I love "Polite Dissent"

[dianeduane]

…for rigorous medicine applied to that often non-medically-rigorous venue, the comics. The most recent example, quoted at length (and there’s more at source — I trimmed it a little):

Dr. Koslowski (narrating): Dr. Singh decided to inject 5ccs of Adrenalin directly into the Joker’s heart. It was our only chance to save thousands of lives.

Injecting medication directly into the heart, despite what you may have seen in Pulp Fiction, is not a good idea. It’s too easy to lacerate a coronary artery (causing a massive heart attack) or inject the medication into the heart muscle (causing a fatal arrhythmia). It’s not done anymore….

Dr. Koslowski: At which point the Joker flatlined.

So what does the medical team do? They defibrillate him.
Once again repeat after me: Do not shock a flatline. It is a bad idea. It may work in comic book (like it does here), but in real life it doesn’t work and may actually make the situation worse…

Once again, the Joker suffers a cardiac arrest . This time, Batman himself jabs the Joker in the heart with a syringe full of Adrenalin. The second time’s a charm and it works! The Joker returns to consciousness and promptly escapes…which was all part of Batman’s plan; he wanted to trick the Joker into leading him to the third bomb.

…Let’s count the medical errors in a mere eight pages: the Joker flatlines and is subsequently defibrillated, not to mention injected twice directly in the heart with an overdose of Adrenalin.

Note to self: Do not seek emergency medical care in Gotham City. Hold it until you reach Metropolis.

Heh heh. Go Scott!

Tags: Batman, medicine, Joker, Dark+Knight, comics

Comments

[lunalovegoddess.livejournal.com]

"Note to self: Do not seek emergency medical care in Gotham City. Hold it until you reach Metropolis.

Don't bother going to Smallville Medical Center, either... you're more likely to leave in worse condition than you arrived. (Especially when the Kryptonians are in town.)

[dorianegray.livejournal.com]

Well, this whole storyline (as presented here) appears to be predicated upon stupidity anyway; there have got to be more sensible ways to find a bomb than to revive the nearly-dead terrorist who planted it (and why would the terrorist immediately dash for the bomb in any case, assuming he was capable of doing more than groaning weakly, which seems unlikely to me).

The medical idiocy is just a part of the whole, really. Emergency medical care or not, just get the hell out of Gotham City; it's full of stupid.

And if you're in the comics' version of Metropolis?

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Make sure the hospital isn't owned by an obscure subsidiary of LexCorp.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Wait, so you're telling us that a defibrillator is intended to be used on patients who are fibrillating? Who knew?

[wetdryvac.livejournal.com]

Sweet kittens of happiness, someone finally blathered about that stuff! Thanks for sharing.

[parakkum.livejournal.com]

That whole "cardiac tamponade following puncture of the heart wall" issue is a real pisser.

But hey, Pulp Fiction was an equal-opportunity misleader -- the Bible quote in it is also fake.

[henrytroup.livejournal.com]

A "normal" semi-auto defib won't even shock on flatline. Just says "check pads" right after "stop CPR". I was there. Guy was dead when we started, still dead when we finished.

A quick Google gets you the Asystole Algorithm (http://www.unc.edu/~rvp/old/RP_Anesthesia/Basics/ACLSAlgorithms.html#Asystole). I guess bicarb and atropine aren't dramatic enough.

[kayshapero]

Snerk....

That does it - if I ever split for comicsville, MY main superpower is going to be instant healing... (OK, I'm also going to be able to fly. That just goes without question.)