TVSquad

My best friend is a Dr at an ER here in NY. She tells me all the time these shows are so off it's not even funny. I always bring things up I saw on ER and she say's it may look realistic, but it really isn't. She tells me though that she likes ER the best because even though she knows it's not realistic, it's funny for in an "I work at an office, so THE OFFICE is funny to" kind of way.

A few years ago I was friends with someone in the Navy too and he used to go NUTS when watching shows and movies that army armed forces based.

Honestly, what you bring up, I didn't even think of it till I read this post. I actually thought last nights episode was possibly the best episode ever. It had everything I've come to love from Scrubs. Laugher, Warmth and a Heart. The story was very touching.

By the way, one of the best shows on TV now is Prison Break and we're talking huge suspension of belief when you watch it.

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I meant she liked Scrubs not ER. (She hates ER)

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"Was it that necessary to completely break reality in order to push a plot forward?" No, not at all. And they didn't. This story was ripped from the headlines. And while (maybe) some of the details were fixed to help translate the story to a 22 minute television episode- that shouldnt take away from the 'truth' of the episode. Suspend disbelief for a second- this is television. If you had been bitten by a dog would you mention it to everyone you saw in a grocery store? Could have been it happened after she saw J.D./Cox. "The plot is SO ridiculous that the average viewer can spot the holes a mile away"- tell that to the three people that died:

Rabies-infected organs kill 3 patients

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Rabies spread by organs taken from an infected donor has killed three transplant recipients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

"This has never happened before," said Dr. Mitch Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the CDC, in a conference call with reporters.

A fourth recipient died during the actual transplant operation, before there was time to develop the disease, officials said.

Rabies was also determined to be responsible for the death of the organ donor.

The unprecedented case began nearly two months ago, shortly after an Arkansas man suffered a brain hemorrhage and died at Christus Saint Michael Healthcare Center in Texarkana, Texas.

The man's lungs, kidneys and liver were transplanted May 4.

The impact of the virus began to emerge within weeks.

The liver recipient died June 7; one kidney recipient died June 8 and the other kidney recipient died June 21. The patient who died was undergoing lung transplant surgery.

Though the risk of person-to-person transmission of rabies is low, the disease is nearly always fatal.

Health officials urged anyone who may have had contact with the infected patients to be tested for rabies, and patients at five hospitals were being sought.

In addition to the Texarkana hospital, the other facilities are Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas; the University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital; Wadley Regional Medical Center, Texarkana, Texas; and Good Shepherd Medical Center Longview, Texas.

Cohen said rabies typically occurs in just one to three people in the United States in any given year, and is most often transmitted by the bite of an infected mammal.

Based on laboratory tests, health experts said they believe a bat infected the organ donor.

Rabies tests are not routine donor screening tests, Virginia McBride, public health organ donation specialist with the Health Resources and Services Administration, said.

The number of tests is limited because doctors have only about six hours from the time a patient is declared brain-dead until the transplantation must begin for the organs to maintain viability.

Potential donors are tested for other infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis, she said.

Person-to-person rabies transmission has been reported in only two cases, both of which occurred in Ethiopia via contact with saliva, Cohen said. One infection resulted from a bite, the other a kiss, he added.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/07/01/rabies.organ.transplant/

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But it ruined the episode for you that much? Take your issue out of the equation, then wouldnt you admit this was an amazingly solid episode?

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"We don't expect Scrubs to adhere that close to medical reality -- it's a comedy after all -- but if a plot is so ridiculous that the average viewer can spot the holes a mile away, that means that the episode probably needed another rewrite before they started shooting."

Do you really think that the "average viewer" would know that the organs wouldn't go directly from one patient to another in the same hospital without going through UNOS first? Of course not.

Props to Lawrence and crew for taking an unusual and interesting story and making it work (and yes, overall it works) given the restraints of time and reality.

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I wonder if maybe the reason Cox is so manic-depressive and otherwise screwed up is because he continues to blame himself for every death (valid or not), and the "doctors" that he refers to when counseling JD mostly include himself. Maybe he sees the idealism that he used to have in JD, and wants to somehow shield him from the mental trauma that he endures every day.

Oh, and I thought the best moment of the episode was the bit with Cox's retort to the PIRG-like guy outside the sandwich shop... but maybe that's because the whole 'can you spare a few minutes for _x_' really gets on my nerves...

