogance can be deadly, and as MDJ points out, the critical nature of teamwork and listening to each other. I imagine the doctors consulted for this episode have all been witness in their careers to similar displays of arrogance and hubris that could have had terrible effects down the line. From that perspective it's right on the money.
@@vickenator right ppl are so pressed! Like medicine wouldn't be the way it is today if it weren't for mistakes like this. Like I don't get what ppl can't see. They just see the inaccuracies. And what they also don't know that this actually happened at a hospital the doctor that was behind the episode of the story wrote this episode.. ER is an amazing series hands down.
Thank you for reacting to this. It's a wonderful point that medicine is a team sport! We're all in this together! Lack of communication can and has killed patients. Stay safe and healthy Dr. Jones!
I would love to see her react to the grey's anatomy episode when Warren delivered the baby in front of the elevator. I would be cool to get a her insight and do the any real world procedure in place for something like that.
I *just* did my patient safety event reporting training today (I'm neither patient facing nor a clinician), and I was just going through that reporting form event in my head of every single thing *I* would write about this incident.
I'd love to see you watch something like One Born Every Minute from the UK and compare to what happens in the US. I get the feeling that it's quite different from watching things that you discuss.
I really appreciate your advice about being able to say ‘I don’t know’ and then being able to ask for help. This I will try to always remember. At one point you said you might not post this video but I’m really glad you did. Your insight is so helpful, and I certainly learned a lot in the in the short span of this video. The amount of mistakes is baffling but that’s just so many learning points.
My contractions did go well, and my sons hart-rate dropped from 120 to 50 but my gynecologist didn’t panic at all, just telling me not to freak out for nothing. My contractions stopt but his hart rate didn’t normalize. I told the midwife I’m scared and worried about my son. She brought that doctor back , to hear her say send home and come in if contractions start up again. But his not due yet. And left us all godsmacked because even the midwife was worried. So the head nurse went after her. Came back said you’re staying, so we can monitor you both. When i asked why she was like that? She was angry at an other woman that was demanding her full attention! Told the nurse look if she can’t handle the stress of this job she should stop or at least don’t put every labor as the same. Im not a drama queen. Next morning they gave me besides the Iv a tablet it didn’t go that well and my sons hartrate did go up so they called in for epidural and made a call for C section in case. That doctor was mad at me for putting my feet down. After the birth of my son, it was hell, he didn’t want to eat, and i couldn’t give him breast feed because it didn’t work out. He cried so much. So i asked if i could get a bath with him. The doctor said no; so after her back i asked the midwife and we did it anyway i said look i write down its on my own request and my risk. He calmed down so much, he still got problems with feeding but was less stressed. Later found out that she was fired from the hospital because her lack of being involved and left a child after her ignoring complaints with a shoulder problem and one kid with a disability. My son would be her third victim if I didn’t made a fuss, and put my feet down.
I'm old enough to remember seeing this episode when it first aired. As a layperson, I remember feeling helpless as I watched the situation spiral out of control. The episode was revisited a lot over the following season(s). I remember when the m&m conference was held and the inevitable lawsuit and depositions. It was a powerful example (albeit unrealistic as MDJ has explained) of how allowing ego to supercede good judgement has long-term consequences. I now work in a medical field and it's a good reminder that no matter what your role is, you should always put your patients first and ask for help when you need it.
My delivery was an example that a Obgyn will always go "down for the delivery". I got at the hospital with a heavy blood flow. Baby was loosing blood rapidly (partial placental abruption) . The obgyn on call was already on a emergency Csection. The practitioner on the maternity floor went to another obgyn who was seeing her patients in her office. That obgyn went to see the baby heart indications, didn't like what she saw and decided to do my CSection on the fly. I lost blood in 10:30 in the morning (at home), baby was born a 11:30, and barely made it. (English is not my main language, I had so many terms I didn't know how to say it in english. Sorry!)
The whole point of this episode is that Dr Greene who had been up until that moment extremely competent makes a series of terrible mistakes that leads to the patients death. For reference, his wife told him she was leaving him in the episode just before. He is in a terrible state of mind, not focused on what he is doing, which is what leads him to making all these careless mistakes. Even if it's not 100 percent realistic its one of the best hours ever produced for television
Context is important! My sister still blames my mom's doc for her death. He had been caught cheating on his wife and was going through a messy divorce and my mom's case was very difficult and unusual. He was also the best in the area and had been treating her for over a decade. Finding another doc that could familiarize themselves with her case would have been very difficult. He might have been able to give us a little more time with her, maybe not.
I remember watching this show with my mom and experiencing so much anxiety.. While I can imagine how frustrating it may be for you, you really have put things into perspective and its good to know that while very scary situations take place, that there are educated professionals that are able to care for the world without such chaos and misguidance.
Thank you for deciding to post this. I think when something is incredibly inaccurate, it's even more important to post, because people don't know. It's always inspiring to see how much you care.
Love your channel! How about a video on endometriosis since March is endometriosis awareness month? Such a confusing condition that can't be talked about enough
Yes. Agree. Endo, pcos, adenomyosis, and fibroid sufferer here. Thought I only had the trifecta, but recent scans show I've got the superfecta of abdominal issues. It's sad that it's so woefully under-studied and there's so much we still don't know. A video from MDJ would be awesome though, especially one to show family and friends so they can get an insight into the condition while I'm cuddling my hot water bottle and sobbing in pain.
@@kimberly11091(hugs) it sucks so much. I didn't get diagnosed until after surgery because my pain was put down to pcos and the surgery was focused on ovary removal (supposed to be cyst removal but too much bleeding). It was only as they were removing the tools they went, oh look there's endo too, so I had to go under the knife again to get that removed. Now I'm scheduled to go under again for a hysterectomy and I've never been more excited at the prospect of having bits of me removed.
I suffered for over 17 years, undiagnosed adenomyosis. I finally said screw it, just take it out! It was hard because I still wanted more kids, but it wasn't worth it for the pain I went through. I'm 39 now and going through menopause. Yay...
@@LADHP hugs to you too. I'm 38 this year but have struggled with secondary infertility since my mid-20s so I've gone through the grieving process of no more kids (I have one miracle and she's enough for me now). They wanted to every possible intervention to me before going to the extreme, so I've undergone far more surgeries than anyone rightfully should (although far fewer than some of our fellow sufferers). I'm so excited for my hysterectomy, even if it does bring on menopause, but that may change when the hot flushes start. I figure it's got to be better than the near- constant pain though, right?
Most traumatic medical TV episode ever! I'm rewatching ER again (Yay, no commercials), and the minute that couple came in the door, I knew what episode it was. However as another commenter posted, this time I realized the whole point was to make Mark Greene's character learn that even though he's great at what he does, he doesn't know everything. In the storyline, this makes him a much better ER doctor, teacher and supervisor going forward. @mommadoctorjones Thank you for taking the horror out of watching this trauma unfold by providing the true information in context
i watched this in 1995 , at the age of 9. i was traumatized knowing my mom had an emergency c section for my older sister. Fast forward to 2017 , i had an emergency c section following an unsuccessful induction , i had pre-eclampsia and all i could think about was this episode and was so stressed. My outcome was positive and my c section was nothing like this ! i have a beautiful, healthy girl who is 2 and a half now.
My poor cousin coded on the table having an emergency c section. Her baby passed away in utero at 37 weeks. After hours of labor they rushed her in for a c section during the procedure she had an amniotic fluid embolism. Luckily they got her back. I have so much respect for you and what you do.
I was just starting high school when this came out. I always wondered how much of it was accurate, so even though it drove you crazy, thank you for putting up with it long enough to be able to explain SO MUCH to us. You're amazing.
Honestly, this episode drove me nuts because I was confused as to how he knew supposedly knew all this while everyone else was confused. Later on, Dr. Greene gets sued, and he deserved it for his hubris.
Thank you for covering this even if it was difficult to watch! I think this episode stuck with me because it was one of the first times a TV episode made me cry (I think I was 12 or so). There's an oral history of this episode you can find in TV guide (just google Love's Labor Lost and it comes up). One of the show's writers (a doctor) said that the episode was based loosely on an actual experience (with a happier ending): " It actually happened - a successful version of that with a good outcome. It happened to one of the doctors I worked with. Saturday night, 3 o'clock in the morning - he got a call to the OB ward. We worked in a small community hospital with not a lot of doctors. He gets down there and the baby is in crisis and needs a crash C-section. And he's an emergency room doctor. Like me or Dr. Greene, he had maybe scrubbed in on a C-section, but he had absolutely no experience with it, so it was like he might as well have been trying to fly a jet plane. He successfully delivered the baby with a lot of help from the OB nurses who said, "Cut here. Cut here." That was the basis of the story."
I remember watching this episode with my mom who's a midwife and her becoming extremely infuriated and turning it off halfway through the episode. And honestly, as a pregnant woman, watching this gives me anxiety 🙈
I was four months pregnant when this episode first aired in early March of 1995... It traumatized me for months and took the joy out of being pregnant...
I remember watching this episode when I was like 12 with my mum, so sad. Now I'm an ObGyn myself and I find it so surrealistic! Everything is so so so wrong - at least in our countries. But still it's very sad for Mark cause he's a character who really cares about his patients. Thanks for watching with us!
I was heavily pregnant with my second daughter when this episode aired in Australia. The episode’s notoriety preceded it and I remember my mother rang me to warn me not to watch it. I watched it anyway.
So my dad's a surgeon and he used to work himself into a froth watching ER and yelling about the medical inaccuracies. So this was a bit of a nostalgia
Concerning the comment after the scene with the OB saying she should have been called when Mark knew he was in over his head--in fact, Mark was CONSTANTLY trying to get someone from obstetrics to come down, but no one came until it was too late. As for the part about this sort of thing ending careers, in the following episodes, Mark goes through a lot of difficulties, even hesitating before treating another pregnant person. It affects him deeply.
