I was watching a violent action movie called Copshop the other night when I saw two things I had never seen before on television.
1. Paramedics rushed into the police station to treat an injured officer and the villain, sitting behind the front desk, shot them both dead. Bang Bang. Just like that. I can’t remember EMTs ever being shot on the job in any TV or movie I have ever seen. It unsettled me.
2. Later in the movie, the heroine cop who has managed to kill most of the bad guys, is taken away in another ambulance. The local ambulance service carries prehospital blood. How cool is that? Prehospital blood programs are spread across the country and have now shown up on TV.
I don’t recommend the movie unless you want a bloody shoot’em up. (It wasn’t bad as far as those go).
Tonight I watched the latest episode of The Pitt. I can’t say enough good things about this show. A longtime frequent flyer (alcoholic) dies suddenly in the ED of a pulmonary hemorrhage. Later after they have cleaned him up, they hold a remembrance for him with the staff. When the seasoned charge nurse was teaching the new nurse how to clean a body, she told her they always leave one arm out. Why? the young nurse asks. The answer: so their family can hold their hand. They try to find his family, but when they call his emergency contact number, it is the ED. When the staff are gathered around him, remembering their experiences with him, the new nurse takes his hand and holds it in her own. This show always gets the emotion right.