Author Question: Pedestrian vs. Truck 1/2

February 4, 2019February 3, 2019 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Luna Asks:

I hope you can help me with my writing. I need some details for my character.

She is a 24 year old girl that was hit by a 4×4 pickup truck while crossing the road. She was thrown and her head hit the road divider. She was bleeding moderately (not too heavy) from her head injury. She was conscious when her friend sent her to the hospital where later the doctor said she had brain hemorrhage as a result from that accident.

Can I have the details for:

Will she have shock and shortness of breath on her way to the hospital?
What will the doctor check or say when she first arrives at the emergency department?
Is surgery needed?
Does she require blood transfusion for the surgery?
What type of machines would be used to keep her alive?
How long will she be in the hospital? I am writing for two days.

Jordyn Says:

Hi Luna! Thanks so much for sending me your question.

First off, this is a VERY significant trauma to this young woman. There are some specifics missing from your scenario that would be helpful in answering your questions such as how fast the truck was going when it hit your character. The fact that you mention that the victim was thrown indicates a higher rate of speed. Being thrown coupled with the fact that her head hits a very hard surface (the concrete divider) doesn’t bode well for your character.

From your questions, it sounds like you want this to be a more minor injury. If you want this to be a survivable injury (which could be doubtful) you would need to change the nature of this accident and make it less lethal. For instance, the character isn’t thrown a distance. The truck isn’t traveling at a high rate of speed. Or, your character is in a vehicle of her own.

I will answer these questions based on your scenario as is, but keep in mind, this is a very serious accident and if the character survived, she would likely have an extensive hospitalization.

Will she have shock and shortness of breath on her way to the hospital?

You don’t specify in your question whether or not 911 was called and the patient was transported via EMS to the hospital. I would recommend that you do this. You also outline in your scenario that her head wound isn’t bleeding a lot. This is another part of your question that will need some revision. Head wounds do bleed extensively and heavily. If you’ve ever seen a minor laceration to the head you’d be impressed. The scalp is very vascular (meaning lots of blood vessels supply the area and therefore a much higher rate of bleeding).

Yes, this character could be in shock likely related to the blood loss from her head wound, or her head injury, or psychologically from the fact that she’s just been hit by a truck. Keep in mind, the head injury may not be her only injury. Anyone hit by a vehicle and then thrown will likely have other injuries such as broken bones, possible internal injuries, other cuts, lacerations, and abrasions.

If the patient was transported by EMS, they would first provide for C-spine stabilization (placement of a C-collar and backboard) while simultaneously assessing her breathing. Whether or not she’s breathing would be up to you. I could see it either way in this scenario. If she’s not breathing, then they would assist with her breathing. In addition, they would control any visible bleeding by applying pressure and dressings. She would be placed on a monitor to track her vital signs. An IV would be placed and IV fluids would be started.

Since this is a lengthy question, we’ll conclude tomorrow.

Someone Please Rescue 911: Teach Them to do CPR Correctly

December 13, 2018November 27, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

I’ve been teaching CPR for almost thirty years. Can you believe that? I hardly can.

I’m pretty passionate about CPR because time after time studies have shown that this is the patient’s best path for survival— high quality CPR given as soon as the patient needs it. It’s not rocket science and it’s pretty easy to research. Here’s a Google link to a bunch of images that show the algorithm for CPR.

What you want to be sure of is that you’re using the most recent guidelines. For the American Heart Association (AHA), their most recent set came out in 2015. The AHA reevaluates their CPR guidelines based on research every five years. Next update will probably happen next year, but the educational materials likely wouldn’t be released until 2020.

In episode nine of this season’s 911, Hen and Howie rescue a boy from a submerged vehicle. He is unresponsive and pulseless once he reaches the shore. They begin CPR (just compressions) and after every set of compressions they do a pulse check. After about a minute, they revive the patient.

Did you know that even healthcare providers are not that great at determining whether or not there is a pulse? It’s true. On top of that, imagine trying to do a pulse check with cold hands, in the dark, in the rain. Not easy to be sure.

The reason the pulse shouldn’t be checked that much is that it ultimately delays compressions and we don’t want to do that. Every time compressions are stopped, the blood perfusion to the heart also stops and it takes several compressions to reperfuse the heart. Some fire departments have gone to doing two hundred uninterrupted compressions for this very reason.

