Greys Anatomy

[kitkatz]

Here we go again.  How does a two time heart transplant patient get on the UNOS list for a kidney instantly in Grey's Anatomy and put on PD with a little 30 minute surgery?  What?

I cannot even get listed due to low BP.  How does this happen?

[Michael Murphy]

The same way Dr. McCoy cured the women on dialysis with a pill in the Star Trek movie, it’s fiction.  Writers for movies and tv shows can cure or fix anything cause reality does not rule the script.  Unfortunately this sort of intrudes on our reality since we all expect the Marcus Welby out come in every case,  I get by by repeating the following mantra “it is what it is”. Not what I want it to be.

[Riki]

When I went on PD the first time, the surgery to put in the temporary catheter took about 10 minutes, and I was awake for the whole thing.  This was used for about a week, until I was stable enough for the permanent catheter.  I wasn't allowed to move while this catheter was in, and everything ran on gravity.  I remember a green insulated bag being wrapped around the fill bags.  Of course, that was almost 30 years ago.  Things could have changed since then.

[Paul]

Please note that the following post will make no sense because I misread the original post. Am not allowed to delete it even though it is well out of context.

put on PD with a little 30 minute surgery

This has twice happened to me. When originally given a catheter I was scheduled for my first dialysis two days later. But after the operation the surgeon looked at my bloodwork and decided my potassium level was too high to wait. I was walked from the surgery to the dialysis unit and arrived about twenty minutes after surgery had finished.

Then when it became impossible to use that catheter they fitted a temporary one in my groin. The surgery was scheduled for 5:45, and I was scheduled for dialysis at 6:00. I went straight from the operation to dialysis (a little late, the procedure took more than 15 minutes).

How does a two time heart transplant patient get on the UNOS list for a kidney instantly in Grey's Anatomy.....I cannot even get listed due to low BP.  How does this happen?

I don't know about America, but in Britain the main criteria is "What are the odds you will survive the operation?" Not "What is your life expectancy?" If the second heart is strong enough to survive anasetic and a long operation, then you go on the list. If low BP means you might die on the table, then you don't.

Now I gotta go wash my mouth out, because I just defended a program that I hate!

[GA_DAWG]

That was pretty uch my experience too. I went to surgery for a catheter that was less than thirty minutes easily. Back to the room for a short visit and then straight to my first dialysis session.

[Riki]

GA_DAWG, I think you and Paul are getting confused.  A PD catheter is different than an HD catheter.  Having a PD catheter put in is a little more invasive than having an HD catheter put in, because it entails abdominal surgery.  Also, for PD, there is no real dialysis session.  When I had that first catheter put in, it was pretty much fill and drain, with very little dwell time for the first few days until I was stable enough to have that abdominal surgery to put in the permanent catheter.

[GA_DAWG]

Gotcha Riki. I will freely admit to being clueless when it comes to PD.

[SweetyPie]

I saw that episode about the match maker. I laughed when I saw it happened. All fiction lol.

[Paul]

and Paul are getting confused.

Not so much confused as misread it. Was sure it said HD until you pointed that out.

[Charlie B53]

Once upon a time.............................

Radio has an ad something like this.

RADIO,  where we can drain Lake Michigan, fill it with milk, and float Cap'n Crunch.


Now with the aid of computer graphics, that can be done on TV.


I tell people this all the time when they try to explain some outrageous thing they have seen on TV.

[tigtink]

Same thing this week on Chicago Med. A father recently released from prison kidnaps his young boy who is on dialysis, brings him to the ER. The boy is near death, apparently from missing dialysis for a couple of days. Even though the father is arrested, he is a match for his son based on one blood test. They won't let him donate, so he shoots himself in the ER and they rush him upstairs to take his kidney, and we are left to believe the boy is saved to live a wonderful life. UNOS is never even contacted, and the mother never shows up at the hospital. I could write a book about how many misconceptions this portrayal leaves about kidney disease and the transplant process. No wonder so much of the public believes you can walk into the hospital, come out with a new kidney, and go on to live a healthy life. Here I am years into the process and still waiting, even though I've complied with everything asked of me. I see it all the time in these shows.

[Paul]

I have no right to ever complain about bad reality in TV. My favourite show is about a man who travels through time and space in a box that is bigger on the inside than the outside (much bigger, imagine fitting New York into a lavatory cubicle). When he dies he regenerates into another person. Oh, and he has just become a woman, but did not realise it had happened until people started calling him "Madam". After that, a little thing like a major medical inaccuracy, is a minor thing.

Although, if we are getting anything from TV shows, I want that X Files dialysis machine that makes you younger while it dialises you!