The Medicine of ER: An Insider's Guide to the Medical Science Behind America's #1 TV Drama

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

How factual are such popular, reality-based television dramas as NYPD Blue or ER? Devotees of the latter will get an eye-opening critique from coauthors Ross, a screenwriter, and Gibbs, a practicing emergency room doctor. After a dramatic opening of their own in which the reader, shot in a carjacking, is saved on the operating table, the authors handicap the credibility of the characters seen on ER. Ross and Gibbs, who have no apparent connection to the show, rate its verisimilitude fairly highly, but they unhesitatingly slam the program's errors, condemning the character of heartthrob actor George Clooney as having "the least in common with the real world of emergency medicine." On medical procedures, the authors delve into what various episodes have depicted about heart attacks, major trauma, and one Emmy-award winning C-section--which if performed in real life would have been malpractice! ("That's show biz," the authors shrug). Adding a last fillip of truth, they tabulate the huge bills various patients on the show would have incurred. Far more informative than the usual TV-oriented book, this snappily written (and soon to be heavily promoted) title is a welcome relief from the genre's fawning style. Gilbert Taylor