In lieu of this issue, I did like this episode quite a bit. It’s Hen’s origin story and I do think it highlighted some of the issues minorities face in the fire service.

911— let’s just stop messing up the little things.

911: Let’s Provide Some Medical Care

November 22, 2018November 18, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

In the Season Two/Episode Eight airing of the FOX television show 911— there was a great scene on how to really provide no medical care.

The setup: A gay couple is getting ready to go on a bike ride. Much time is spent in a musical montage showing their lives together. It’s clear they have had a loving relationship and remain deeply in love. One gentlemen goes to load a bike onto a SUV when, in a series of unfortunate events, he gets pinned by the SUV to the entrance gate— akin to Anton Yelchin’s accident (though they do show in the episode the SUV was placed in neutral).

He is discovered by his partner who then calls 911. Upon arrival, there isn’t much done for his lover. He is essentially declared dead on arrival.

Then, the gentleman who discovered his partner, goes unconscious while a firefighter has his back turned. Literally only a few seconds have expired when the firefighter discovers he’s passed out. They provide one and a half cycles of CPR and kind of shrug their shoulders declaring that he’s died, too.

This is unacceptable management of this patient. It’s essentially a witnessed arrest so they were correct to start CPR immediately, but at the very least, he should have been connected to an AED for rhythm analysis and probable defibrillation. A very common reason for sudden collapse are arrhythmias that will respond to electricity. There’s no reason why this gentleman’s treatment should have been so sparse. It would have increased the drama and the tension of the episode to have this patient get a full resuscitation.

9-1-1 S2/E1: What Can be Diagnosed in the Field?

October 25, 2018October 8, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Fox’s 9-1-1 series is beginning Season 2. The series is enjoyable, but there is some definite leeway the series takes when making certain field diagnosis.

In the first episode of the season, a man gets hit with an old artillery shell in his leg. As noted on the picture on the right, by simply shining a flashlight into the wound, the paramedic declares that his femoral artery has been severed. This could be more believable if there was even some mild pulsatile bleeding, even with a tourniquet in place, at the site which is characteristic for arterial bleeding.

Later in the episode, a picture of the wound is shown with a “live” shell in the anterior thigh. The fact that it is a live shell is made by a firefighter who is former military based on the color. I can’t comment on whether or not that’s true— I’m not military— but the team does make a decent choice (since the patient is stable) to not take him inside the hospital.

When the bomb squad gets there, they are able to take this sweet x-ray in the field. It is a plain, diagnostic x-ray. There is no way for an EMS crew to take an x-ray like this. Can the bomb squad? Yes. So the show is doing it’s due diligence by having the bomb squad perform this task. However, the bomb squad would not need the military to diffuse this— my law enforcement brother who used to work with the bomb squad verified this.

What other things have you seen shows diagnose in the field that they wouldn’t be able to do?

Disaster Status: Part 3/3

July 6, 2018June 28, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Dianna Benson returns to conclude her fascinating three part series on hazardous materials. You can find Part 1 and Part 2 by following the links.

I was on-shift the night an industrial hazardous waste plant burst into flames. I have all the inside information, but it won’t be released to the public, so I’m sorry to say I can’t share most of it with you. What I can say— inside the facility was stored toxic material that ignited.

The fire quickly grew to a plume of smoke then the entire facility erupted into a fireball with several rapid fire explosions. This swift and extreme domino of events occurred simply because the burning toxic chemicals were stored right next to oxygen cylinders— and oxygen feeds fire. You guessed it, properly stored oxygen is essential.

The reverse 911 system was activated. Recorded messages called all nearby residents and warned them to evacuate. View the photos included here— it was an intense explosion and the burning toxic chemicals created a massive haz-mat situation.

The chemicals involved in that explosion react negatively when mixed with water, so we were forced to allow the fire to burn itself out. Two days post the onset of the incident, a foam application extinguished the remaining flames.

Even though this makes for boring fiction, emergency agencies that night proved pre-planning and inter-agency training and execution results in excellent emergency incident response outcome. My crew along with many other emergency crews, successfully worked the potentially deadly incident— no loss of life and only minor exposure issues occurred. But think of the endless possible dramas that could have happened.

All photos are courtesy of Apex Fire Department.

