Medical dramas have more often than not been immensely popular on TV. The intense life and death stories, Adonis like surgeons, uber- competitive super- attractive residents, wacky patients, natural disasters, passionate hospital romances, the never- ending drama; keeps the viewers hooked week after week.
And propagates a ton of lies and half- truths!
They present a seriously distorted concept of what a surgeon’s life is like.
Of course there are times, when interesting, intense, exciting things transpire in the operating room or in the surgical wards. After all art does imitate life. But most days in the “office” for the surgeon are mundane and uneventful. Some days can be borderline boring even!
Here are the top ten lies/ myths about surgeons that is often dispersed on medicine/ hospital based TV shows:-
1. All surgeons DO NOT look like this…..
Or this
Na.. Not this either.
We are mostly plain Joes and Janes who have spent a better part of their life labouring over books and cadavers.
Also, most of us like to remain and be photographed with our mouth- masks on. Makes us look more mysterious and attractive.
2. Surgeons don’t always marry surgeons. And romance is not always in the air!
3. Every surgery is not an emergency. Every patient doesn’t CODE. And every patient does not bleed gazillion litres of blood.
4. We can NEVER talk back to our consultants and senior surgeons, the way they do in movies and on TV. EVER.
5. We are all NOT borderline alcoholics.
We don’t spend our downtime doing this
6. Unlike popular perception, not all consultants drive to work in this-
We will most likely be coming in like this
7. Our lab coats aren’t always clean and immaculately pressed. Our scrubs aren’t always spiffy
8. We are usually not allowed to have our hair run wild. Our senior female consultants would kill us if we went in like this-
Or even this…
Hence the tamed hair.
9. We do not come to work with perfectly made-up faces with false lashes to boot.
We usually have just enough time to put some decent clothes on and stuff some grub down our throats.
10. And finally, unlike what TV may show you, we DO have a life outside the hospital.
That is all for today, folks.
Lot more tales from the operating room yet to come.
Till the next tale…..
Dr J.
Manic Mum Life 
I particularly enjoyed point 4. So spot on!
Obviously you are still a student, resident or fellow then!
Aspiring resident 😀
That’s hilariously funny but true…. Although I am married to a surgeon. But we’ve never had sex in the cleaner’s cupboard, in anyone’s office, in the examination room nor in the ambulance.
But your non-surgeon friends never believe you, right?
Yep. Although the husband likes his friends to think it’s all true…… Egotistical male surgeons *sigh*
The worst of the kind! It makes who they are!
Reblogged this on Random Thoughts From My Pensieve and commented:
Came across this very interesting post. All the medical TV series (however interesting and glamorous they are to watch) have built a certain steerotype of a medical professional. But the truth is that all physicians aren’t as smart as Dr House, nor good looking like Dr. Shepherd, nor as dedicated as Dr. Yang. We are normal people with a normal, albeit different, job.
I had myself thought of talking about this. But for now, this post summarizes the gist of my thoughts. Read along..
Ha ha that was fun. I’m a surgeon and I still love watching Grey’s Anatomy. And everything you said is so very true. But Grey’s always makes me look up to those characters. In fact, the series may even have inspired me at some level to be a surgeon. No regrets though 😉
Thanks! True…Same here…
You must have noticed I was partial to pictures from Greys’…I too love the series. Have watched and re- watched it tons of times… In fact, the next post on this series is about how Grey’s Anatomy is true/ right on so many levels!
Looking forward to it. 🙂
Wooow….cool blog….he he
Thanks Gaurav!