Questions from a SFFD Chief on the show TRAUMA

[Just Plain Ruff]

In my discussions with Chief Wong, who I have a great respect for after getting to know him better through emails.

He sent me this email and I am going to follow through with the questions he asked me on the email.

I think that his questions have great validity.

LinkedIn

Sebastian Wong has sent you a message.

Date: 10/13/2009

Subject: RE: TV show Trauma

Dear Mr. Ruff,

You are welcome to pass my reply on to any of your friends in EMS in the region as long as it is the whole message and not edited or redacted. I also ask that you send a message from my own opinion that while the "pilot" episode was way over the top, there is an opportunity with this show to open a dialogue over some very important issues facing our profession.

I respectfully suggest that you re view the "pilot" episode and tell me if you can answer the following questions:

How does your service deal with a line of duty death?

What mechanisms exist in your service to handle the difficulties that employees experience from the stress of their jobs?

Do the field EMS providers or helicopter EMS providers in the region utilize aeromedical resources inappropritately? How much has the use of helicopters increased since CMS and HCFA began reimbursing for them?

And if you do re view the episode, the Mayor's wife is the young blonde woman who gets into the helicopter with a sprained wrist.

Best regards,

Seb Wong.

[HERBIE1]

I give the guy credit for manning up and addressing the concerns that were expressed to him.

Still haven't watched the show though,

[VentMedic]

You can read more of Sebastian Wong's comments here:

http://connect.jems.com/profile/SebastianWong

[Just Plain Ruff]

I give the guy credit for manning up and addressing the concerns that were expressed to him.

Still haven't watched the show though,

I don't think he needed to man up to anything. He really wasn't the true advisor to the show. It sounds like he was placed in a position of a rock and a hard place, the mayor said do it and they did.

The producers of the show had no intention of making this show to be realistic to the EMS communities standards. What else is new. I mean reality shows which were supposed to be based in reality when they started have become nothing more than trash tv.

When you have viewers who make Jerry Springer a top draw at all hours of the day, you have shows like Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars (I do like this show cause the women are HOT), The worlds biggest loser and many other shows, is it really a offense to our community in EMS that the show Trauma stretches the truth and reality????

I choose not to watch the show, I will re-watch the Pilot episode to address the questions he asked me to look at but I will not continue to watch the show after I re-view the pilot.

Don't we have better and bigger things out there to worry about than a stupid television show.

I can think of two things we should address ASAP

Educational requirements of our industry

Emergency Vehicle accidents

Trauma is on it's way out, there will be another crap show to take it's place in the next season or two and we can have this discussion again when that new show comes on.

[HERBIE1]

I don't think he needed to man up to anything. He really wasn't the true advisor to the show. It sounds like he was placed in a position of a rock and a hard place, the mayor said do it and they did.

The producers of the show had no intention of making this show to be realistic to the EMS communities standards. What else is new. I mean reality shows which were supposed to be based in reality when they started have become nothing more than trash tv.

When you have viewers who make Jerry Springer a top draw at all hours of the day, you have shows like Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars (I do like this show cause the women are HOT), The worlds biggest loser and many other shows, is it really a offense to our community in EMS that the show Trauma stretches the truth and reality????

I choose not to watch the show, I will re-watch the Pilot episode to address the questions he asked me to look at but I will not continue to watch the show after I re-view the pilot.

Don't we have better and bigger things out there to worry about than a stupid television show.

I can think of two things we should address ASAP

Educational requirements of our industry

Emergency Vehicle accidents

Trauma is on it's way out, there will be another crap show to take it's place in the next season or two and we can have this discussion again when that new show comes on.

Like I said, I really don't care if they show is realistic or not. It's a TV show, not a documentary. The old show biz adage is that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but in the case of something that some people assume is reality, I would question that claim.

We do have bigger fish to fry- take the show for what it is- entertainment, and if it's really a bad show, it won't last long anyway- problem solved.

[Gypsy]

We do have bigger fish to fry- take the show for what it is- entertainment, and if it's really a bad show, it won't last long anyway- problem solved.

To play slight devil's advicate: Is it a bad show to us only because we know how things *should* be? Or is it a bad show to anyone regardless of any knowledge of emergency medicne?

This is something that I long ago had to learn. Personally I feel professional wrestling is awful and I can't believe it's been on TV for so many years. Though I had to realize I feel this way because I could see the faults. I went into stage combat at the way too young of age of 4. ( My mother and step father were both in the group and I joined to help grieve over a loss in the family.) I have tried more than once to watch pro. wrestling such as WWF and all I can see are mistakes. So I end up getting disgusted and turning it off. I can now watch it and use it for ideas when I go to plan a show. I will admit the Rock has gotten me out of some rock and hard places in my "fight dances" when I find one person on their back and I somehow I have get across a stage to their weapon of choice

Could we as an EMS community doing the same to Trauma? We have been there, done that, or at least read the books so we see the problems and loop holes in the show. As people with knowledge we're getting frustrated, ranting and raving saying how bad this show is when in fact it's not all that horrid?

[Just Plain Ruff]

One more thing from the Sidelines

There are a good many people angered by this show. Let me ask this.

