I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for medical dramas (all 15 seasons of ER, House M.D., Mercy, Trauma, even early Gray’s Anatomy). But I can’t bear to watch “docudrama” medical shows, for fear of just such a story as this one from the NYTimes:
Anita Chanko could not sleep. At 4 a.m., on an August night in 2012, she settled onto the couch in her Yorkville living room with her dog, Daisy, and her parrot, Elliott, and flipped on the DVR. On came the prior night’s episode of “NY Med,” the popular real-life medical series set at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, starring Dr. Mehmet Oz. Mrs. Chanko, 75, was a fan of the show and others like it.
“It starts off, there’s a woman with stomach cancer and her family, and then there’s somebody with a problem with their baby, I think it was a heart,” she remembered. “And then I see the doctor that treated my husband.”
Mark Chanko, her husband, died 16 months earlier, in April 2011, after being struck by a sanitation truck while crossing a street near his home. The doctors and nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center tried in vain to save his life.
On the TV screen, she saw the chief surgery resident Sebastian Schubl, responding to an emergency in which a man is hit by a vehicle. “And then I see, even with the blurred picture, you could tell it was him,” she said. “You could hear his speech pattern. I hear my husband say, ‘Does my wife know I’m here?’ ”…
c u n d gulag
Oy!
A horror show.
That’s all I got.
My condolences…
gogol's wife
Disgusting.
Pogonip
Poor soul.
Has anyone heard from Full Metal Wingnut about the cat?
Lee Rudolph
I had been happily unaware of this genre of TV show. Now that I’m aware, I am definitely unhappy.
JPL
I read the story when it was first posted online. After some thought, maybe folks who watch that type of show will think twice about it. Shows like that don’t encourage students to study medicine anymore than Dr. Welby did, but there are some real consequences to airing those shows.
opiejeanne
OMG.
OMGOMGOMG.
I can’t. I just can’t imagine this, nor that no one contacted her beforehand. Terrible to get blindsided like that.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I read that and really, I got nothing. It’s beyond fucked up, including the NY Presby and producer responses. That medical establishments see this as marketing is beyond disgusting.
And the “blurring” doesn’t prevent ID when people call you and say “that’s Mark, isn’t it?” I’d say that all the show’s production participants, up to and including the idiots who thought of it, should be gutshot, but that would be shrill.
mai naem mobile
I can’t believe this isn’t against HIPPA regs. I know you have to get permission if you use a picture of somebody’s condition even if its essentially anonymous – like showing a rash on somebody’s foot or arm. I can’t believe you wouldn’t with this.
Full metal Wingnut
@Pogonip: oh that’s me! The cat is an absolute sweetheart. He’s more patient than my MIL’s toy poodle who will growl and attack you if you try to brush her. He’ll let you brush him (up to a point) and gently nip and claw at you when he’s had enough.
No more hiding under the couch, he jumped up on the couch and slept next to me. He also loves the little feathers on a string toy.
satby
@Full metal Wingnut: Hooray! Happy to hear it’s going well.
Suzanne
That is horrible.
I really don’t know why anyone would enjoy watching what goes on in hospitals.
beth
Oh dear, my daughter loves those medical reality shows. I’ve watched some with her and always assumed they had full permission to show what they did. This is just awful.
WereBear
@Full metal Wingnut: I’m so happy for both of you!
rikyrah
i got nothing.
horrific
rikyrah
@Full metal Wingnut:
awe….
that’s so sweet.
not a pet person (allergies), but I’m glad to hear that you two are forming your family.
mai naem mobile
@Suzanne: i think some people watch stuff like that to make them feel better about themselves. I think the stupid court shows and Jerry Springer have a similar audience – “pathetic as my life may be at least I am not as bad as these idiots.”
Full metal Wingnut
@rikyrah: Thanks to everyone for their advice! I think I finally understand what it’s like to be “owned” by a cat. I also wish he would stop following me into the bathroom…
greennotGreen
@Full metal Wingnut: As the caretaker of nine toy dogs who also want to spend quality time with humans in the bathroom, may I suggest you just close the door?
Suzanne
@Full metal Wingnut: I haven’t pooped by myself in quite some time.
sempronia
The patient’s son and daughter are a physician and a bioethicist. That hospital is going to get sued into the ground and deserves to be.
Baud
@greennotGreen:
I initially read “who” as modifying “caretaker” and was very confused.
kdaug
@Suzanne: Ah, but were you vengeance pooping? There’s the rub. (ew)
gogol's wife
@beth:
If it’s anything like TV news people, if the person is dead they don’t think they need permission. They don’t care about what the family sees by chance on the television.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Different strokes for different folks.