I've had so many horrible doctors tell me my experiences are over exaggerated or that what I'm telling them isn't possible, that includes a doctor telling me that a bone in my foot can't possibly be dislocated after she had just massaged it back in place! Doctors like that are the reason I didn't get diagnosed with hEDS until last year, after more than a decade of serious issues, because "it can't possibly hurt that much", "that's impossible", "no one has that", "that's uncommon so you can't possibly have that", etc. The amazing doctor I have now doesn't get offended if I suggest a possible diagnosis or referral and if she doesn't know something she tells me and then looks in to it. That's how I finally got a diagnosis, I called to talk to her about possibly having hEDS after watching a TH-cam video that sounded just like me and at my next appointment I was diagnosed within ten minutes, since I had already done all the necessary tests. And she wasn't offended!
Is that flounder on the shelf 😂
superlimie youre first and I think this was the fastest someone got it! 🤣
@@MamaDoctorJones i know my little mermaid 😅
Flound her... I barely know her.
...Michael Scott would've said it.
Dang, how can yall see that stuff? It's all fuzzy for me
@@Dispeckful Flounder. Never lobster.
I went to the ER with what ended up being a contorted ovarian cyst the size of a football. The most comforting thing was when the hospital's obgyn said that she was not comfortable doing the necessary procedure and that they'd find someone who was. I ended up getting one of the most highly regarded obgyns in the area and even he said that it was the largest he had removed. Confident and capable doctors instill confidence in patients. I love the doctor I ended up with and I have so much respect for the obgyn who was not willing to go outside her comfort zone with my body. I think true humility (not to be confused with self deprication) has to be one of the most important qualities in a surgeon.
Glad it worked out okay 💜
You don't have to answer if this is too personal or you are just not comfortable talking about this in any more details, I'll understand completely. Out of curiosity thought: did you think you had just gained weight or did you think you were pregnant, because a mass that's size of a bloody football has to be visible on the outside right? I don't know what size you are of course but if I would have a football size mass in my stomach I would look like I was 7-8 months pregnant.
My sister had an unqualified ER doctor hold her at a hospital that did not have the proper tools necessary to diagnose basically the same thing you had and at 10 she lost her ovary due to it. The other one was too small. The doctor who ended up removing her ovary said it could be saved if the doctor had actually sent her sooner.
@@Ananaskaneli I had one that was about 12 cm wide and could feel it when I laid down on my stomach, but I didn't notice the change in sensation until after we found out it was there. I was overweight and that probably factored in too. By the time I had the surgery I had lost 100 lbs and I did notice my abdomen was softer and smaller once it was out.
The size of a FOOTBALL?! HOW DID YOU NOT DIE
I remember years ago reading a book written by an emergency room physician about the show ER, and when he talked about this episode, he said that it was so incorrect that he was afraid of getting sued for malpractice just for watching it. 😂
Do you remember what the book was called?? It sounds amazing
I'd love to read that book! Do you remember who wrote it by chance?
Wait. . . The ER doctor said he felt like he should be sued for malpractice. He must be one of the few doctors watching the show that didn't realize this was based on a true story about rural medicine but re-worked to fit the staff at a large chicago hospital like county general. When initially aired they even let people know it was based on a true story from the rural setting.
@@DanDeGaston The event this is based on actually had a good ending. Both the mother and baby lived. The writer of this episode, Dr. Lance Gentile, based it on what would've happened if everything had gone wrong. It did happen in a rural hospital though with not many doctors on staff.
Daniel de Gaston if there are truly no Ob’s available like in a rural setting that’s one thing. But when reworked to a major hospital, it absolutely is malpractice. Setting matters. If you are the only doctor who can intervene and you have no other choice that’s one thing. If there’s an OBGYN in the same building that’s another. What actually transpired on screen was absolutely terrible medical practice.
We would NEVER keep a pregnant woman in the ED like this. We’re terrified of pregnant woman here. You have a headache and you’re more than 16 weeks pregnant? You re going upstairs!
SHE SNEEZED, GET HER UP TO L AND D QUICK
When I was working in the ER, the pregnant woman were fast tracked threw admission and then wisked upstairs on the private elevator that connected the ER to OB. We basically didn't let them stand up if they were feeling pressure so they rode in a wheelchair to OB.
Oh, no. She would go straight up to OB.
Only time we ever did a stat c-section in the ER was when Mom a few weeks from due date was found unconscious and pulseless on the floor. It was worth a try at least to save the baby when nothing helped the Mom.
Literally every doctor show in an emergency:
Doctor with huge ego: " Even though I've never done this and have no training, I'm gonna do it"
*someone dies*
There were other episodes where they would be talked through a procedure that they had never done before and the patient came out ok. I think part of their out was it was a teaching hospital so if you did something you had never done before you were always learning. Dr. Greene was a good doctor on the show and fans were upset when his character was killed off. I would not call him arrogant, I would say he got frustrated with the Obgyn's because he kept trying to get someone down there and they kept refusing, or the head of the dept was busy or not in. If you watch the episode you would see why he did the delivery, etc. This is just some assorted clips and does not give full context.
@@melindoranightsilver9298 I disagree. Dr Greene is competent, but you'll note the disdain he had with the attending OB when he asked about inducing labour. And she only gave permission to induce. Up until the point of delivery, he could have just stopped and asked for help. There was a point where Dr Lewis asked why he should deliver here in the ER, and his response was guided on ego, not self-awareness of his competence.
If he could have taken that brazen attitude when he decided to deliver (and later cut her open) the mother, and used it to shove her on the gurney up to OB down their proverbial throats it may have had a better outcome.
I ended up with a doctor like that on my case 4 years ago when I was in admitted through the ER with a severe knee injury (and I have Hemophilia B), I tried to fire him off my case with no success because he was putting my life at risk and then luckily my mom, an OBGYN herself, showed up from a red eye flight, pointed out everything that he was doing horribly wrong (which I had already done but no one would listen to the 19 year old hemophiliac who knows more about hemophilia than just about any doctor that is not a hematologist) chewed him out, embarrassed the heck out of him in front of all of the nurses present and made it clear that he would be sued for malpractice if he didn't get the hell off my case.
Doctors with god complexes are the actual worst and they exist in real life, not just on TV.
Unfortunately, the damage that that doctor caused left my knee permanently disabled, I lost my career at the time and I deal with that pain every day, if that doctor had of just payed attention when I told him that he was fucking up big time, I might still be able to run, jump or ride a bike, now I will never do that again.
Don’t disrespect my Dr. Greene like that
@@SeabassFishbrains Clearly you did not watch the show because if you did you would not be saying that about the doctor in this episode. He made mistakes I agree but on the show he was typically the doctor you wanted. There sere far more arrogant doctors/surgeon's on the show. Greene was more of a father figure, meditator, nice guy. A fantastic doctor on the show where many doctors and nurses looked up to him. He was the type of doctor who would take care of his patients and liked to see it through. He did learn from this episode.
NEVER TRIGGER THIS POOR WOMAN LIKE THAT AGAIN. Only nice suggested videos or I will hurt you.
@Filip Gasic Yet here you are trying to get attention from being an asshole.
YES! PLEASE!
YES - broke my heart for poor mama jones to watch this. Never subject her to that again!!
Yes! She had me in tears with her reaction at the end of this video!
@@abbienormals1669 Same!
I am addicted to these "doctor reacts" episodes. I'm a pediatrician so when I get frustrated watching TV, I just make my husband mad for ruining the show/movie for him, lol. This is like watching with a friend who is yelling at the TV with me!
YES
I'm a midwife and I feel the same way! Me and my partner can't watch any medical movies together 😂
I'm currently applying to med schools but my undergrad was in chemistry (with intentions of going to industry) so my friends got to listen to so many rants when I finally watched breaking bad
Haha that can ruin a show. It makes it hard when you really know what’s supposed to be happening.
@@tamikasmith14, try call the midwife! Even MDJ says it’s pretty realistic for its time.
Why’d y’all tell her to watch this show lol she’s stressed
I was stressed out just watching it.
When my second baby was being born, she had decels and they moved me and then moved my baby. That was so painful. Everyone in the room was so calm, but they brought in the head nurse to do the procedure, so I had an inkling something was serious. However, the staff acted like nothing was wrong, and they didn't scare me or my husband at all. Even when they were considering an emergency c-section, my doctor was calling out instructions like "Hold the OR for me," and "Is the gurney waiting at the door? Are we ready to go?" she sounded like she was discussing the weather. It wasn't until the next day, when my baby was safely nursing and I was off pain medication when my OB finally said, "You gave me a bit of a scare, for a while, there, baby girl" to my little newborn.
My daughter was delivered by her pediatrician. She was breech sideways, and her heartbeat dropped to 30. They stopped the labor for 15 minutes.
@@feliciabuchanan9803 Was she ok? My baby is currently breech sideways, and I'm at 37 weeks. I'm scheduled for an aversion this week, but I'm still so worried.
@@gabriellewilliams2094 She ended up with ecoli in her blood, from swallowing feces. She was in the hospital for 13 days at her two week check-up. She didn't gain weight after that so we gave her pedia sure. I didn't mean to scare you, she has her own baby weight now that she has had a daughter.
That is very similar to how the medical staff was with my son! They were so professional and confident. My son had a very rare complication at 32 weeks gestation. His heart rate jumped between 230-280 and stayed there until they did an emergency Csection almost 48 later. (They did it within hours of him hitting 280bpm)
Anyways, it wasn’t until several weeks later when he was about to be discharged from NICU (he was there for 5 weeks) that they really told me how scary it was. They lovingly waited till they knew he was totally OK before they told me the entire L&D team & Peds team & Peds cardiac team was holding their breath. 😆 Hospital staff I didn’t even know came to congratulate our little guy and give their well wishes.
