Plot A: "Gentleman Joe" Cavanaugh, a former middleweight champion, stops by the 4077th during his tour, quickly proving that he is no gentleman. When he keels over with a stroke, the media descends on the camp like vultures, clustering around Hawkeye and demanding minute-by minute reports on "The Champ's" condition. Father Mulcahy, in the meantime, who remembers "Gentleman Joe" back when he was still a gentleman, stays by his side, telling the comatose man that he had taught Mulcahy by example that it was possible to be a fighter and still have high principles.
Plot B: B.J. cobbles up the first defibrilator used on a human patient, saving a patient with a fibrilating heart. In spite of being surrounded by the media, none of them care about this major medical advancement.
After the media started crowding around Hawkeye, Charles, B.J, and I think Margaret started sneering at how Hawkeye had let celebrity go to his head. Watching Hawkeye, it seemed obvious to me that he was NOT enjoying all the attention. He was cracking jokes, sure, but that's habitual with him. He seemed very annoyed having everyone in his face.
At one point a reporter is speaking to Margaret and she replies testily, saying something like "...we have a ward full of soldiers with their guts shot out, only they're not going to be in the news." We then see that Gentleman Joe is completely alone in the ward--all the other patients had been transferred out. And just when were they moved, anyway? When Gentleman Joe first turned up, the ward WAS full of patients.
Does anyone know if the defibrilator was used correctly in this episode? In a lot of shows, it's used when a heart has stopped, which is incorrect. It's supposed to be used when the heart is still beating a little. Just wondering!
There is a discussion over on the original Nitcentral Odds and Ends page (The Defibrillator Files) wherein defibrillator usage wis discussed.
Margie, based on the plot summary above, it sounds like it was used correctly. DISCLAIMER - I haven't seen this episode in zillions of years.
I'm pretty sure I remember that the heart was fibrillating, not stopped.
A defibrillator is only useful if the heart is beating in a certain way. I often hear "Rythem's asystole, get the paddles" or whatever, and that's totally wrong. The patient had to be in some kind of fibrillating pattern for a defib to work. A-fib (atrial fibrillation) or V-Fib (ventricular fibrillation) are patterns that a defib would work on. I'm unsure about A-and V-flutter, but I know that it would not work on a heart that had to beats at all. I know it was used correctly in this episode os MASH, b/c the heart was "wriggling like a can of worms" and that's definitely a fibrillating pattern.
I really like this episode for many reasons, but there's something that bugs me. Like the dialysis machine that BJ and Hawkeye built, it seems pretty unlikely that a doctor could just whip up a complex piece of equipment. I mean, order some stuff from Sears Robuck and add a nut or bolt here and there, and presto! a valuable piece of medical equipment. Just a little too neat in my estimation. The dialysis machine is especially suspect. BJ and Hawk are surgeons. Hawkeye is a thoracic man. Neither one of them are renal specialists nor do they make any mention of dialysis nurses being there. Yet it all worked out fine. Just way too "Hollywood" in my opinion.
I always wondered about that, too. Nice of the patient's heart to keep wiggling away while they were getting set up. (And just how long could a person survive a fibrillating heart? Was B.J. massaging the heart to keep blood going through?)
I just popped over to that Defilbrillater files site. One person commented on the show Emergency!, implying that they used the defibrillator wrong. I'll admit that they used that defibrillator on practically every show, but they did use it correctly--the heart was always fibrillating when they zapped it. If it flatlined, they called for epinephrine (sp) to restart the heart before zapping again.
(I'm sticking my 2 cents in here because I don't have E-mail and therefore, cannot put it in the proper file, even if it's still open for submissions.)
Well, people can survive long periods of time with a fibrillating or fluttering rhythm. Many people live with it undiagnosed. They possibly could have been trying to fix the problem just because they could do it. They also could have been trying to avert a more serious problem from developing--if the problem was brought on by trauma, which it was (wasn't it?), then a fibrillating pattern is simply a precurser to a more damaging issue.
One small point, though, is that they never mentioned giving an anticoagulant such as Heparin, which should be given with a prolonged fibrillating heart. What happens is that the blood is not pumped out of the chambers effectively, therefore some pooling of the blood can occur in the bottom of the heart chambers. This pooled blood can develop small clots. When the heart is shocked into a normal sinus pattern, these clots could be pumped out to the rest of the body, including the brain, which could cause death. Pretty important thing for them to have forgotten.
In the opening shot of this ep, we see Colonel Potter's office. In the foreground is the phone in Potter's office and next to it are six notebooks folders and one book. The spines of these books face the audience. Which seems unusual to me. I mean, the only reason for the spines to be facing the camera is so that somebody could tell what the books are if they had their backs to the camera. However, I never thought there'd be enough space there for someone to read the spines that way. I thought there was a wall there. I would have expected the spines to face the Colonel, rather than the wall/camera. (If that makes sense.)
Earlier this season, the painting Potter did of Hawkeye in "Depressing News" was on the upper left side of the doors going into Klinger's office. Now it's on the lower right and partially obscured by a filing cabinet.
When Hawkeye tells Cavanaugh the 4077th has still every blue moon, Potter's arms are extended across the table. In the next shot, the left arm is folded across his torso.
While it is true that Mulcahy has his napkin in his hand after withdrawing his question to Cavanaugh, it is only in the next shot that he's using it to wipe his mouth. Before that, it closer to the table than the Padre's face.
As Potter begins to make his toast to Cavanaugh, his drink is on the table. The camera angle changes and the drink is in the Colonel's hand.
After the media started crowding around Hawkeye, Charles, B.J, and I think Margaret started sneering at how Hawkeye had let celebrity go to his head. Watching Hawkeye, it seemed obvious to me that he was NOT enjoying all the attention. He was cracking jokes, sure, but that's habitual with him. He seemed very annoyed having everyone in his face. - D.K. Henderson
I agree. Pierce really doesn't seem to be going out of his way to court the reporters. Certainly not the way Charles did that one reporter in "Major Ego". Or how B.J. and Charles were acting about having an article printed in Stars and Stripes in the ep, "Stars and Stripe".
While Father Mulcahy is talking to the comatose Joe Cavanaugh, Cavanaugh goes for facing left to right, back to left again each time he is shown.
Recounting the Cavanaugh v. Giovanetti fight, Mulcahy says, Cavanaugh had the ref stop the fight. In the next shot, Mulcahy's head acquires a sudden tilt.
It's amazing that throughout Mulcahy's monlogue to Cavanaugh, the press is not taking pictures through the windows of the door.
Potter asks why he hasn't heard about using electro-shock for defibrilating. In the background, Pierce is looking down at his patient. In the following close up shot, Pierce is no longer concentrating on his patient.
Okay. Everyone's in surgery. B.J. is massaging his patient's heart. Just who the flamin' built that defibrilator? And on such short notice?
The reporter Hawkeye and B.J. are talking to in the Mess Tent has a file with some papers in both hands over a suitcase. In the next shot only one hand holds the file and papers and they are not over the suitcase.
Wonder what happened to that refrigerator Klinger ordered using General Wilberforce's memo?
"The undrinkable chasing the inedible."