In real life, whose life would be saved?

BenPanced said:

You mean...TV HAS LIED TO ME? AGAIN?!

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Yes, this is one of those things that TV always, always, always gets wrong. I'm not a doctor but once I learned that it started annoying me every time, because they ALWAYS do it, and it's ALWAYS wrong!

slhuang said:

Yes, this is one of those things that TV always, always, always gets wrong. I'm not a doctor but once I learned that it started annoying me every time, because they ALWAYS do it, and it's ALWAYS wrong!

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It's not entirely wrong.

It doesn't happen that much, but there is a grey line between what is a shockable rhythm and asystole. Asystole isn't a completely flat line, and a there have been some very borderline situations that have been shocked back into rhythm.

MDSchafer said:

It's not entirely wrong.

It doesn't happen that much, but there is a grey line between what is a shockable rhythm and asystole. Asystole isn't a completely flat line, and a there have been some very borderline situations that have been shocked back into rhythm.

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Oh! Thanks for the correction, good to know. I won't be quite so hard on them then. (I've just heard doctors / other medical people complain about this so much that it started annoying me vicariously, heh.)

Marian Perera said:

When a friend was pregnant, she once told me she wondered what would happen if the umbilical cord got twisted around the fetus's neck somehow. And my friend would never know until it was too late. Even if she did know, she would hardly be able to reach in and untangle it somehow.

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That happened to my son. He had somehow managed to get the cord around his neck and to tie a "true knot" in it. This meant that every contraction tightened the cord around his neck. At first the hospital didn't spot this. They left us on our own as the contractions increased.

When they did check on my wife they found that our son's heartbeat or pulse (can't remember which) was fading alarmingly with every contraction.

Then suddenly we had doctors and nurses appearing out of nowhere. Before we really knew what was happening were in the theatre for an emergency C-section. The doctors were shouting orders at each other. We didn't know what was happening - whether our son was going to be okay or not. They pulled a screen over my wife's stomach so we couldn't see what was happening at the business end.

Then the doctors started asking each other about their holidays. It seemed such an odd thing. It was if we weren't there. The pace and urgency just fell away.

I heard a baby crying. I didn't dare say anything at first in case it was someone else's baby in a nearby room. That would be a cruel irony.

I peaked over the screen and saw the nurses washing a very pink and bloody little boy. They checked him over and then wrapped him in a blanket. He was fine.

He's now a strapping 14 year old. Taller than both of us, and already knows everything. Except how to get dressed before midday.

To answer the OP - I'm not an expert but I would have thought that the doctors would always prioritise the mother unless the mother had medical complications which meant that her chances of survival were small.

Once! said:

Then suddenly we had doctors and nurses appearing out of nowhere. Before we really knew what was happening were in the theatre for an emergency C-section. The doctors were shouting orders at each other. We didn't know what was happening - whether our son was going to be okay or not. They pulled a screen over my wife's stomach so we couldn't see what was happening at the business end.

Then the doctors started asking each other about their holidays. It seemed such an odd thing. It was if we weren't there. The pace and urgency just fell away.

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Yeah, if there's one thing we're bad at, and the MDs in particularly is not scaring the crap out of patients. There's what "Emergency" means to normal people, and what it means to medical people.

slhuang said:

Yes, this is one of those things that TV always, always, always gets wrong. I'm not a doctor but once I learned that it started annoying me every time, because they ALWAYS do it, and it's ALWAYS wrong!

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I was just watching a movie and was reminded of this thread.

Of all things, my favorite anime (Evangelion) actually gets this right, when Shinji is shocked with a faint rhythm.