My doctor was the same way while I was hemorrhaging. I was screaming and crying because there where nurses literally standing on my stomach to try and get the hemorrhage to stop but my doctor would look up and say hey, hey we’re okay. It’s gonna be fine. There where also two nurses standing beside me holding my hands, now I know it was to hold me down but they where so calm and sweet and one would rub my head when they started pushing again. I knew something was wrong when they literally screamed, get the doctor in here now, but I didn’t know how bad it was until it was over and I looked at my doctor and it was like once the crazy was over her facial expressions showed her fear finally. I said what just happened and she said honestly? I said yes I need to know what’s going on. She looked at me and said you had a very bad hemorrhage and I thought I was going to lose you for a few mins, but you’re okay now and we will monitor you very closely so this doesn’t happen again. She’s been my doctor ever since with my pregnancies after that. My husband said that was the scariest moment of his life and there was so much blood coming out of me he thought I was dying.
Curiously, this episode's writer (Lance Gentile) also served as the show's technical advisor, and had been an ER doctor for some years. He claimed he got the idea from when a colleague ended up doing an emergency C-section in the ER, although in that case there were OB/GYN nurses present who helped him through the procedure. Gentile took that and cranked it up to what he described as his ultimate nightmare as a doctor (by taking away the OB/GYN personnel and losing the patient), while admitting that this scenario was pretty unlikely ever to happen.
This info is so interesting. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the info on what inspired this episode! I was about 13 yo whenever the this show aired and was absolutely obsessed with ER. I remember it aired on Thursday prime time, back when you had to have a VCR to record it if you were busy, back when families would get all hyped to watch things together as a family, I really miss those days. ER was not perfect but pretty damn close, more realistic than any other hospital drama to date. My folks were divorced and both remarried by then, Dad is respiratory, Mom RN, Stepmom RN, and Stepdad Medic. All worked at a large metropolitan hospital, no matter which home I was at we watched it together and my folks would be screaming at the TV, and if any of us were not able to watch when aired and had to record VHS, we all better not spoil the episode for one another lol. Now I am sitting here by myself screaming at my laptop lol. I followed my family's footsteps starting as an EMT at 16, then Medic, then RN, and then worked at that same hospital in the ER gaining experience for my PHRN to become a flight nurse. Sadly due to severe health problems of my own I was never able to fly. The hospital is a great Trauma Center, but no Labor/Delivery Unit, my Dad actually flew with neonates, to the woman's hospital. Its just so funny bc while watching this I was screaming, where the hell are the labor delivery nurses!!!!! Most seasoned labor delivery nurses can be a better asset than a ER doc in a situation like this, and where is the pediatrician as well? This episode was so chaotic, like who is running the code, nobody calling clear during defib, stuff being dropped all over the place, what about proper bsi, this was before leurlock syringes it's so easy to get stuck, wow, I am seeing this show through my parent's eyes now! I think it is time to binge watch on a rainy, maybe popcorn, pizza and have a ER viewing party with all my folks, I'm blessed to have 4 parents that put me first, my dad's call my moms and I, the cackling hens or the cackling nurse ratchets some days lol. God bless all the OB docs like Mama Dr Jones and L/D nurses!!!!
@@vannayoung4122 I'm guessing you're really close to my age. I always looked forward to Thurs nights!!
*Every medical drama ever*
Writers: It's possible that X happens?
Specialist: yeah...I mean, there's a 0.000000054% that it happens. If you add the possibility of everything else you combined in the scenario it would be almost impossible to happen.
Writers: almost but not impossible. Right?
Specialists: yeah...I mean...
Writers: say no more.
This was based on a real case just insanely rural area and the areas only Ob was in a hospital 2 hours away. Was induced in the OR not ER. Doesn't work well when you put the story in Chicago versus very rural hospital
Aya Jade Cool, I didn't know that it was based on a real case!
@@CritterKeeper01 the real case had a happy outcome too
I mean yes, but I think that's fair game. If you want a documentary, watch a documentary.
DIC happens anytime to anyone!
I mean why if they can't admit her to OB, why wouldn't they have stuck her in an ambulance and send to another hospital?
If you can't treat the patient with the right people, you find the right people, and get the patient to them.
You don't have any idea what Eclampsia is?
Its life or death.
Shouldve taken her up to OB is my only thought.
Stephanie Howe They still should have sent her to another hospital if they couldn’t get the right doctors. Keeping her in a place that doesn’t have the right specialist puts her at much higher risk, especially since she was stable at the time. They are not in a part of the country where hospitals are far enough apart to make the trip more dangerous than not having her in the right department.
Smh
@@stephaniehowe0973
Seriously. She had been stabilized at one point. Rush her to OB or another hospital. This shit takes place in a major city that's densely populated. Hospitals are only a short drive from each other, like by a few minutes. That short few minutes in an ambulance to get her to someone who is equipped to treat her would have saved her life.
Or even just fucking: BRING HER UP TO OB AND UPDATE THE DOCTOR LIKE SHE SAID THE ER DOCTOR SHOULD HAVE DONE. Like towards the end of the episode the OB finally got over there and was pissed that she wasn't informed when shit took a turn for the worse and that the patient hadn't been brought to OB.
Firat of all Check yourself. Its a Story.
I ALSO said take her up to OB.
None of you are Dr's I have had friends to be transfered takes Forever for some reason.
This episode was the best birth control of my teenage life.
Mine was an older sister who became a teen mom to a preemie addicted to nicotine and had colic. Veeerrrryy effective.
@@UnicornsPoopRainbows wow, yes it would be.
I´m glad. Having kids isn´t easy or something you want to do unless you really want to, it might mess up your body, might mess up your relationship and your life in general.
I´m 30, pregnant with my second kid and this is in no way meant as a rant. Just.... I´m glad that you, as a teen, said what you said.
There´s no need to rush. You have all the time in the world.
Teens are more likely to get eclampsia, so good thing it worked lol
Fun fact: _Your chances of becoming a teen mom decreases to 0% if you do not date any boy in your teenage years. No sex equals no babies or STD'S._
I'm terrified of talking to people regardless of how they identify.
The writers of this episode: “She’s staying in the ER because it’s called ER. 🤷♀️”
lmao 😂 best explanation for why the fuck this horror of medicine and acting happened
Haha, truth!
I believe the medical term for that is "plot device."
Best comment
If you overlook all that it really is a great episode.
There's a lot of respect to the fact that even though you know it's fake and got upset at the inaccuracies, that you got honestly emotional when the patient died.
I felt that.,
I did too.
im not sympathy crying...its dusty ok
Same :(
i dont blame her im sitting here tearing up too LMAO
😭😭
Two immediate thoughts:
1. No ER in a hospital with an OB department would keep this patient for longer than it takes to stabilize mom’s seizure. Like ever.
2. I’m so distracted that the dad is Bradley Whitford.
2. IKR, I was almost expecting him to call Sam and Toby to let them know what was happening.
@@jamessanders145 Right?!?
A reoccurring theme with this show is that the hospital is a county funded understaffed facility and it’s quite common to see all patients in the er bc of the lack of space or beds. This was also in the 90s.
@@UncoordinatedPixie Oof, sounds like a hospital I know about today-
#1 is very true. I worked in busy ERs for almost a decade & you are right. We call up to OB immediately.
An over confident ob resident almost killed me. Sometimes it’s not a lack of training, but a lack of listening to the patient when they tell you something is wrong.
J. D. - me too. The resident tried to turn my baby from posterior to anterior without any experience, help or real knowledge. I had to literally fight him off to make him stop before he killed my child. As a nurse I knew how it was done. He didn’t. Maybe a lot of this episode shouldn’t/wouldn’t happen but sometimes it does. I worked as an OB nurse and had a baby in the 1980’s and some of what I saw and experienced was just as unbelievable and just as horrific. Doctors make mistakes and some try to cover them up. Other doctors help them do just that. I’ve seen it. I ended up in community health and away from the hospital that was so mismanaged. These things really happen and often they are buried along with the patient.
Anna S. I’m glad things worked out for you! You are right, other doctors cover up for each other. I didn’t make it to my hospital to deliver; so I wasn’t with my doctors’ group and they didn’t have privileges at the hospital I was at. After everything went down after the delivery the doctors I saw told me to follow up with my own doctor a week later. The doctors at the hospital all acted like everything was fine, yes emergency but well handled. I knew it wasn’t. The first thing MY doctor said when he saw me, “ you almost died, they almost killed you.“ He was so upset how things were handled but the attending at the hospital made it seem like everything was just fine and he avoided me the rest of my stay. My doctor was upset the resident was by themself for so long. When my case obviously wasn’t typical the attending should have been brought in right away instead of 2 hours later!
And it was a l&d nurse that saved my life. She shouted at the resident to stop and yelled at another nurse to get the attending. It was a madhouse. My 3rd baby and the most chaotic delivery room I’d ever had. This shouldn’t happen to anyone.
I had an ob like that when i was pregnant with my second child. i went to the hospital on Thanksgiving 2017 due to my health at a rested stand my pulse went up and i almost passed out, and i was put on bed rest. well my OB found out the next check up and yelled at me, because of it and said i shouldn't be on bed rest without her concent. after that when it was the next month just before Christmas i had more complications and she just blew me off saying i was worrying too much when i knew something was wrong; and then 2 weeks before my c-section date for a planned c-section i went into labor and she and the nurses which i don't know why i always got stuck with the nurses who never had kids didn't believe me that i was in labor and it was all because i didn't dilate.( now to let you know i never dilated with my first child i had to go into an emergency c-section with my first child, because i didn't dilate and my induced labor went on for 2 days), but my second labor went on for 2 weeks because my new doctor didn't believe because i didn't dilate. well im glad my second child came out fine and healthy but my uterus was see through when i finally got to my c-section (on my planned c-section date). and i believe it is due to me having a cocky ob who wouldn't listen to me and acted like she knew everything and didn't need to listen to her patent when i know my body and i know when something wasn't right with my body.when i got my c-section i chose to have my tubes tied which i glad because of all the trauma my body went through with my pregnancy, and now i have a knew obgyn and i love her she's awesome and explains everything to me. when im uncomfortable she jokes with me to make me feel better and helps me relax; because she knows i have anxiety. the cocky ob knew i had anxiety too and never tried to help relieve it when it was most important.