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Joel, I think your right by saying the average viewer is more trained these days. With so many medical shows on TV these days and ER being on the air since 1955 (give or take a decade) we do notice more of these things. But I've been watching ER since Clooneys days and I didn't catch what you caught. I do suspend a lot of disbelief when I watch all of these shows. I really thought this was one of the best episodes.

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I think that, in the case of a comedy, the 'average viewer' plays along (suspends disbelief) in order to take the ride of the story. And I think you're scrutinizing this story like it's some medical report rather than a sitcom story line.

Would you rather Scrubs take a shortcut so that they can present an unique storyline and original show, or watch Jim Belushi forget his anniversary again (i'm sure those writers can pull that one off without any loopholes.)? Wait, don't answer that.

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I knew all about transplant waiting lists. However, I'm pretty sure that there is a mechanism in place to deliver organs from a donor to a recipient in the same hospital when there is an emergency situation. Since both the heart valve guy and the liver woman were literally going to die within a day or two if they didn't get the transplants, and getting the transplants would have meant a full recovery (minus the rabies), I think that they would have been cases in which patients are given priority on the waiting lists.

The kidney guy, as Dr. Cox said, could have waited weeks or months for a new kidney, so that doesn't really fit the bill there.

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Wasn't Elliot friends with Jill in a previous episode(becasue they were so similar)? Shouldn't she have at least acknowleged her death? just a scene of her and jd standing by her or something...

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While I don't mind the serious parts in Scrubs, can't we have just one episode where it's jokes from start to finish? The Todd subplot was hilarious, but they kinda ruined the whole atmosphere with the patients dying and Cox deciding to leave. The drama went a bit too far I think.

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The Tod, when walking down the hall checking everyone out, should have gone into over load. That would have been funny. And a nice forshadow of the cox breakdown.

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Scrubs is one of those shows that frequently pulls that twist at the end that makes me think back to the previous 20 minutes I just watched and reevaluate my perceptions and a lot of times it's pulled off amazingly well, so much so that I've gotten choked up a number of times. The problem I had with last night's episode was that the commercials for it completely ruined the emotional impact at the end: "THIS TUESDAY DR. COX FINALLY REACHES HIS BREAKING POINT" and then they show the scenes of him knocking things over and J.D. trying to talk to him. I knew the whole episode exactly what was going to happen (not the rabies, but the patients dying) and so it came off as really forced and unreal to me. But that's just me. Scrubs is still better than 90% of television anyway.

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Scrubs has been one of my favorite sitcoms. That being said I have never like Medical Dramas. I dont watch ER, House or that other one I cant remember the name of right now.

Scrubs has always broken the 'Sienfeld Rule' (no hugging, no learning)...but has still been one of the funniest shows on TV. if this episode is the beginning of a new era of more dramatic episodes then (I hate to use this overused term...but it is fitting) we will see "Perry quting" as the 'Jump the shark moment' for Scrubs

...lets hope this episode is just an anomoly on an otherwise unblemished record of excellent comedy

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"but of rabies. Rabies? Did she mention that she got bit by a dog?"

The most recent cases of Rabies have all been related to bat bites because people don't notice them, in some cases there isn't even a visible bite. If there is it's normally only the size of a spider bite and gets ignored.

"Also, organs are put on a UNOS list so they go to a) the neediest patients, and b) get screened for just the problem that Cox and company encountered. Organs NEVER go straight from one patient in a hospital to another in the same hospital (kidney and partial liver transplants with living donors are the exceptions)."

Two were all desperately waiting for a transfer and dying, they were at the top of the list. One was encephalopathic (I think), Cox actually said to Turk to get consent. The only one that could have waited was the kidney patient, who Carla stepped up dialysis on, and that’s why Cox walked out because he rushed the transplant for him too. He knew he was to blame and killed someone he liked.

The only inconsistency was the patients matching, because the donor problem well they had a cause of death and didn't need to test; drugs & alcohol overdoses have the same symptoms of rabies in the terminal phase and the patients were critical. The matching as far as I know isn't too big as I've never read anything on homograft valves having to match as they aren't organ tissue.

Blood types are 38% O+ and 34% being A+ so there is a high probability they were matches and placing them in the same hospital makes more sense. You deliver the organs to the patients not the patients to the organs.

Oh and they have real doctors who give advice, watch the credits and there's one for the Real J.D. as an adviser who the show was based on. First episode was based on his first day; the problems come from real doctors stories. Aren't you supposed to research your shows a bit?

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I really really enjoyed this episode. It really tugged at my heart strings. There's just something about Scrubs.

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