SiubhanDuinne
Going all the way back to Candid Camera I’ve never understood the appeal of so-called “reality shows,” although mai naem mobile comes close to explaining the attraction. As far as I can tell, they grab eyeballs and make money through various combinations of humiliation, exploitation, schadenfreude, over-the-top totally-scripted “danger” and “confrontation,” and a deliberate courting of the lowest common intellectual and ethical denominator.
In the linked article, which I read with increasing horror, I was struck by the statement from the woman whose mother was undergoing a procedure on the same episode:
What in the name of the FSM was the purpose of that, other than laugh-and-point humiliation or a cheap synthetic sympathy bid?
The whole thing is just awful.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
FFS.
Keith G
Since this post features a horrible tale, let me pile on.
John Crawford was needlessly killed by police in an Ohio Walmart. His girl friend who was with him that day was killed in a single vehicle accident on New Years Day.
RaflW
Admittedly off topic (but I read about this on the NYT site, so tenuously connected…).
W. T. F. is wrong with the NYC cops? They again turned their back to DeBlasio at the second funeral.
I feel terrible for the families. I feel sadness for the senseless killing of the two officers. What that unstable, armed man did was despicable.
But NYC’s “finest” are doing an amazing job of getting average people to hate them. Protesting in such a way during a funeral is just an awful thing to do. But we are learning a lot about how stupid, spiteful and petty the NYC force is, so I’ll give ’em that.
Anyway, back to the horror story of this poor woman and her dying husband. Ugh. Fo sures.
Keith G
@SiubhanDuinne:
Dr Oz is a scum of the earth snake oil salesman. I am sure anything he is associated with is filled with rot. I include Oprah in that list of rot as she turned him (and Dr. Phill) loose on an unsuspecting world.
JPL
@RaflW: It would be interesting to find out how many were from out of state. The Times article mentioned that the ones out of state all turned their back. Way to show your patriotism, assholes, is what I say.
@Keith G: yup…
SiubhanDuinne
@Keith G:
Yes, I actually started to mention that and then figured my comment was already veering into tl;dr territory, so I deleted that part. But from my limited exposure to Dr. Oz, he comes across as a smarmy, hypocritical, self-important blowhard. Similarly Dr. Phil. I don’t think I knew about the Oprah connection, though.
Edit: “Smarmy, hypocritical, self-important blowhard”? Maybe he could run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. He might do less harm.
Howard Beale IV
@Keith G: If you want a comprehensive list of dangers to our society I recommend:
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/
Which covers Talebangicals and woomeisters.
Iowa Old Lady
@RaflW: They were mad at being criticized for unnecessary force and were quick to take the death of two of their fellow officers as a chance to make things all about their hurt feelings. The mayor turned people against them? How about what showed in the video of Eric Garner?
If the claim is that they think they make their own rules, then shunning the guy who runs the city they work for is a good way to reinforce that claim.
And I say that despite also thinking that being a cop in a democracy is a tough job. But I’d have a lot more respect for this bunch if they stopped whining at funerals.
shelley
That’s when the nausea really kicked in.
**************
They say it’s good publicity for the hospital? How? In what sense. You get hit by a truck, do you stop and mull over where you want the ambulance to take you?
And the sleazy way they’re trying to justify their actions. You protect someone’s privacy after they’ve been diagnosed and treated but since he was just in the ER it’s okay to film and show it? Huh??? And again, that doctor letting them take audio of his breaking the news to the family. That’s just……beyond any kind of basic decency.
John Revolta
@RaflW: NYC’s “finest” are doing an amazing job of getting average people to hate them
Actually they’ve been doing that for a LONG time now. And in worse ways than this.
shelley
And their insistence on the blurring of ‘news’ and ‘entertainment’ footage. The makers of “Network’ would be proud.
rikyrah
ARE.YOU.PHUCKING.KIDDING.ME?!?!?!
…………………..
Texas Judge resigns after being caught texting instructions to prosecutors to help win convictions
Texas district Judge Elizabeth E. Coker is stepping down from the bench after being caught engaging in a massive perversion of justice. A whistleblower revealed that Corker was sending text messages to prosecutors with suggestions on questions to ask in court in order to secure a conviction.
from Houston Chronicle:
http://poorrichardsnews.com/post/65069957264/texas-judge-resigns-after-being-caught-texting
BubbaDave
@Full metal Wingnut:
You can’t defecate without supervision! You might be doing it wrong!
Southern Beale
We have one of those based on Vanderbilt ER docs. I’ve never watched it.
