Medicine of ER: How We Almost Die

by Alan Duncan Ross, Harlan Gibbs

Reveals the medical facts behind the fiction of the television series "ER," recounting the true stories behind the episodes, explaining the characters' lingo, and tracing the show's occasional medical bloopers

Genres: Nonfiction, Medical, Science, Health

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Cindy (BKind2Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded to 4

Fairly interesting and surprisingly holds up fairly well despite being written nearly 30 years ago. ER was a huge hit ('must-see tv') and very fast paced although even then you knew that the cases were in many cases exaggerated or otherwise embellished for the tv audience. The authors describe a bit of the history of emergency medicine and give the lay reader explanations for some of the commonly used acronyms and abbreviations used on the show. As a medical professional (pharmacist), I was able to quickly read over these since I saw nothing unfamiliar. I only saw one thing that was an error and likely only noticed it because of my 45 year career in pharmacy (The authors indicate that a GI cocktail contains Maalox, Donnatal, and Novocaine - but Novocaine (procaine) is only used as an injectable anesthetic. A GI cocktail uses Xylocaine (lidocaine). Picky pharmacist moment over.) The authors give a dose of reality for some of the episodes from the first 2 years. They are correct on the criticisms - there's no way an OB patient stays in the ER for longer than it takes to identify the patient as pregnant and the malpractice lawyers would be salivating over a case where an ER doc performed a c-section.

Quote I liked:

Sign in hospital lab: Be nice to bacteria. It's the only culture some people have.

[Bonnie Morse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good work defining and explaining medical terms from the show, as well as calling out the more ridiculous characters/events/episodes of the first two seasons. Only skipped one thing in each category that I would like to have seen: definitions of less formal terms (LOC for Loss Of Consciousness; LOL for Little Old Lady [that took me 20 years to figure out]); and the tendency of transport guys to give waaaaayyyy too much info on each patient. e.g. "16 year old jet ski accident down by Navy Pier. Her idiot boyfriend tried to outrun a 20 foot whaler." would in reality be, "16 year old jet ski accident." The medic in the helicopter is unlikely to know the rest, and if he did he wouldn't waste precious seconds on the hospital roof repeating it. It's also a waste of good coffee break chat.

On the same note, medics bringing in injured drunk drivers don't detail the accident, place blame, and list the other victims while giving vitals and stats. Again, they don't waste their time learning all the details, or the doctors' time repeating them. Which should be a big relief to anyone who's watched the fictional ER doctors take that information into account while deciding how, or even if, to treat the patients.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very book tying together what happens on the TV show and in a real ER. Alan Ross defines many of the terms and explains the procedures so the non-medical reader can easily understand the facts. I can't say for sure how accurate the information is although I've worked as both an EMT and in an emergency clinic because I worked in a military setting which is at least a little different in training than the civilian sector.

[Violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a review of common terms used, such as CBC,UA, BP,etc. I never watched this show but I did work in a hospital for a while. It was interesting to see how the writers changed things to make it interesting for the viewers, even if it was not the way a true ER would have been run.

[Madi Harbuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was great to see how the show ER stacked against the real life ER. The breakdowns of terminology and given definitions was great, and helpful if you have zero expertise in medical jargon.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors take readers through some memorable scenes from the early seasons of ER and explain in familiar terms what is going on. While I have a fairly good handle on medical terminology and what goes on in an ER from watching TV and reading books, I found this book very educational and a good read. Like other fans who watched the whole run of ER, I had forgotten about some of the minor characters or those who only starred in the first couple seasons and didn't return later, so some of the scenes were hard to picture if they involved one of those forgotten characters.
Interspersed among the television patients are accounts of real-life stories from the mation's ERs that either support a similar case on the show or explain where the screenwriters took some dramatic license with the TV doctors and patients. While I certainly would have liked more of the real stories, the book is titled 'The Medicine of ER', so it is probably best that the focus was on the show's patients to keep readers intrigued and with a frame of reference as the book progresses.
The main thing lacking in this book is that it was written early in the show's run, so some of the big stories from later seasons aren't in here. That said, I think the authors covered the basics of a variety of ER cases, so to write a sequel just for the new and unusual things that happened later on without being redundant could have proven difficult. Plus, ER was a huge show those first few years, so I'm sure the authors seized the opportunity to capitalize on it, rather than waiting for the show to have its run, when the market for such a book had probably bottomed out.

[Lindsay Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not particularly well-written and didn't inform me of medical knowledge that I did not already know, but it brought back memories of my favorite television series ever and for that the book gets 3 stars!! A must read if you love ER!!