J. D. yes! my mom when she was having my brother KNEW the epidural wasn’t working right and tried to tell the delivery team, and they didn’t do anything until her hand went numb, and she had to involuntarily have a natural birth... they should have listened when she said she felt pins and needles and when she continued to feel contractions
With my first, the nurse midwife actually mocked me around hour 17 of active labor. As she was doing it, another nurse (not assigned to me) poked her head in, checked monitors, stuck her head in the hallway and hollered something. Next thing I know, seven people are coming in the room, including the head of the department.
I will forever be thankful for that nurse, because my son and I very really might have died if she hadn’t intervened
A pediatrician shouldn't work with geriatrics
A cardiologist shouldn't perform a Gastric Bypass
An OB/GYN shouldn't do a kidney transplant
**AN ER DOC SHOULDN'T INDUCE AND DO A C-SECTION WHEN THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING**
My experience in my 30+ year ob-gyn career is that ERs set land speed records getting pregnant patients to L&D
My 36 year L&D RN career agrees with you.
Sorry, WAY late reply, but Skits From The ER has a skit in which they think the patient is going to have the baby *right there.*
Nurse 1: Is that? …
Nurse 2: (confidently) Don’t worry. I got this. (Pause). HELP! HEEEEELP! Somebody HELP!
It’s got a funny ending which I won’t spoil. You should check it out. But it makes it clear that having to deliver a baby in the ER is an ER nurse’s worst nightmare. One of them, anyway. They desperately want to get a pregnant patient outta there and to L & D, which I didn’t know.
I read ER charts all day for work and the L&D charts are the easiest ones because 99% of the time they just immediately bounce out of the unit.
In my 35+ years parenting a minor, I'd concur. During my 3rd delivery they were so desperate not to deliver me they couldn't help repeatedly saying I was NOT having my baby. Tho I continued groaning out, yes I am. Before they made it inside. Chiding me I wasn't in a room yet as they tried to stop me getting my pants off. Got the shock of their lives & some guttural squall of something like I told you so, when I won the pants war and they saw his head was out. 🤣 I delivered about sunrise in January of 1991 right then in an ER hallway eyeballing a janitor propped on his mop handle in wonder. It was a 47 minute start from home to ER delivered labor. For extra fun he was my biggest at 8lb 4oz, 3 weeks early. My body said, get. out. 😂
I have great L& D stories for all 5 😁
No kidding we do! ER nurse here, if the ears aren’t out, we have time to get to L & D!
I’m glad you went through with posting this - the misconceptions and errors that you addressed are so important. I imagine if I were pregnant that episode would horrify me and make me worry more about delivery, so I’m glad to see someone pointing out the dramatic parts and falsities of these medical shows. I loved this show as a kid and I watch the majority of the medical dramas now and I love them too, but when you review an episode of one of them and point things out and explain what’s happening or what would actually happen, it’s quite comforting. The reality you put into the fiction helps people feel faith and trust in medicine and I appreciate that so much!! ❤️👏🏼
Horror stories like this episode are partly why I'm terrified of getting pregnant. I don't have kids and don't want them because of shows depicting women in horrific pain, being violated, and DYING because of inept doctors. I've had nothing but bad experience with doctors in my life up until the most recent (and I'm never letting her go!!). I dunno. Maybe it's one of those things where you only ever hear about the bad stuff rather than the good when it comes to pregnancy, childbirth, and kids.
As someone who is currently pregnant and four weeks or less away from delivery, I can confirm this was horrifying and her explanations were extremely comforting. Videos like this are why I love this channel so much 🌺
Shanna Wheeler I do think it’s really easy to see the field of medicine as hectic and even sometimes irrational because of how it’s depicted on TV, and not having the education to know the difference between what are probable medical situations and pure drama. I hope MDJ and other channels like hers can show you how much more success than error there is in a day of medicine. As a medical office assistant who has been the assistant of several doctors, I can tell you from a clinic (not hospital) perspective that there is much more positivity in a day than negativity, a lot more happier patients than not. I think if you asked the majority of mothers, they would say something was off with their pregnancy, whether it’s excessive nausea, increased allergies, pelvic pain, etc., but that it’s worth it for the reward. These extreme medical situations are entertaining to watch on TV but not realistic, because people don’t want to watch an hour of doctors treating broken ankles and kids with fevers and then standing in front of computers charting for 20 minutes like a real ER. There’s always pain with pregnancy at some point, but for most women it’s very manageable up until delivery, and then there’s drugs! OBGYNs are generally pretty exceptional humans, they go to school to make sure you safely deliver a healthy baby (amongst many other things!), and you can always choose your OB, find someone you vibe with. 😊
@@barelyadulting1345 Yes, also pregnant and if I watched that episode, I would have been really scared
Alana Elliott I am a NICU nurse and was pregnant when this episode came out....... it was so very stupid!
I get the feeling Dr. Jones would jump into TV land and would go all "MOVE I'VE GOT THIS!"
That would be an interesting series a doctor in the "real world" is watching a medical drama and getting mad at the inaccuracies and winds up being sucked into the show.
@@23Koneko That would certainly be a 4th wall break. I LOVE IT.
@@taiya001 Yessssssssss
@Teapot Inc RIght! It would be EPIC! Especially if it was one of those older ones where the nurses had to wear dresses.
I remember crying when I watched this episode of ER. I was aware of many of the inaccuracies, but watching Anthony Edwards's character and the rest of the cast suffer the consequences of his hubris was hard.
Watching your reaction was harder. I always love your reactions because your emotions are so genuine. Your channel a rare mix of science eduction, ethics, and compassion. Thank you.
Oh the oh so human Dr. Mark Green.
@@intorainbowzOGHe looked my old GP.
As a psychologist, I would be so worried that the husband would come out of this experience suffering from severe PTSD symptoms...
Ana Paula Goncalves I know for sure I DID just watching the dang program!!
Yea he literally watched his wife die a gruesome and unnecessary death ffs.
If I remember correctly, during the malpractice lawsuit, it's brought up that the husband is experiencing what could be called PTSD.
I would expect ptsd in the husband tbh. Husbands can come out with ptsd even during a relatively straightforward labour, let alone one where their wife dies.
he does. and sues doctor green. rightly so
My baby is sitting on my lap watching this with me and you have him cracking up for some reason and he’s trying to lean forward towards you which is what he does when he wants someone to get him. He must like you. 😂
This one hits pretty hard. I ran to the ER with upper quadrant pain, 31 weeks pregnant. My bp was in the 160/90s and I had mild proteinurea, headache and vomiting and deep pitting edema. My mother begged them to admit me to L&D and they just gave me iv fluids and sent me home. The doctor Said it must be a stomach virus. About 15 hours later, I lost the feeling in my face started grand mal seizures. I had eclampsia and HELLP.
Glad you lived through it …
Mama Dr. Jones: "This isn't very accurate!"
Me: Thank goodness!!!!!!!!!!
SPOILER:
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The father sued Dr. Green for malpractice in a later season.
Yantzi what happened with the lawsuit
@@hydrokineticpowerhouse GOOD JOB for the father. This was totally heartbreaking...
He settled.
GOOD lol
I remember watching this with my mom! This plot thread was so intense at the time
You are such an excellent teacher. As a retired RN, I worked both L&D and ER, and all of this is unbelievable. There isn’t a DR in an ER who would have touched this with a 10ft pole! That pt would have been sent up to OB the minute she walked in the door. Or if no OB doc was available, TRANSFER her to a hospital where there is! This was so stressful to watch. When he said the word “thingies” I rolled my eyes so hard! Also, no medical professional would yell at each other like that, especially within earshot of the husband.
I hate when people demonize scalp electrodes for babies because a scalp electrode literally saved me from an emergency c section due to low heart rate with my youngest and because as a nurse I know how safe they are. It drives me crazy.
My oldest had the scalp electrode and the internal monitor. I'll never forget how a little room-temperature water came out the end of the monitor tubing... poor baby freaked out! He'd never experienced anything but a nice warm environment and then he got what was, to him, a big splash of freezing water on his little head!
In general, people are against what they don't understand or know. Education is the key! (Thank you, dr Jones!)
My daughter had one and it was actually really comforting to know and see exactly what was going on with her.
My little one had one, zero issues, and gave me and my doctors/ midwife peace of mind, definitely worth the "risk"
@@kristineapodaca3173 You just said it was room temperature water, then changed it to freezing water. So, which is it then? I smell fish.
Honestly, with that ending, I really liked the episode. It was a tragic story of how terribly you can mess up when you’re in a position of power. The unrealistic-ness added to it. That guy was too cocky, he was in way over his head, and this was the result. The worst thing he could have done. He went too far and he killed someone. Had he been wiser, humbler, this woman likely would have survived. It’s a reminder of what it means to be a doctor.
I thought of that, too, and I really like that interpretation. However, I probably wouldn't have thought of that if I hadn't watched this episode with Mama Doctor Jones's commentary. I don't know anything about how medical professionals are supposed to work together, so I wouldn't have realized that Dr. Green was being undeservedly proud. I'd just think this was a tragic accident. I imagine a lot of other people would have thought the same. So, this episode has great potential to create unnecessary fear in people who don't understand where the actual medical screw-up was.
