5. Medical Shows Need to Get a Goddamn Consult
A Critique of B Positive Episode 5 “High Risk Factor”
It may seem like I’m picking on this show. I definitely am. And at the same time, I’m thrilled that the kidney is finally taking center-stage. To my awareness, the first time the kidney was somewhat featured on the big screen was in the movie Steel Magnolias. There was a scene in which Shelby (Julia Roberts) told everyone in the beauty shop that her mama (Sally Field) was giving her a kidney so she could stop looking like she was driving nails into her arm for dialysis. They never showed her on dialysis, but they did tell us diabetes was the cause of her kidney failure and they depicted the fistula properly. So, since I can’t even say that about B Positive, as far as I’m concerned, this critique is exactly what it deserves. May all screenwriters and producers contemplating a medical theme take notice. The foolishness must stop.
Here are the top inaccuracies/absurdities in order of appearance explained and rated on level of my subsequent eye rolling induced by Episode 5 “High Risk Factor:”
1. Drew is worried about his potential donor Gina and her somewhat reckless lifestyle and general gullibility. So much so, he convinces her to install a tracking app on her phone and proceeds to call her incessantly, expressing his concerns over the potentially dangerous places she frequents, like when she’s out a bar with a co-worker and Norma, a resident from the retirement community previously known as (pka) Rhoda (only the 50+ crowd will get that reference). Norma pka Rhoda, takes Gina’s phone to give Drew a talking to and he says, “You do realize that my kidneys are failing,” which is supposed to excuse his stalker-parent behavior. What’s wrong with this?: Nobody is on dialysis because their “kidneys are failing.” People are started on dialysis because their kidneys done failed. Failed to the point that without replacement (dialysis or transplant), the person would not live much longer. Rating: 🙄🙄🙄🙄 (because this is too basic to keep getting wrong)
2. Norma pka Rhoda’s reprimand: “Wait til you’re old and have something real to worry about, like hip replacement or your doctor says you need a pacemaker or you have a stroke.” What’s wrong with this?: Sure, Drew was being an obsessive ass who needed a talking to…and to compare apples and oranges (or hips and kidneys) when you’ve never had an orange (or kidney failure) is dismissive of another person’s experience. On the other hand, I also get how irritating it is for someone to whine about something comparatively trivial to what you are going through. No one taught me this better than my husband shortly after we started dating, when in response to my complaining about something not life-threatening, he said: “It ain’t like it’s kidney failure.” [Cue our first argument.] Just as most of us could benefit from an it-can-always-be-worse-lesson in perspective, most of us could also stand to extend a little grace and empathy for what others are going through too. It ain’t the Suffering Olympics. Rating: 🙄 (for making me dislike Rhoda a little bit)
What they got right:
1. One potential scenario in his mind is that she will open her door to religious cult recruiters, which somehow ends with her waking up in a tub of ice, less one kidney. When his dialysis compadres ridicule him, he defends himself saying, “It does happen. People do sell organs on the black market.” What’s right with this?: There is such a thing as transplant tourism — traveling to another country to buy a kidney. It’s unethical, even when the donor consents to selling their kidney, because the donor remains in poverty with no follow-up health care and the recipient becomes a bigger selfish asshole for exploiting the poor for their own gain. Rating: 🙃 (because even though it’s right, it doesn’t make me happy)
2. Drew attempts to calm his own anxiety with a deep breathing exercise and teaches it to his dialysis buddies. Of course his brain quickly broke through with images of ridiculous scenarios of Gina dying with his kidney, but the others felt better: What’s right with this?: People on dialysis use all kinds of techniques to distract and calm — reading, doing crossword puzzles, watching movies, going to sleep, meditating. And it was clear some patients in the dialysis center where I used to see patients, visited Mary Jane before treatment. Whatever (legal) it takes. Rating: 😊😊
Watching this episode prompted me to ask my husband if he felt the same level of anxiety as did Drew in the weeks before our surgery. He did not, but he was coming from a different place: (1) he had already been on dialysis nearly six years at that point; (2) he had already been through the heartbreak of several people changing their mind about donating; and (3) he only had to wait roughly three weeks between me telling him I had been approved and our surgery date (which was 16 years ago April 14!) — and it didn’t hinge upon me getting my life together like Gina. All that said, while we had talked about marriage, he didn’t actually present a ring and officially ask me until a couple of weeks after surgery. Guess I can’t really fault him for waiting, because had I flaked in that short time, it’s hard to imagine the relationship could move forward.
Critique on episode 6 soon. And as always, screenwriters and producers: Feel free to DM me for a reliable medical consultation.