Disaster Status: Part 3/3. Write realistic hazardous materials scenes. Click to Tweet.

*Oringinally posted January, 2011.*

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Dianna Torscher Benson is an Award-Winning and International Bestselling Author of suspense. She’s the 2014 Selah Award Winner for Best Debut Novel, the 2011 Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Genesis Winner, a 2011 Genesis double Semi-Finalist, a 2010 Daphne du Maurier Finalist, and a 2007 Golden Palm Finalist. She’s the author of The Hidden Son, Final Trimester and Persephone’s Fugitive. The 2nd edition of The Hidden Son released in 2016.

An EMT in Wake County EMS since 2005, and a victim advocate practitioner since 2016, Dianna authentically implements her medical, rescue, and crime victim advocacy experience and knowledge into her suspense novels. She loves helping people in need, often in their darkest time in life. Dianna and her husband live in North Carolina with their three children.

Disaster Status: Part 2/3

July 4, 2018June 28, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Returning today is award winning author, Dianna Benson, for Part 2 on her series involving hazardous materials. You can find Part 1 here.

A Real-life Haz-Mat Incident

In Graniteville, South Carolina On January 6, 2005 in Aiken County, a railroad engineer left his train for the night to sleep at a hotel in town. Before leaving his train, he failed to properly reline the railroad switch for mainline operations. Meaning, he simply forgot to change the rails on the track. Changing the rails would’ve closed off the track where his train was parked, successfully forcing an incoming train to veer-off onto another track and pass the parked train.

In the middle of the night, an incoming train, planning to pass the town, collided with that parked train, which contained chlorine gas, sodium hydroxide, and cresol. The collision derailed both locomotives and many freight cars. The parked train’s tank car, containing ninety tons of chlorine, ruptured and then released sixty tons of the gas, creating a haz-mat spill and also polluting a nearby creek.

A true haz-mat team— trained, experienced, and equipped for such a catastrophic event— is not located in small-town Graniteville. Only a few of Graniteville’s emergency crews are trained in haz-mat. Their training, expertise, and equipment is insufficient for an incident of this magnitude.

Inside the Avondale Mills plant near the crash site, a man in respiratory distress called 911. From a dispatcher’s viewpoint, this situation is heart-wrenching. Even if rescue crews could’ve safely entered the area to extricate the man, it would’ve been pointless due to his immediate exposure to chlorine.

He was suffering from bronchial chlorine burns and he died a painful death while on the phone with the 911-dispatcher. For haz-mat training purposes, I listened to that chilling 911 recording. Overwhelmed in every way, that dispatcher could only listen as this man gasped his last breaths. Understandably, she had no words of comfort to offer him. That gave me a passion to become a 911 dispatcher once I’m too old to run the streets.

When that man plead with the dispatcher, “Please, don’t hang up. I don’t want to be alone.” I would’ve spoken with him about his family and his passions in life in order to get him as calm as possible. I would’ve talked about God and offered to pray with him. Often when people suspect their death is imminent, they suddenly forget all about being atheist, agnostic, stumbling in their faith, or whatever else, and reach for God.

Due to this haz-mat incident, nine people died, two-hundred and fifty were treated for chlorine exposure, and five thousand-four-hundred residents within a mile radius of the crash site were forced to evacuate for nearly two weeks while haz-mat teams and clean-up crews decontaminated the area.

Think of the fictional characterization possibilities within this tragedy:

1) Plagued by guilt, the train engineer is pushed over the edge by predisposition to mental illness, and becomes a murderous psychotic (an example of a villain in one of my books). What similar characters could you develop? To be honest, though, my heart goes out to that train engineer. My greatest fear in life is making an unintentional mistake as an EMT, resulting in a patient’s death.

2) The 911 dispatcher: For fictional purposes, let’s suppose it was this dispatcher’s first day alone (no longer training) on the job that horrible night in early 2005, and she resigns, making her first day also her last. Think about the baggage she would carry for years to come. In addition, what if she was already in a severe financial bind and now being jobless she’s in dire straits? She’d make a likable and fascinating main character.

3) Me, a future 911-dispatcher— what if a character had aspirations to be an amazing dispatcher but fails miserably? What if he/she is unable to handle the stress of the work and is then lost in life on where to head career-wise? Another idea for a terrific main character.

