8 medical myths we believe because of movies
Miscellaneous / / May 11, 2022
It's time to find out what to do with a severed finger and whether to urinate on a jellyfish burn.
Myth 1. The severed limb must be placed in a container with ice.
In Hollywood movies and cartoons - it was even in The Simpsons! - severed fingers, hands and other parts of the body are handled very simply.
We scoop up more ice from the freezer into a bag or a bowl, put all the lost limbs there, take it to the hospital, and the doctor immediately sews everything back on. The cold keeps the tissue intact, doesn't it?
In practice, the use of such a life hack will cost the patient a finger.
By placing a severed finger directly on ice, you will provoke the rapid death of tissues due to the cold. Therefore, the American Council on Medical Specialties recommendsWhat to Do if You Cut Off Your Fingertip or Toe / WebMD do things differently. Rinse the amputated part with boiled water or sterile saline. Moisten the gauze with them and wrap your finger in it. Then place the package in a waterproof bag and only then put it in the prepared container.
This way you will prevent tissue contact with ice and frostbite. After that, you can rush to the hospital.
Myth 2. If a person has a seizure, he needs to put something in his mouth
Fragment of the film "Death at a Funeral"
After watching Hollywood films, many begin to believe that someone who has fallen in a fit epilepsy a person must put something in his mouth. For example, a spoon or a stick. Otherwise, the unfortunate person may swallow his own tongue and suffocate.
In fact, sticking all sorts of objects into people's mouths during attacks is not only useless, but even harmful. American Center for Disease Control and Prevention warnsSeizure First Aid / Centers for Disease Control and Preventionthat you should not do this because you can damage a person's teeth or jaw.
And choking on the tongue, like in the movies, is simply impossible - after all, in people it is attached to the lower surface of the mouth, and does not hang freely.
Myth 3. A talented doctor can understand any disease
When watching series about doctors, one might get the impression that a typical doctor is a specialist in a wide range of profile, which will perform a heart operation, and dig deeper into the brain, and take birth, and cure worms.
Remember the famous Dr. House. Being an infectious disease specialist and a nephrologist by profession, throughout the series he treats everything in general, including diseases that are not infectious in nature.
AT realityL. Sanders. Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis while doctors are highly specialized specialists - both in American and Russian clinics. And the nephrologist will not deal with a patient who needs to be referred, for example, to a colorectal surgeon. It's just not his profile, he does not have sufficient knowledge in someone else's field.
Myth 4. Doctors usually act like private detectives
One more thing about the beloved Dr. House. Usually, when the character of Hugh Laurie cannot immediately establish a diagnosis, he encourages his interns to enter the patient's house and see how he lives.
Subordinate doctors delve into the dirty socks of the ward and find there, for example, stains of peanut butter. House exclaims, “You idiots! Him allergy to peanuts, ”changes the treatment, and the life of the unfortunate is saved.
The audience was so impressed by what was shown that they believed in such a method of diagnosis.
On the popular foreign website Quora, even surfacedCan doctors really go into people's homes as they do in House? / Quora.com questions about whether doctors have the right to visit patients' homes without asking. But in fact, this is, of course, fiction. The doctors won'tThe real life Dr House / The BMJ.com break into someone else's home without an invitation. This part in the show "Doctor House" was added for drama.
Myth 5. You need to urinate on a jellyfish burn
Remember when Monica gets stung by a jellyfish on Friends and Joe suggests urinating on her skin to counteract the pain? In reality, not only will urine not help, but aggravateL. Montgomery. To Pee, or Not to Pee: A Review on Envenomation and Treatment in European Jellyfish Species / Marine Drugs burn condition.
Instead, you need wash awayShould You Pee on a Jellyfish Sting? /ClevelandClinic.org stinging tentacle cells from the skin, washing the damaged area with sea water. Fresh water only activates their action and intensifies the burning sensation. You can remove tentacle particles with tweezers, and at worst - with a credit card or a plastic object of a similar shape.
The swollen limb should then be soaked in a hot bath to flush out the stinging cells from the wound, and the skin should be rubbed with acetic acid, calamine lotion, or hydrocortisone cream. A cold poultice with ice will help reduce swelling.
Myth 6. The choking one must be slapped on the back with all his strength
If any foreign object enters the respiratory tract, the person will not be able to breathe. In the movies, characters usually get hit hard on the back and get their breath back quickly.
But in no case should you do this, because you can push the object even further into the throat, clogging it completely. Instead, you should perform the so-called Heimlich maneuver - grab a friend from behind and sharply push in the stomach, as in the video.
If you are choking and there is no one around, our instruction.
Myth 7. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation can even resurrect the dead
According to filmmakers, doctors have two magical means to bring people back from the other world - a defibrillator and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Myths about the first we already debunkedNow let's talk about CPR.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation includes chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration. And it can really help to reanimate a person, for example, after drowning.
But in reality, this is not such a magical technique at all.
A person who survives CPR will not jump up and run like in the movies: most likely, he willHow Real-Life CPR differs from What You See on TV / AustraliaWideFirstAid.com several broken ribs and trauma to the sternum from heart massage. And he will need medical attention and observation in the hospital, as well as rehabilitation therapy.
Besides, statisticsSurvival and neurological outcome in the elderly after in-hospital cardiac arrest / Resuscitation.com from US hospitals shows that indirect heart massage does not always help: it is effective in about 40% of cases. This is a risky and desperate procedure, and Hollywood films greatly overestimate its effectiveness.
Myth 8. A person who wakes up from a coma quickly comes to his senses
In Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Beatrix, after lying in a coma for four years, suddenly comes to her senses, kills who tried to rape her paramedic, and then in a few hours, by a colossal effort of will, restores the ability walk.
In reality, this impossibleCut! Neurologist to moviemakers: Your comas are all wrong / MPRNews.org: to restore atrophied muscles, you need an extremely long time and long-term therapy. Patients who survived a coma or clinical death, after returning to consciousness, are unable not only to kill people with a door, but even to move their hands and speak without long treatment.
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