Pogonip
@mai naem mobile: Yes, you certainly have enough trouble getting reports on a family member’s condition because of HIPAA. My son’s disabled by autism and has to be evaluated by a psychologist about every 10 years. Last year his turn came up and the doc said not only could he not give me a copy of the report, he wasn’t even allowed to admit he’d SEEN Bob. I told the doc all Congressmen behind that law should have to do the paperwork on a disabled family member, and no secretaries allowed–they have to do it all themselves. And now I find out that this stupid law not only does not stop companies from selling your medical information, it doesn’t stop TV shows from broadcasting someone’s death without even an advance notice to the family!
SiubhanDuinne
@shelley:
The Dr. McDreamy thing turned my stomach too.
And, from the linked article, isn’t this telling!? (Emphasis mine.)
Pogonip
@BubbaDave: FMW: [poop]
CAT: I wonder why they fill the litter box with water?
Pogonip
@kdaug: What is vengeance pooping? (“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die–but first, I must poop!”)
Pogonip
@Full metal Wingnut: May the two of you poop happily ever after for many years to come.
raven
@Pogonip: In “The Great Deluge” by Doug Brinkley he said that after Katrina there were all these offices and stores where people took shits on tables and such.
Pogonip
@raven: Inigo gets around, don’t he?
lamh36
sparrow
@rikyrah: That name is familiar… I remember her from when I lived in Texas, and it can’t be for something good. Need to google…
Ok, Edited to add that I remember her because of this very story about the texting…
http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=57552
shelley
@Pogonip:
From a previous post by Cole. He couldn’t get his JRT out of bed to go outside, and was afraid if he didn’t accede when she finally decided it was time, she’d take a ‘revenge shit.’
WereBear
@rikyrah: Just read a book, Mean Justice, about Kern County, CA, where such is rampant.
Roger Moore
@BubbaDave:
For instance, you might be failing to lick yourself clean afterward.
Misterpuff
Christie just lost the election, jumping up and down like a schoolgirl at Cowboys win. And then the attempted group hug, ugh!
If that doesn’t end up on the Daily Show…..
raven
@Misterpuff:
srv
@Misterpuff: Christie supports winners, not losers like liberals do.
NotMax
@JPL
Certainly not “all.”
hoodie
@srv: So he’s switching to the Packers next week to get ahead of Scott Walker after going for the Rick Perry vote in Big D?
John Revolta
I wonder if the NJ taxpayers are paying this guy’s airfare for this? There’s a history of such shit w/ him.
sparrow
@efgoldman: It already happened. This story is from 2013. She was slapped on the wrist and ran for something… on a plane with limited wifi connection but you can follow on it from the link I posted above.
Pogonip
@shelley: If the snowstorm we’re getting tomorrow night moves on east, there may be a revenge poop in his future.
I kind of like snow, to be honest; you can see what the local wildlife’s been doing all night! Last year when we had real deep snow I saw movement patterns that made no sense to me–turned out a fox had been listening for mice moving under the snow and pouncing when he heard one.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Full metal Wingnut:
We used to call my late great kitty “Safety Officer Boris” because he had to stay in the bathroom to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. When I lived in apartment with a shower curtain, he would perch on the edge of the tub and peek around to make sure I was okay. I miss that cat.
Barbara
@Pogonip: Have you talked to an attorney about getting a medical power-of-attorney, also a financial power-of-attorney? Though you’d have to get your son on board with that, if that will be an issue.
We have a soon-to-be-adult son with autism and that’s what our attorney suggested to us. The attorney agreed with us not wanting to take any sort of guardianship but the power-of-attorney arrangement made great sense to us. After all, my husband and I have power-of-attorney for one another; when I was single, I gave my sister p-o-a, just in case I got hit by a bus.
On another note, if you read the HIPAA fine print, it also allows your doctors to share information with all sorts of government authorities, from the local police on up. It mainly seems like it provides privacy from your family…grrr
Roger Moore
@Barbara:
It also provides privacy from your employer, which is very important for at-will employees who might otherwise be fired for getting an expensive illness that would blow up the employer’s insurance rate.
Yatsuno
@mai naem mobile: I have a very rare autoimmune disorder that medical schools need more images of. When they wanted to take a round of pictures just for that reason, I had to sign a shit ton of paperwork consenting to that fact. This whole thing makes my blood boil over to no end & I hope she sues them into oblivion.
Barbara
@Roger Moore: Oh, I’m not so sure that the insurance company liaison doesn’t talk to the human resources department, especially in self-insured companies.
Also, let’s face it, when something big happens in your family — someone needs surgery, or cancer treatment, or whatever — it’s highly unlikely no one at work is going to find out, one way or another. You’re probably going to mention it in conversation, you’re going to ask for time off for your own treatments or for all the things you have to do when someone in your family is really sick (go to the doctor with them, pick up your kid because the usual picker-upper is out of commission, etc.).