Disaster Status: Part 2/3. Write realistic hazardous materials scenes. Click to Tweet.

*Originally posted January, 2011.*

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Dianna Torscher Benson is an Award-Winning and International Bestselling Author of suspense. She’s the 2014 Selah Award Winner for Best Debut Novel, the 2011 Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Genesis Winner, a 2011 Genesis double Semi-Finalist, a 2010 Daphne du Maurier Finalist, and a 2007 Golden Palm Finalist. She’s the author of The Hidden Son, Final Trimester and Persephone’s Fugitive. The 2nd edition of The Hidden Son released in 2016.

Disaster Status: Part 1/3

July 2, 2018June 28, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Nothing can complicate a story more than a disaster hitting the town in your novel. What would a realistic response look like from the EMS community? There’s no one better to talk about disasters than an EMS professional. Dianna Benson is here for a three part series on EMS and hazardous materials.

Worst Possible Haz-Mat Situations

In a hazardous-material situation, a small town can easily and rapidly become overwhelmed and thus unable to efficiently handle the crisis at hand due to their limited resources. Below is a list of some additional factors beyond “the town is small” that would heighten the chaos, and for writers, would create solid fictional conflict.

Scenario: Traveling at high speeds, two tanker trucks collide; both roll-over. One truck is an atmospheric pressure tank; the other is a cryogenic liquid tank.

Additional possible factors….

The accident occurs:
1)      Near a school during school hours
2)      Near a stadium filled with spectators and athletes/performers
3)      Near a power plant
4)      Near a hazardous waste facility
5)      Near the town’s landfill (landfills contain countless haz-mats)
6)      Near the town’s water treatment plant
7)      Near the town’s only EMS station
8)      Near the town’s only hospital
9)      Near the town’s only fire department
10)  Near the town’s only police department
11)  During rush hour traffic
12)  During a storm
13)  At 3am
14)  The closest haz-mat team is four hours away

In all of the ten “near” cases above, assume those buildings/areas are contaminated by hazardous material spills from both trucks. Haz-mats are often airborne (so air vapors), which are the most deadly simply because air vapors are invisible— they travel quickly, through most any material (including ventilation systems), and without warning. Plus, they’re next to impossible to contain. Sometimes an unusual cloud or smell is detected, but obviously that warning comes concurrent of the smell and/or cloud discovery, so those individuals in or near the hot zone are already exposed. Keeping safe distance from the hot zone is the only way to eliminate exposure.

Minimum safe distances depend on the chemicals of the hazardous materials present, but an example of an initial minimum safe distance is: 1,000 feet downwind, 500 feet upwind, 330 feet complete radius. Avoid downwind areas entirely and stay upwind. Clearly, continuous monitoring of wind changes is vital.

What additional scenarios and additional factors can you think of?

Disaster Status: Part 1/3. Write realistic hazardous materials scenes. Click to Tweet.

*Originally posted January, 2011.*
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This Is US: Jack’s Needless Death

February 12, 2018February 9, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / 4 Comments

This television episode caused more people to reach out to me over any other. This Is Us has been building up to Jack’s death for eighteen months. It needed to be big. It needed to be dramatic. Can you tell I’ve been watching the show? It was really none of those and medically— well, just weird to be honest.

If you haven’t watched the episode then don’t read this post because it will reveal his cause of death . . . like right now.

Jack’s ultimate demise? A heart attack called the widow maker caused by the stress of the fire.

Jack is in intense smoke and heat for several minutes. He emerges and is first checked by EMS. He is being given oxygen and a dressing to his arm for “2nd degree burns”. The EMS person says she can’t treat the burn and he is seemingly refusing transport, but she does encourage him to be seen. Also, giving oxygen is correct, but it is not the right type of mask. A note on burns. Burns will evolve over the next several days so you don’t really know how severe a burn will be for a while.

Jack does eventually go to the hospital to get his burns checked. The doctor is initially giving him instructions on burn care. The doctor says, “I’d like your heart rate to come down.” and glances at the monitor— which doesn’t have any readings on it. No waveforms. No numbers. He then says, “There’s soot in your airway so we’ll have to run some tests. The swelling is minor.”

That’s about it. The doctor tells Jack he basically dodged a bullet and seems none too concerned about his potential airway damage.