In Season 1 Dr. Greene was Chief Resident. He later became a great Attending and almost - if not for some intrigue - Chief of Emergency Medicine. I‘d like to think that this taught him a valuable lesson.
It’s also a lawsuit waiting to happen.
@@LeBatteur It did! There was a malpractice suit storyline extending through much of Season 2. (Although in the real-life event, which happened in a rural hospital, there was fortunately a happy outcome)
@@sarahshock6805 I actually think you're not supposed to realize that he was being over-proud. So this was based on a real event in a rural hospital in which there really was no one else available, and the writers had to write their way around the fact that they were in a Chicago hospital. But in the very first episode of ER-which was like 6 episodes before this one-Greene delivers a baby. I think that, in the world of the show, it was either implied that he had prior training or that deliveries happen the ER on a somewhat regular basis. (That said, you are supposed to realize that he messed up by missing eclampsia.) Now, did it create fear in people? Sure, but what medical show doesn't? Grey's Anatomy has literally featured hospital shootings and parts of the hospital being blown up-TWICE. The Resident opened with a surgeon's mistake costing someone their life, followed by a *successful* cover up among the medical team in the OR at the time. I'm not sure it's the job of medical shows to not scare people.
I was a teenager watching this show when it first aired and I remember this episode because it was basically a "Dr Green royally effs up" episode 😬 and his character was portrayed that he was the best, kindest, most caring... Total heartbreak to see him make all the wrong moves (then and reliving it now!) Thanks for opening up old wounds lol
I think you have to have been a fan of the show to really get the impact of this episode. It all drama but it about him making small mistakes and then ending up costing a life. He faced consequences for it after this episode. But I found my self rooting for him to make it right even rewatch it. It meant to be emotional.
When I was pregnant with my oldest I had a severe asthma attack. It was about midnight but I contacted the on call OB & luckily it was my OB he told me come in immediately & I would be admitted to OB. That time of night I had to go in through the ER & they actually didn’t want me to go up & questioned me why I was going up when they could handle it in the ER. It was a cluster f of me being talked down too & treated horribly for contacting my OB & his decision to admit me. We had to have my OB contacted again for him to have it out with the ER staff because he had been waiting on me. Then they transported me up to OB. They worked me up & gave me everything I needed & went home the next day. I’m telling this because all I could think about was this episode even though it wasn’t the same issues. My local hospital ER has a horrible reputation. In fact there is 1 doc who seems to always be there (he was there that night) & he’s a complete. To this day if I have to go to this ER I refuse to see him. If he comes in I request someone else or leave (because again he’s an ass & will talk down to you)
:O just....no.... no talking down to the preggo asthma attack lady, f that dude/group
Scary!!!
I hate rude, egotistical doctors >.
Wow 😮
I'm so glad you and your family say no to this guy.
Lots of A&Es have that one idiot that makes everyone's else job harder. Who will over rule nurses and other docs, just for a power trip.
There are usually crap at the job too.
I was pretty little when this show originally aired but did a big rewatch recently. This ep not only sticks with the viewer, it has lasting implications for the character. The father sues him and as a doc his super shook up.
My first thought when I saw your post about this video was “dang, people really pushed for the MOST stressful episode!!” You are too good to us ✨ Hoping you had a hot cup of tea on standby after this one.
Yeah, Dr. Greene's lawsuit and lasting emotional issues after this episode was a major plot point in the series for a few seasons. The whole episode may have been over-dramatized for TV and riddled with medical errors, but it was a really good episode and I appreciated that this wasn't treated as just a one-off bad experience that they never talked about again. These issues have real lasting effects, not just on the family, but on the doctors as well.
@@NiamhCreates - Yes! I'm glad it was treated that way. On Grey's it would be maybe another episode maybe two. But that's a stretch too for them
@Nerdy Jeremy - I think it's on Hulu. Just Googled it and apparently it is on there. I'm not 100% sure since I don't have Hulu anymore
Nerdy Jeremy its on Hulu!
Things like what happened in this episode, even though to say they all could have been avoided would be an understatement, is the exact reason I decided to quit nursing school when I wanted to be an OB nurse. The compassion was there, the interest was there, I was prepared to do the work, the dedication to the field was all there, but something (I don’t remember what it was exactly) made me have a sudden epiphany about the true limitations of my mental capacity as it regards to potential exposures to the worst case scenarios on a semi-regular basis. I had to ask myself how many of those exposures would it take before it took an extreme toll on me & admittedly & regrettably, the answer was not that many. Which I felt, at the end of the day, would affect my ability to be a good healthcare provider so I ultimately decided that it wasn’t as a good of a fit for me as I thought.
I don’t know how you do it MDJ, but I admire you because even though you get to be there for the happiest moments in people’s lives, there is always the potential for it to become the absolute worst & you accept that willingly & face that head on every day that you answer the call. At the risk of sounding cliche, you are indeed a hero.
I’m a nurse midwife who does not catch babies and it’s for this reason. I tell people “most of the time it’s amazing…but when it’s bad, it’s The. Worst. Day. of someone’s life”. I can’t walk into work every day knowing I could potentially be part of something that ruins someone’s life.
It's honestly the reason I could never do anything in the medical field. There's so much that can go wrong and I could never bear it
"Medicine is a team sport that requires excellent communication." Yes!
Saying "I don't know" does not mean "I am incompetent" or "I am a failure". In any field. Unless you are a professional knowledge bank, I guess.
I'm a grad student. It's like being a professional knowledge bank. Not knowing something is absolutely made to feel like failure. It's ridiculous and toxic in a lot of cases.
There is a knowledge base in your field that you should know. If you're far enough along then you should be an expert with what is going on with your research. But sometimes shit goes sideways (especially in things like coding and experimentation) and if you don't know why, then you don't know. It's time to ask for help. And the person you ask should not be hateful and superior to you when you reach out.
Not just medicine, but any profession! I am a computer programmer, and we are constantly consulting with each other. While it is rare to just not know something, it is very common to ask "I'm not certain, can you come double check my work?"
I am a CNA and a nursing student. I have heard it said so many times. Know you limits. It makes you a better provider when you know your limits and ask for help. The moment you get cocky or feel confident you will make a mistake. Never stop learning.
My daughter and her doctor had a miraculous delivery, her uterus ruptured, she was still in the labor room, nurse caught it within moments baby was delivered C section so fast. Both survived my grandson just turned seven. He was bruised everywhere and stayed in NICU for so long. But a miracle happened that day.
This episode should be showed to doctors as a lesson in what could happen when you let your ego get in the way and you don't really know what you're doing.
I think from that perspective it's extremely accurate!
Imagine the lawsuit if this happened today.
Mark did end up getting sued for malpractice.
In the show, Dr. Greene was sued by the family and it becomes a major plot line for a couple seasons.
The 90s had plenty of lawsuits too. And yes, Dr. Greene gets sued. The husband appears in a later episode. Fun fact: it’s Bradley Whitford. (In a ton of things, one of the most recent, Lawrence in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”)
I feel like my husband would probably sue. He would be out for blood tbh. I'm a bit laid back, so idk if I'd want him to sue but not like I'd be around to tell him that.
Katie Kat he portrayed Josh Lyman on “The West Wing” for seven years. 😎
I cannot stop laughing 😂 I remember this episode VIVIDLY because it traumatized me as a kid-watching it now as a pregnant mama and healthcare worker, with your hilarious and justifiable outrage, is so cathartic
The crazy part of all of this is that while yes, this would never happen today... when women first started having their labors in hospitals, I'm sure there were plenty of doctors forcing their egotistical will onto a laboring woman. This actually happens in less developed countries where they hold her down as the force their procedures on her. It's insane, but this type of attitude towards a laboring woman is still around. It's few and far between and typically much much older male doctors/surgeons who have this attitude who have long since closed their mind off to new or less traumatic labor.
While yes, there is a lawsuit in the show, plenty of those old school stuck in their ways doctors get away with traumatizing women because of the "You're labor complaints are meaningless because you got your baby, didn't you?" Yes there has been a lot of progress in obstetrics, but it wasn't all that long ago we were still in the shadow of dark ages of female reproductive care. And I only hope the intent of this show airing back in the 90s was to infuriate people about this kind of attitude and maybe even helped to start a discussion that has influenced the demand for better treatment of women in labor we see today. But if you dig into PTSD associated with child birth, it's still very much an issue we need to keep talking about and addressing.
So thank you Mama Doctor Jones for toughing it out through this episode, which I feel is intentionally bad to show as a reminder how awful things can go when a doctor's ego goes to their head. Best case people get hurt, worst case they die. You saw the train wreck coming a mile out and that shows how a professional should handle a situation. Not like he did here.
This! 👆 Although my mind couldn’t help but go to that absolutely tragic case in Ireland recently (as in less than 5 years ago, I believe).
Even in developed countries sometimes doctors egos overtake human life. I won’t say the details of the case here bc they are truly heartbreaking and I know a lot of viewers are pregnant or trying. But if you know, you know 💗
Annie are you talking about the women who was refused an “abortion” when she was miscarrying and ended up dying?
AwakeningSunshine uhhhh, no. But that is terrible
Annie yup. She was refused a D&E (I think that’s the right term) when she was already miscarrying because abortion is illegal in Ireland
AwakeningSunshine ok. Well again, that’s terrible. Probably not something expectant mothers want to hear
The husband being able to watch the emergency surgery is crazy. In the hospital i delivered at its even normal to send the husband out of the room when the woman gets an epidural. They even did it in my case even though my husband is a doctor and works at the hospital i delivered at. He actually was about to have his first night shift in his pediatric rotation when our son was born (but obviously got someone else do the shift as soon as I went into labor). The attending pediatrician asked him if he wanted to do the newborn check on our son under her supervision but my sweet hubby just stood there and couldnt even remember how to walk xD
I had to have my c-section under general anesthesia because I'm not a candidate for an epidural or spinal, and my husband wasn't allowed in the room for the birth.
