Grey’s Anatomy premiered in 2005 becoming the greatest medical drama of all time on television. It is currently airing in its eighteenth season on broadcast network ABC, with a strong base of loyal fans who have followed the show throughout its long run, and who have witnessed huge mistakes made by the doctors who make it. life in the fictional hospital known as Gray Sloan.
During all this time, the success that Grey’s Anatomy has achieved is not only due to its fascinating stories that involve each of the characters, but also to the quality of interpretation of its actors. However, that does not mean that in the rich plots of the long-running series in which a good number of patients have been seen to die, mistakes are not made, despite the fact that the production of the drama has advisers who are doctors in real life.
In this sense, in its long career Grey’s Anatomy has many times presented wrong medical procedures on screen, which if committed in real life would put the lives of patients at risk. That is why the ABC series has repeatedly been criticized by real doctors, who have stated that the program is not as realistic as it appears to be.
As fans may recall, in a memorable scene from Grey’s Anatomy, a patient named Sylvia comes to the hospital seeking urgent medical care after a fork is stuck in her neck. She was treated by Ellen Pompeo’s character, Meredith Grey, who not only removed the object from her body without damaging the affected area, but also ordered an MRI beforehand.
If this medical malpractice committed by Meredith Gray in the ABC fiction had occurred in real life, it would have caused the death of the patient instantly, since the medical team with which the MRI is performed is basically made up of a large magnet, and therefore the fork would have been ripped from Sylvia’s neck causing significant damage.
The plot of that disastrous scene provided a lot of drama, however it made it clear that Grey’s Anatomy is not realistic in everything it shows in its stories, although it tries to be as authentic as possible. It’s certainly a memorable episode not only for the uniqueness of the fork-in-the-neck incident but for the unlikely MRI ordered by Meredith Grey.