Do you think that there was an outcry when that Garbage collector movie with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez was playing at the movies. Was there outrage by garbage collectors?

Was their outrage by the police officers regarding the police acadamy movies?

Was their outrage when Charlie Sheen played the pilot in those stupid military movies?

Was their outrage when Ben Stiller put out that piece of garbage just recently about the military? What about the submarine movie with Kelsey Grammar and Rob Schneider?

was their outrage by the firefighters when Roxanne came out and showed the firefighters in that small town looking like total idiots?

I don't remember if there was.

Every profession has been butchered by hollywood and it's all to make a buck.

And there was hardly any outrage when the parody's of the serial killers were shown in Scary Movie 1, 2 and 47.

And then who can forget the portrayal of male gigilos in Bruce Bigalow, Male Gigalo. I didn't hear anyone from the male gigilo community expressing hatred over Bigalow.

Are we the only ones who were outraged by our being portrayed wrong?

Edited October 14, 2009 by Ruffems

[fireflymedic]

Ruff,

I think the attitude reflecting those was different. Similar to the movie Pauly Shore did that I remember quite well "In the army now". I found it hysterical as did many friends of mine that are in the military. The difference was that everyone KNEW it was supposed to be a comedy and expected spoofs, much like with many of the movies you have described. I understand creative liberties were taken and I can only imagine what the navy seals had to say about "g.i. jane". However, they are a smaller group and their rejection was probably much quieter and amongst themselves. But it certainly didn't portray them in a good light. If I were one, I would have been ashamed. However, as I am not one, and know very little about them or their training (other than it is extremely difficult) it was a decent movie (partially because I think the actors did a heck of a job in the movie playing their roles) regardless of what accuracies/inaccuracies were done.

I do recall a similar fuss for a bit about the movie Super Troopers (evidently state troopers don't have much humor about themselves). However, once they realized it was supposed to be a stupid parody of their profession they calmed and almost all of them I know (my husband included) think it's too funny despite it's incredible stupidity. If they had taken the approach to EMS that they did with Scrubs that it was supposed to be humorous and have inaccuracies in there, I think many of us would be sitting back watching and laughing like crazy. Instead they took a serious approach and wanted to make people feel like it was reality. That's a concern.

Here's one question I have - Rabbit is supposedly the higher level of care (or is he a regular medic that just happens to be on a helicopter - haven't figured that out yet), yet he passes off a pericardiocentesis to a street medic. I understand VERY few places have this within a protocol granted under direct online medical direction. Think they went looking too much for the zebras and forgot the horses that are standing there looking at them.

Good questions posed there though Ruff -

[ut-napishtin]

One more thing from the Sidelines

There are a good many people angered by this show. Let me ask this.

Do you think that there was an outcry when that Garbage collector movie with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez was playing at the movies. Was there outrage by garbage collectors?

Was their outrage by the police officers regarding the police acadamy movies?

Was their outrage when Charlie Sheen played the pilot in those stupid military movies?

Was their outrage when Ben Stiller put out that piece of garbage just recently about the military? What about the submarine movie with Kelsey Grammar and Rob Schneider?

was their outrage by the firefighters when Roxanne came out and showed the firefighters in that small town looking like total idiots?

I don't remember if there was.

Every profession has been butchered by hollywood and it's all to make a buck.

And there was hardly any outrage when the parody's of the serial killers were shown in Scary Movie 1, 2 and 47.

And then who can forget the portrayal of male gigilos in Bruce Bigalow, Male Gigalo. I didn't hear anyone from the male gigilo community expressing hatred over Bigalow.

Are we the only ones who were outraged by our being portrayed wrong?

I'm not entirely sure that you are making fair comparisons here. Ours is already a highly misunderstood profession. A "serious" show about EMS with the mistakes, drama, and inaccuracies of Trauma only further this misunderstanding with the general public.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'm not entirely sure that you are making fair comparisons here. Ours is already a highly misunderstood profession. A "serious" show about EMS with the mistakes, drama, and inaccuracies of Trauma only further this misunderstanding with the general public.

No I think the comparisons are valid. what I was comparing the shows to was to drive home the point that we know that the show sucks and we know better but does that really matter to hollywood? I think not.

Yes the shows I listed were parody's but what if they weren't? Would the outrage be there like the outrage is here.

One other thing, we see bad and incorrect medicine in our field perpetrated by actual providers and where is the outrage in that. We all have on this forum cried out when someone sully's the good name of EMS but unfortunately there are bad providers everywhere and we need to weed them out.

What we need to do instead of gripe about a television show that will not make it to the end of the season, we need to grasp this opportunity to educate the public as to what we really do.

The public doesn't care that we sit around in our ambulances for hours waiting for the call that may or may not come, they care about seeing the excitement of the mass casualty incident. They don't care that we hold granny's hand while she takes her last breath or holds uncle bob's hand during a transfer from the nursing home to the hospital or vice versa.

The public wants to see in a show like this the explosions, the death defying acts of that awesome helicopter pilot and the heroics of Rabbit saving that kids life by doing a cric. They don't give a rats ass as to the realisticness of the show.

What we should be looking at what we personally can do to further this profession not how outraged we are over a television show that won't be remembered except by those on here.