Dalai Mami Same thing happened with my mother.
ER is my favorite medical drama, but even when it was on air, the biggest issues was how present loved ones were during traumas. It didn’t happen even back then.
My boyfriend watched while I got my epidural, he was going to hold my hand but the nurse saw how shaky he was and said no lol
That's on awesome story, my husband was out of the room while they where preping me for surgery but as soon as they started he when in and even filmed the C-section.
E W maybe it’s just because i’m on my period and extra emotional but that story made me cry happy tears :)
I’m a retired post partum nurse. I spent a lot of time with the L&D staff. I remember watching this episode with my daughter and yelling at the TV that this would NEVER happen in a hospital with L&D. That patient would have been out of that ER so fast she would have little time to breathe let alone die there. My daughter still teases me about my visceral reaction to a poorly thought out TV show.
It's not poorly thought out. It's called ER, It has to happen in an ER. If they had gotten her to L&D, diagnosed the pre-eclampsia and safely delivered the baby and saved the mom, there's no drama, no acting, no emmys.
That whole forceps bit cracks me up. My IUD had slipped and the doctor at the ER told me my OBGYN would have to remove it because it "wasn't his forte". It nearly fell out when the NP at the OBGYN's office went to take it out.
Same here! My GP told me I needed to go to a gyn to get my IUD removed because she didn't have the correct tool to remove it. I'm glad she stayed in her lane.
The obgyn that inserted my iud made a big deal about being in my period during insertion and removal and needing a special tool when removal time came. The NP that removed my iud grabbed the strings with hemostats and pulled it right out
I could tell how distressed you were discussing the zavanelli. Just because someone is a doctor doesn't mean they are competent in every specialty. I'm training to be a midwife and this gave me anxiety too. I had to remind myself it is only fiction 😂
It is fiction but people who aren't in the medical profession believe this tosh! Makes me so mad.
Yeah, TV has apparently no distinction between specialities in careers. All 'science' is the same, all 'technology' is the same, it's absurd, lol.
(I work in tech)
You are 100 %right, a degree doesnt equal competence.
My last c section I had a young female BRAND NEW OB hospitalist, That JUST started, that day, i was literally her first real patient.
SHE WAS HORRIBLE. SHE WAS CRUEL .
SHE SENT E HOME WITH NO PAIN RELIEF BUT A SCRIPT GOR ANTIDEPRESSANTS ????
@@wonderwend I have trouble watching shows that try to make it realistic but are really unrealistic if you know anything about the topic. House is my favorite medical show because it's not really trying to be realistsic the whole point of the show is that he deals with unrealistic cases. It also makes fun of it's inaccuracies a lot.
They Cover this stuff up.
They did that to my daughter. I wasnt in a Position to object. No choice but when she had seizures they pretending they didnt know why and accused me of having herpes
I really appreciate you providing your professional insight into this episode. To me, a layperson, it just seems like a perfect storm of hubris, arrogance, refusal to admit you're in over your head, and slowly watching the situation slip completely out of your control. You hit the nail on the head that the communication was ridiculous. Why they didn't take her up to OB themselves early on even though the resident said to keep her down there, I'll never know. But again, the hubris, the "I've got this, I can handle anything" attitude. Dr. Green (the main doc) was never quite the same after this episode. I believe he was going through some marital difficulty during this timeframe and that may have played into the control aspect where he refused to relinquish control of the situation to more experienced docs -- the old "I don't have control of my personal life right now so I'll maintain total control of this professional situation well beyond the point I should have" situation. And you're absolutely right that when it first aired, it had a real ripple effect amongst pregnant women who reached out to their OB/Gyn's in a panic about the possibility of developing preeclampsia. On a positive note, it made people more aware of the condition in general, so anything that educates on a complex topic can't be too terrible. It's still one of the best episodes of ER I've ever seen and I've watched most of the seasons. Makes me cry every single time I see it. Literally a trainwreck plowing right down the tracks.
I remember when this show aired.. I had just had my daughter, first pregnancy with un-diagnosed Postural Orthostatic tachycardia and extremely low natural blood pressures so that when it became elevated it was in normal range.. My Doctor was just starting his practice and we were his 3'rd patient referred by my previous doctor because he didn't deliver babies any longer, so we met when I was 20 weeks and Bp's were within low normal. He didn't catch my pre eclampsia and let me go two weeks overdue. Come in 6 cm dialated to the hospital go through labor, push for 2 hours. Baby coming out sunny side up get's stuck with her head out, when I threw up, and she gets stuck on my pubic bone and her umbilical cord gets compressed. They had to do a zavenelli procedure, and emergency C section where they basically cut a T shaped incision to get her out she came out with a 0 apgar score (was an 8 at second reading) and then I started to bleed.. Bled around all of the sutures they put in. Turned out I had HELLP syndrome. I lost so much blood they were afraid to move me 2 floors to ICU and brought ICU staff down to L and D for me. 17 units of blood in something like 2 days. I only remember 2 things about those 2 days.. My husband making me look at the moniter which showed my heart beating 180 BPM because of the low blood volume and him looking white as a sheet. And them showing me a picture of my daughter 8 hours after she was born. ( weirdly they say I was lucid and oriented and answering questions) 2 weeks in ICU. Miraculously stopped bleeding when the doctor came in to tell me they had scheduled an OR to do a hysterectomy because they couldn't stop the bleeding. The ONLY reason why I am still here, is because my doctor had enough confidence to say I need a specialist this is over my head.. And the Specialist OBGYN was coming out of an OR right as things went south with me so was right there when I needed him to be... 29 years, and two more kids later.. and I am a grandma of 2. Because my Doctor asked for help... My husband threw up when this episode was playing and told me he couldn't watch it since he'd seen it in real life.
Incredible story. So glad you are here to tell it.
I´m pretty sure that the whole point of this episode was saying: ALL OF THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULDN´T DO. Mark not admitting he wasn´t comfortable with the procedure, not doing it in the right room, having too many cooks, the anxiety, etc, etc. The whole episode is a series of unfortunate events (and mistakes) that leads to the patient´s death.
i’m rewatching ER and I just got to this episode, I had to come back to MDJ’s video and see if someone made this comment! thank you for distracting me from how sad this episode is for a sec lol
@@frecklesmcgeeee omg 🙈 You’re welcome, I guess?? Also GOOD FOR YOU for rewatching ER, what an amazing tv show
I feel really bad because this is one of my favorite episodes for ER, and yet it's so inaccurate (and I've ragged on Grey's Anatomy for being inaccurate). But I think the point of the episode is not necessarily to demonstrate a perfectly calm, reasonable occurrence...but the result of an epic tragedy and almost a bad fever dream. Dr. Mark is a great doctor who loves medicine...who goes in to do something he CANNOT do, because he loves medicine and wants to be there. He doesn't know when to step back. He became emotionally invested in these patients (mother and baby), because he himself was a father struggling with a distant daughter and a wife who didn't want him anymore. This couple was happy and in love. All during the episode they show such sweetness to each other, the father is a model husband. They are incredibly excited for their new baby.
Dr. Mark sees this and he is emotionally beating himself for not being a better man and a better husband. That's why he tries to overcompensate in this episode. He is devoted to keeping this couple together, the same way he wishes he could have kept his marriage together. It really is the culmination of a long cycle of nightmares for Mark. He has lost control of his family, of his love life, and now his job. He could have been fired for what happened here. It was absolutely insane. But as a heartbreaking character arc, it's the peak tragedy for what could have happened to Mark. It takes him a long time to recover from this scene, maybe until the end. It's a terrible example for medicine, but fantastic for a story about a man who has lost control of almost everything he cares about in life. And it really pushes him to be a man when he meets Elizabeth and has Ella. That's why it won the Emmy's.
Great review though! I cringed a lot myself. But I still love the show and the episode. I do get why it's really hard to watch for a lot of people. This scenario would be horrifying for basically any family.
I also like this drama, but it is obvious that this case is wrong. I think the screenwriter deliberately wanted Dr. Green to do wrong things and make mistakes, otherwise he would be too mythical in the drama.
@@heidi880805I'm confused what he did wrong when he was trying to save the baby and no other OB was available...
I would love to see you and Dr. Mike do a collab!! He gives such great wisdom but also always admits when those trained in certain fields like an OBGyn need to be contacted.
OMG YES!
This episode hit me hard 😢 I feel like if I was taken to labor and delivery when I arrived in an ambulance instead of taken to the ER, my son would probably be alive today. I gave birth(25 weeks along) in the ER bathroom, very scared, young and alone and the ER Dr didn't even let me see him, I don't even know what they did with his body. It still haunts me to this day.
*Edit to add that this video encouraged me to ask the hospital why everything happened the way they did, now they opened an investigation.
I am so, so sorry for your loss...😭
+
I hope you get the closure you deserve ❤️
I'm so very sorry for your loss. I hope you receive all of the answers you're searching for.
Sorry for your loss.
I was pregnant at the time this episode came out. I had Pre eclampsia at the time. I went in for my biweekly appointment the very next day and my Dr asked if I had watched this episode. When I told him no he told me to not watch reruns. I was induced at 36 weeks and everything went back to normal after delivery.
MDJ! Never seen you this stressed! And, actually watching to the end, as a woman who was treated shoddily resulting in the death of my son 37 years ago, I so love that you care. Because my "doc" didn't.
Erika Louwrens Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!
@@agalo3631 Thank you xxx
Do you mind sharing? It's ok if not.
Hello from team NICU! Agree with your assessment: never would’ve happened in real life. This pt would be TOP priority for OB and NICU. Nope nope nope.