Just as I mentioned above, airway burns from smoke inhalation are similar to skin burns in that they evolve over time. Smoke inhalation and the potential for upper airway swelling is taken very seriously. There is a nice overview here. At the very least, there should be discussion of admitting Jack to the hospital. As quoted from the article, “Studies have shown that initial evaluation is not a good predictor of the airway obstruction that may ensue later secondary to rapidly progressing edema.” If there is concern about significant injury to the airway then the patient is electively intubated until the airway injury heals. It’s VERY difficult to intubate someone with a lot of airway swelling.

Shortly after this consultation, Rebecca decides to make a phone call and get a candy bar from the vending machine. In that, perhaps under two-three minutes passage of time, Jack codes and dies. Even though she is just outside the ER nurses station, she never hears a code being called. Doesn’t see the commotion.

The doctor approaches her and says, “One of complications of smoke inhalation is that it puts a terrible stress on the lungs and therefore the heart. Your husband went into cardiac arrest. It was catastrophic and I’m afraid we lost him . . . Mrs. Pearson, your husband has died.”

After a few exchanges she goes to Jack’s room where there is a spotlight shining on his chest with a cursory ambu bag at the head of his bead . . . but no other equipment. I’m telling you in two minutes, a code has barely just begun and is never called so hastily . . . like ever. Later, explaining the event to Miguel, Rebecca says he had a widow maker’s heart attack.

The widow maker is a real term for a heart attack. It generally refers to occlusion of the left main coronary artery that feeds the left side of the heart. It is the same heart attack celebrity trainer Bob Harper had and survived. The reason the widow maker can be so devastating is that the left ventricle is the largest, strongest pumping chamber. If it dies . . . well, you’re hosed.

There would be no realistic way the doctors would know it was specifically this kind of heart attack as shown in the episode without an autopsy. Presumably, Jack went into one of the lethal heart rhythms, v-tach or v-fib, at the time of his code. In the time frame given on the show, the medical team would have barely started CPR and given the first line treatment which is electricity. A 12-lead ECG can be a strong diagnostic tool for this type of heart attack, but they never did one. Had they done that early on, they probably would have seen the changes.

Also, he would likely have some signs and symptoms. Chest pain. Nausea. Left arm pain. Sweating. Demonstrating these might make the scenario seem more believable. Having Rebecca witness the code would have been more dramatic.

Also, it would make more sense that he would suffer this cardiac event while he is actually under duress— such as during the rescue of the children and the dog.

The only way to truly know that this is the type of heart attack Jack suffered as presented in the show would be to conduct an autopsy.

This Is Us— thanks for killing off a beloved character in a totally lame way— at least from a medical standpoint.

9-1-1 S1/E3: Evaluation and Treatment of Overdoses

February 5, 2018February 1, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

In Episode 3 of 9-1-1, the story opens with officer Athena Grant, played by Angela Bassett, finding her daughter unconscious from taking hydrocodone pills as seen in the trailer below. The daughter, who appears to be between twelve and fourteen, is whisked off to the hospital and admitted to the ICU in short order. One, did they treat this ingestion (or overdose) correctly? Two, would this type of ingestion warrant ICU admission?

It’s stated in the episode that the daughter took “six to seven” hydrocodone pills. Hydrocodone is a combination of acetaminophen (Tylenol) and a synthetic type of codeine. It comes in many different preparations with different amounts of acetaminophen and hydrocodone. Where do we start to evaluate whether or not the ingestion is worrisome?

1. How is the patient? What signs and symptoms do they have? The EMS crew in this situation is lucky. The mother knows exactly what the daughter took. She presents unresponsive with slow breathing. Number one treatment in this situation after assisting with her breathing? Give Narcan which this crew absolutely does not do. Narcan is a reversal agent for opioids. It can be given via a mist up the nose so you can generally reverse the sedative effects of the drug without even starting an IV. It is a life saving measure because it is the not breathing part that will kill you first. This is the medication they should have given first.

In absence of knowing exactly what the patient took, we can look at clusters of signs and symptoms called toxidromes which might point us in the right direction.

2. What did the patient take? When did they take it? How much did they take? Many drugs have multiple components and we have to evaluate EACH component and whether or not this could prove harmful to the patient. The opioid (once reversed with Narcan) is probably the least concerning. The amount of acetaminophen ingested is our next priority and we would calculate how many milligrams per kilogram she took. We know for acetaminophen that when you start to get between 100-150mg/kg that there could be a potential for liver damage. There is a reversal drug for acetaminophen’s damaging effects on the liver called Mucomyst, but there is a window in which this can be given to be effective. Usually, a poison control center will help us manage these types of patients.