When I was in labor and told the Dr I wanted a vaginal birth, she told me "not if I decide differently." I did end up having a c-section because every time I had a contraction my son would stop breathing. So glad my Dr went against my wishes.
While I get where that doctor was coming from, she could have said it in a less rude and arrogant way. If I said I’d prefer X, Y, or Z and doctor says “not if I decided differently” I’d be irritated…but more importantly, my trust in them would drop dramatically due to the arrogance behind someone who makes a comment like that (you still had a right to your express a desire to have agency over your own body, and she was treating you as if you didn’t/she didn’t care about your wishes. (Frankly, a simple “that isn’t possible to safely do in this situation” would have been less obnoxious. I’d also feel like they saw me as “lesser” and unworthy of being spoke to respectfully . I’m glad you and your child are fine, and she did what was best, but she also sounds condescending and…again, arrogant. Something like “Ultimately, I we’ll do what keeps you and the baby healthy and safe,” would have been less obnoxious. I have a chronic health issue and deal with a lot of doctors…some of the rude things they say, and the way they treat you, can be quite frustrating. Saying that to a woman (or behaving that way in general) during the most vulnerable moments of a her life wasn’t necessary. You can be straightforward and frank about a situation without being an ass.
obsessed w how something someone said to somebody else offended you@@MountainPearls
This made me laugh. If a near term pregnant person has the sniffles the ED can’t get them up to l&d fast enough.
I’m a labor RN, and I agree with your comment.
They actually do set up, in earlier episodes, a serious antagonism between the ER and obstetrics (especially the ob resident), as well as the general dysfunction of the ER and the hospital. (It leads to staffing changes, etc.) So yeah, you're spot on in calling out the dysfunction, and Greene's arrogance. They were the point, tho.
Thank yoy Kelly !! everyone needed the context! Yeah, Green fucked up AND Coburn was an ass
jajajaja its funny how DEPPLY I cared about someone saying that jajajajajjaja
Still mourn Green, Lucy, and Pratt... ER rocks...
I had a Zavenelli procedure with my second daughter. The doctor literally saved my babies life. She came out gray and not breathing. Thanks to God and that doctor that my daughter is ok.
I used to watch ER when I was in high school with my mom who is a general internist. At the beginning of every commercial break she would turn to me and say "none of that was real" and explain why. It was only the later seasons though so she never got to do the run down on this one.
I like the sound of your mum.
How very cool is that!!
My Mom was a cop and did that with all cop shows. Lol
Not gonna lie though 16:57 where the doctor "knocks over" the tray had me laughing. She just blatantly pushed it over! Great acting there. How did this get an Emmy?
Honestly, TV has come a long way over the decades. There was a time where movie and stage actors looked down on TV actors as being less talented; it was probably true in the past.
BC this episode was filmed 20+ years ago. Times were different.
Emotional Drama with Consequences.
@@88michaelandersen Coincidentally, ER was one of the early shows that elevated the quality of acting on TV.
@@UncoordinatedPixie Basic acting with props isn't so different from the 1990s that you don't know how to "accidentally" knock over a table. "Sleight of hand" on stage goes back centuries, god only knows how long - since the first time someone had an audience they wanted to entertain!
I'm an early career Psychologist and I love how you address competency! I am passionate about ethical practice amongst other mental-health care professionals and I love seeing your ethical passion shine!!
"Of course hes not breathing what do you expect after that chaos" oh god I cant this also came out before I was born
Why do I have a feeling the ER doctor did this because the "If you feel comfortable" thing bruised his ego and he had to stroke it back to life and "show her he could do it"?
If I were that dude trying to boost my ego, I would've picked a stable routine C-section to start. Lol, this was like asking a first grader who just learned to write sentences to hand in a 10pg paper on a deadline.
@@rjkbuny You're kind of missing the point of the episode. Up until this point Dr Greene was presented as a medical God who could do no wrong. The whole point of the episode is for him to get in over his head and to make mistakes.
18:45 is exactly what the character arc was about for Dr. Greene in this episode, more than one person told him "it's perfectly acceptable to wait for an OB", which is why I still love this episode even with the wild unrealistic moments. The whole point, really, is that he got overconfident in his abilities, and this was the lesson he needed.
Had an intro uterine monitor used with my 1st delivery, and the nurses were cracking up, because my daughter got it in her hands and was playing with it🤣
robs girl777 that is oddly endearing
I'm laughing so hard right now because when we went in for my first check up at 14 wks (insurance hoops were hell to jump through) and I swear kiddo was trying to grab or hit the ultrasound wand (maybe the intro uterine monitor) I don't know and didn't ask. My husband was amused but embarrassed at the same time.
This was so great, thank you! Very interesting having been traumatized by it at 18, and watching it now at 45, after having kids. Still everytime I hear pre-eclampsia, I immediately think of this episode. Seeing it now, it really is less about the pregnant couple than Dr. Greenie’s internal struggle, his wife left him in the previous episode. He wants to be a hero and I think his breakdown at the end is him realizing he ruined a family by his actions.
Imagine being one of the doctors the show consulted during the writing process and then you see this crap as the final product.
The medical consultant was the writer: Lance Gentile. Under instructions from the show to "rough Dr. Greene up" (because Greene to that point had been "too perfect"), he wrote the episode based on (1) a colleague's experience of delivering a baby (successfully) in the ER when there was no OB around (he worked at a rural hospital), and (2) trying to conceive of the scariest thing that could happen.
www.yahoo.com/entertainment/s/er-loves-labor-lost-oral-history-emmys-129154528630.html
Considering it won an Emmy and was lauded as one of the most powerful episodes on one of TV's most successful shows of all time, I would say they would be pleased. It was intended to all go wrong for Dr. Greene - that was the core plot of the drama in this episode. Had it been an 80s sitcom, it might have played out differently. If I was one of the doctors who were consulted for this, I'd feel quite honored.
@@scottw9318 So I take it you're not a doctor. There was nothing to be proud of in this episode, and it just shows the disconnect between reality and "dramatic license".
@@shells500tutubo I feel like you're missing the point of the episode. It wasn't to just show a super-dramatic unrealistic medical emergency, it was to knock Dr. Greene down a few pegs and to show that everybody makes mistakes. And sometimes, those mistakes in a medical situation can kill people. Greene refused to acknowledge he was in way over his head, and it cost that baby her mother. There are plenty of doctors out there whose hubris resulted in tragic consequences for their patients. In this situation there wasn't anybody willing to challenge Greene and his control of the situation and everybody else watched it unfold as well. It's more about how arrogance can be deadly, and as MDJ points out, the critical nature of teamwork and listening to each other. I imagine the doctors consulted for this episode have all been witness in their careers to similar displays of arrogance and hubris that could have had terrible effects down the line. From that perspective it's right on the money.
@@vickenator right ppl are so pressed! Like medicine wouldn't be the way it is today if it weren't for mistakes like this. Like I don't get what ppl can't see. They just see the inaccuracies. And what they also don't know that this actually happened at a hospital the doctor that was behind the episode of the story wrote this episode.. ER is an amazing series hands down.
This episode was a lawsuit filing itself 🤦🏽♀️
Thank you for reacting to this. It's a wonderful point that medicine is a team sport! We're all in this together! Lack of communication can and has killed patients. Stay safe and healthy Dr. Jones!
I would love to see her react to the grey's anatomy episode when Warren delivered the baby in front of the elevator. I would be cool to get a her insight and do the any real world procedure in place for something like that.
paramorefan90 she could literally do a whole series on “baby in the elevator” episodes!
She did react to April having a c section on the kitchen table.
Me too! (Granted that's the only grey's anatomy episode I've ever seen, but still!)
And the episode where Meredith had a c section in a power outage (season 9 episode 24).
Dont know about that episode but I've seen some bits of neurology in greys anatomy and i can tell it's sooo wrong....
This episode was literally infuriating. Literally a lawyers goldmine.
I *just* did my patient safety event reporting training today (I'm neither patient facing nor a clinician), and I was just going through that reporting form event in my head of every single thing *I* would write about this incident.
It actually was in-universe too. In the show that doctor later got sued over it.
They should’ve called this episode “Murphy’s Law”. Everything that could go wrong in this situation did go wrong - EXTREMELY wrong.
I'd love to see you watch something like One Born Every Minute from the UK and compare to what happens in the US. I get the feeling that it's quite different from watching things that you discuss.
Yes.... especially since the US version is absolute trash - they have the most ridiculous people on, the trailer-trash of pregnant ladies.
I would love to see this too!
Yes. The British version is better.
OOooooo, this would be good actually.
Yes Mama Doctor Jones please react to a UK episode. Would be so interesting to see you comment on any differences between UK and US :)
I really appreciate your advice about being able to say ‘I don’t know’ and then being able to ask for help. This I will try to always remember. At one point you said you might not post this video but I’m really glad you did. Your insight is so helpful, and I certainly learned a lot in the in the short span of this video. The amount of mistakes is baffling but that’s just so many learning points.
That shot of the father looking into the OR at his wife and baby helplessly breaks my heart
My contractions did go well, and my sons hart-rate dropped from 120 to 50 but my gynecologist didn’t panic at all, just telling me not to freak out for nothing. My contractions stopt but his hart rate didn’t normalize. I told the midwife I’m scared and worried about my son. She brought that doctor back , to hear her say send home and come in if contractions start up again. But his not due yet. And left us all godsmacked because even the midwife was worried. So the head nurse went after her. Came back said you’re staying, so we can monitor you both. When i asked why she was like that? She was angry at an other woman that was demanding her full attention! Told the nurse look if she can’t handle the stress of this job she should stop or at least don’t put every labor as the same. Im not a drama queen. Next morning they gave me besides the Iv a tablet it didn’t go that well and my sons hartrate did go up so they called in for epidural and made a call for C section in case. That doctor was mad at me for putting my feet down. After the birth of my son, it was hell, he didn’t want to eat, and i couldn’t give him breast feed because it didn’t work out. He cried so much. So i asked if i could get a bath with him. The doctor said no; so after her back i asked the midwife and we did it anyway i said look i write down its on my own request and my risk. He calmed down so much, he still got problems with feeding but was less stressed. Later found out that she was fired from the hospital because her lack of being involved and left a child after her ignoring complaints with a shoulder problem and one kid with a disability. My son would be her third victim if I didn’t made a fuss, and put my feet down.
I'm old enough to remember seeing this episode when it first aired. As a layperson, I remember feeling helpless as I watched the situation spiral out of control. The episode was revisited a lot over the following season(s). I remember when the m&m conference was held and the inevitable lawsuit and depositions. It was a powerful example (albeit unrealistic as MDJ has explained) of how allowing ego to supercede good judgement has long-term consequences.
I now work in a medical field and it's a good reminder that no matter what your role is, you should always put your patients first and ask for help when you need it.
And what happens when that help never arrives? That's what happened to Greene.
@@nancyomalley9959 I would say that Greene did not stress how critical the patient's condition had become as it spiraled. There is always a plan B.
@@maryalice578 during the m&mnim pretty sure he explicitly says that
Oh my gosh. “I think I can muddle through” would be the most terrifying thing I could ever find out a doctor of mine said.
My delivery was an example that a Obgyn will always go "down for the delivery".
I got at the hospital with a heavy blood flow. Baby was loosing blood rapidly (partial placental abruption) . The obgyn on call was already on a emergency Csection. The practitioner on the maternity floor went to another obgyn who was seeing her patients in her office. That obgyn went to see the baby heart indications, didn't like what she saw and decided to do my CSection on the fly.
I lost blood in 10:30 in the morning (at home), baby was born a 11:30, and barely made it.
(English is not my main language, I had so many terms I didn't know how to say it in english. Sorry!)
So glad you were in capable hands and I hope you both were okay.
Your English was great! I understood exactly what you were trying to say. I'm glad you and baby are okay
@@uglyvegan7945 yes it was 5 months ago. Baby girl is top shape
@@kieralovesjoxer123 thanks!
Wow, what a story! I‘m glad your OB came through and your girl is fine. Are you okay too?
The whole point of this episode is that Dr Greene who had been up until that moment extremely competent makes a series of terrible mistakes that leads to the patients death. For reference, his wife told him she was leaving him in the episode just before. He is in a terrible state of mind, not focused on what he is doing, which is what leads him to making all these careless mistakes. Even if it's not 100 percent realistic its one of the best hours ever produced for television
Context is important! My sister still blames my mom's doc for her death. He had been caught cheating on his wife and was going through a messy divorce and my mom's case was very difficult and unusual. He was also the best in the area and had been treating her for over a decade. Finding another doc that could familiarize themselves with her case would have been very difficult. He might have been able to give us a little more time with her, maybe not.
I remember watching this show with my mom and experiencing so much anxiety.. While I can imagine how frustrating it may be for you, you really have put things into perspective and its good to know that while very scary situations take place, that there are educated professionals that are able to care for the world without such chaos and misguidance.
would love to see you watch more Call The Midwife, it’s one of my fav shows and i want to see how accurate it is
She reacted to one a couple of months back. Check her archives.
@@kerriethompson2073 I think that's why she said more...
Thank you for deciding to post this. I think when something is incredibly inaccurate, it's even more important to post, because people don't know. It's always inspiring to see how much you care.
Mama, I love how moved, and touched you were! You have a true heart of gold!
Love your channel! How about a video on endometriosis since March is endometriosis awareness month? Such a confusing condition that can't be talked about enough
Yes. Agree. Endo, pcos, adenomyosis, and fibroid sufferer here. Thought I only had the trifecta, but recent scans show I've got the superfecta of abdominal issues.
It's sad that it's so woefully under-studied and there's so much we still don't know. A video from MDJ would be awesome though, especially one to show family and friends so they can get an insight into the condition while I'm cuddling my hot water bottle and sobbing in pain.
I agree. It took doctor 10 months before I was diagnosed. The amazing part is that I self diagnosed myself before these doctors
@@kimberly11091(hugs) it sucks so much. I didn't get diagnosed until after surgery because my pain was put down to pcos and the surgery was focused on ovary removal (supposed to be cyst removal but too much bleeding). It was only as they were removing the tools they went, oh look there's endo too, so I had to go under the knife again to get that removed. Now I'm scheduled to go under again for a hysterectomy and I've never been more excited at the prospect of having bits of me removed.
I suffered for over 17 years, undiagnosed adenomyosis. I finally said screw it, just take it out! It was hard because I still wanted more kids, but it wasn't worth it for the pain I went through. I'm 39 now and going through menopause. Yay...
@@LADHP hugs to you too. I'm 38 this year but have struggled with secondary infertility since my mid-20s so I've gone through the grieving process of no more kids (I have one miracle and she's enough for me now). They wanted to every possible intervention to me before going to the extreme, so I've undergone far more surgeries than anyone rightfully should (although far fewer than some of our fellow sufferers). I'm so excited for my hysterectomy, even if it does bring on menopause, but that may change when the hot flushes start. I figure it's got to be better than the near- constant pain though, right?
"Everyone. Take a deep breath". And turn the frickin' lights on!
Most traumatic medical TV episode ever! I'm rewatching ER again (Yay, no commercials), and the minute that couple came in the door, I knew what episode it was. However as another commenter posted, this time I realized the whole point was to make Mark Greene's character learn that even though he's great at what he does, he doesn't know everything. In the storyline, this makes him a much better ER doctor, teacher and supervisor going forward. @mommadoctorjones Thank you for taking the horror out of watching this trauma unfold by providing the true information in context
i watched this in 1995 , at the age of 9. i was traumatized knowing my mom had an emergency c section for my older sister. Fast forward to 2017 , i had an emergency c section following an unsuccessful induction , i had pre-eclampsia and all i could think about was this episode and was so stressed. My outcome was positive and my c section was nothing like this ! i have a beautiful, healthy girl who is 2 and a half now.
"If this ends up a happy outcome I'm going to be pissed" 🤣😄🤣😄🤣
My poor cousin coded on the table having an emergency c section. Her baby passed away in utero at 37 weeks. After hours of labor they rushed her in for a c section during the procedure she had an amniotic fluid embolism. Luckily they got her back. I have so much respect for you and what you do.
I was just starting high school when this came out. I always wondered how much of it was accurate, so even though it drove you crazy, thank you for putting up with it long enough to be able to explain SO MUCH to us. You're amazing.
Honestly, this episode drove me nuts because I was confused as to how he knew supposedly knew all this while everyone else was confused. Later on, Dr. Greene gets sued, and he deserved it for his hubris.
Mary Sassaman Fire his ass!
I watched this episode of ER back in the day when it aired having been an L&D nurse at a major teaching hospital and was absolutely horrified.
Thank you for covering this even if it was difficult to watch! I think this episode stuck with me because it was one of the first times a TV episode made me cry (I think I was 12 or so). There's an oral history of this episode you can find in TV guide (just google Love's Labor Lost and it comes up). One of the show's writers (a doctor) said that the episode was based loosely on an actual experience (with a happier ending): " It actually happened - a successful version of that with a good outcome. It happened to one of the doctors I worked with. Saturday night, 3 o'clock in the morning - he got a call to the OB ward. We worked in a small community hospital with not a lot of doctors. He gets down there and the baby is in crisis and needs a crash C-section. And he's an emergency room doctor. Like me or Dr. Greene, he had maybe scrubbed in on a C-section, but he had absolutely no experience with it, so it was like he might as well have been trying to fly a jet plane. He successfully delivered the baby with a lot of help from the OB nurses who said, "Cut here. Cut here." That was the basis of the story."
I remember watching this episode with my mom who's a midwife and her becoming extremely infuriated and turning it off halfway through the episode.
And honestly, as a pregnant woman, watching this gives me anxiety 🙈
LizBen@ me too !
I was four months pregnant when this episode first aired in early March of 1995... It traumatized me for months and took the joy out of being pregnant...
I remember watching this episode when I was like 12 with my mum, so sad. Now I'm an ObGyn myself and I find it so surrealistic! Everything is so so so wrong - at least in our countries. But still it's very sad for Mark cause he's a character who really cares about his patients. Thanks for watching with us!
I was heavily pregnant with my second daughter when this episode aired in Australia. The episode’s notoriety preceded it and I remember my mother rang me to warn me not to watch it. I watched it anyway.
So my dad's a surgeon and he used to work himself into a froth watching ER and yelling about the medical inaccuracies. So this was a bit of a nostalgia
Concerning the comment after the scene with the OB saying she should have been called when Mark knew he was in over his head--in fact, Mark was CONSTANTLY trying to get someone from obstetrics to come down, but no one came until it was too late.
As for the part about this sort of thing ending careers, in the following episodes, Mark goes through a lot of difficulties, even hesitating before treating another pregnant person. It affects him deeply.
I've had so many horrible doctors tell me my experiences are over exaggerated or that what I'm telling them isn't possible, that includes a doctor telling me that a bone in my foot can't possibly be dislocated after she had just massaged it back in place! Doctors like that are the reason I didn't get diagnosed with hEDS until last year, after more than a decade of serious issues, because "it can't possibly hurt that much", "that's impossible", "no one has that", "that's uncommon so you can't possibly have that", etc.
The amazing doctor I have now doesn't get offended if I suggest a possible diagnosis or referral and if she doesn't know something she tells me and then looks in to it. That's how I finally got a diagnosis, I called to talk to her about possibly having hEDS after watching a TH-cam video that sounded just like me and at my next appointment I was diagnosed within ten minutes, since I had already done all the necessary tests. And she wasn't offended!