In this case, let’s say she took six pills of Lortab 7.5/500. From this we know that each pill has 500mg of acetaminophen. Assuming the average 12-14 y/o is about 100 lbs (converted to 45 kg) then she took about 66mg/kg of acetaminophen. A four hour Tylenol level (measured four hours after the ingestion) would be checked to ensure she wasn’t toxic, but in this case likely not.

3. Will this patient be admitted to the ICU? It might come as a surprise, but ingestions of medications are most often not admitted to the ICU. Most are managed and observed in the ER. In this case, the girl should have been given Narcan by EMS. We would continue to watch for the somnolent effects of the opioid and evaluate the risk of the acetaminophen.

Also, it’s generally protocol that an aspirin level is measured as well even if the patient denies taking any. We can’t always depend on the patient being truthful about what they took and aspirin can have very devastating effects as well. Other labs depend on the medication ingested and what parts of the body if affects. This patient would likely not be admitted to the ICU.

Also, if we get a toxic ingestion within an hour we can give activated charcoal (that literally looks like black sludge) that will bind the medication. This is not always done for several reasons. One is the risk of the charcoal ending up in a patient’s lungs during administration. Usually this is done under the recommendation of Poison Control.

4. Do we notify Child Protective Services? In this episode, Child Protective Services conducts a mental health exam on the teen. In the real world, this evaluation takes place through mental health providers not associated with the state. State involvement is generally reserved for what we would consider a risky home environment. A teen getting into their parents medicine cabinet for some pills would not fall into that category. What would? A two-year-old ingesting crack cocaine that was lying around the home. Each case is handled very individually, but this case presented in 9-1-1 would not rise to that level in my opinion.

As a side note, parents are not separated from their children during medical treatment. Can we please stop perpetuating this myth?

What do you think of 9-1-1?

Medical Review of Fox’s 9-1-1

January 18, 2018January 16, 2018 / Jordyn Redwood / 4 Comments

I’m so happy to be back blogging! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and is ready for a new year. Today is officially my 20th wedding anniversary! Can you believe that? I know I can’t. It’s crazy to think how much time has gone by.

Considering the occasion, I thought it would be best to write a positive (well, mostly positive) review of a new TV show— Fox’s series 9-1-1. I know . . . you can pop your eyeballs back in. This is truly a rare event considering much of this blog’s time is spent skewering medical inaccuracies in print, movies, and the small screen.

9-1-1 is a series devoted to dispatch, police, and fire calls. I’ve watched the first two episodes and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. Now, it does have some problems. Writing completely to stereotype would be the biggest.

Let’s look at what they did well.

1. The characters face consequences for their actions. I’ve said all along that it’s okay for medical people to do bad things in fiction, but there must also be consequences for their actions. The point of this are many. It increases the conflict in the story AND reflects real life. Too many times in fiction medical people are shown doing bad things without consequence. One firefighter is shown facing some serious repercussions for his poor (saying that lightly) choices.

2. There is respect for HIPAA and also how hard that is for medical people. HIPAA is the patient privacy law. Because of HIPAA, most of us who work on the front lines (EMS and emergency departments) rarely ever hear how our patients do after they leave our care. This is, flat out, not easy for any of us and it makes closure difficult.

3. Shows the problem of poor coping mechanisms. It is true that healthcare people do not always have the best coping mechanisms. Hello, to all the nursing units with the mandatory chocolate drawer. Some develop addictions and can have bad co-dependent relationships. It was nice to see highlighted that the stress of this work does take an emotional toll.

4. Highlights the difficulty of work/life balance. Of course, all professionals face work/life balance issues, but I also feel like the nature of our work makes it hard to feel like you’re getting a break. If you’re taking care of a medically/terminally ill loved one at home, and then go to work doing the same thing— there can be little room to breathe.

5. Medical information was not distracting. The medical information was kept pretty light in the first two episodes and not too distracting. There were a few minor medical errors I’ll keep close to the vest for now.

Have you watched the new Fox show 9-1-1. What did you think?