Emergency: NYC

[starri]

This gripping docuseries follows New York City's frontline medical professionals as they balance the intensity of their work with their personal lives.

[Bastet]

Oh, good, since Nightwatch has no new episodes on the horizon, this can give me my fix for documentaries about emergency medical services.  And I like that this includes ER doctors and EMTs/paramedics; so many shows are about the hospital only, and Nightwatch is about the field services only.  I'd really like to follow a patient's case from dispatch to discharge.

[bunnyface]

I'll give this a shot.  Several years ago there were some miniseries that showed over the summers at medical centers.  One year they were in New York, one year in Boston, one year at Johns Hopkins maybe.  I liked those and maybe this will be similar.

[SunnyBeBe]

I’ll check this out.  It looks good.  

[Bastet]

I watched the whole series, and it's very well done.  Everything I wanted from a medical documentary series.  I wasn't expecting the pacing to be as it is, where some patient's cases are concluded in an episode as is typical but some play out over the course of several.  That was a great touch.

What I most appreciate is they not only showcased a variety of cases, they really set the context -- the gun violence epidemic, the gross inequities in the healthcare system, the effect of delayed care due to the pandemic, the emotional fatigue.

I'm going to talk about specific patients, so don't read beyond here if you haven't yet watched and don't want to know anything until you do.

The producers probably had to stop themselves from clapping with glee when they realized they were going to wind up with a storyline about the Neurology Chairperson worrying he was going to wind up paralyzed.  I found the discussion about whether he should be treated in his own hospital by his own department interesting.

I liked getting to know the medical personnel a bit beyond their jobs, but without it feeling like a reality show (well, the pediatric transport nurse and his love life a bit).  The two births were surprisingly emotional.  I was also quite touched by the flight nurse's grief over her mom's death, and how she feels like now having a daughter herself brings her mom back to her in a way.

I greatly appreciated getting to see the procedures; I hate when shows blur it out for the squeamish.  It's not an "Ooh, cool - gore!" thing, it's being interested in what's done, especially with today's technology, and I can't properly appreciate that if it's just a big blur.  Speaking of technology, I had no idea a kidney could be removed via laparoscopy.  The two transplant stories were interesting.

The man with the brain tumor that had started poking out of his head was a gnarly case!  I figured, especially once they got in there and saw the extent of the tumor's growth, it was not going to end well, but it's terribly sad he only made it a few more weeks.  I found the juxtaposition of his parents and the parents of the patients over at the children's hospital moving -- he's still just as much their baby as the preemie who needed all her organs rearranged is her parents' baby. 

I loved the partnership between the two EMTs.  I also loved the ER doctor; she is so good with her patients.  So were all the surgeons, which is not exactly the reputation for that specialty.  It was nice to see such a commitment to collaboration, to everyone having a voice, and to encouraging people to be open with their emotions after a tough case.

[Bastet]

FYI: The producers did an earlier series for Netflix, Lenox Hill, and the two neurosurgeons and ER doctor from that hospital featured in this series were also featured in that one.  I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but it's interesting to go back and see them before COVID.

[lu1535]

On 3/29/2023 at 5:26 PM, Bastet said:

The producers probably had to stop themselves from clapping with glee when they realized they were going to wind up with a storyline about the Neurology Chairperson worrying he was going to wind up paralyzed.  I found the discussion about whether he should be treated in his own hospital by his own department interesting.

I know! What are the odds?! In my cold, cynical heart I started to wonder if this story was contrived and acted out. I mean it was so convenient. I don't know about anyone else but I would have serious concerns about a doctor, who was completely incapacitated less than 6 months prior doing intrigue surgery on my nervous system but to each their own. 😉

[RoxiP]

I googled and the doctor did have the skiing accident - plus it would totally diminish his credibility if he manufactured something like that for television.

I hated that one flight nurse lost her job over vaccination.

I really liked that they arced the storylines about the patients over more than one episode - the young man who was shot was on the entire run of the show wasn't he?  And his mother.  I guess Covid meant they couldn't do much in the way of follow-up but I would like to know how he recovered.  (Oh I just went back and read and apparently he wanted to remain anonymous - Paul wasn't his real name.)

Edited April 5, 2023 by RoxiP

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, RoxiP said:

I hated that one flight nurse lost her job over vaccination.

Not me; she made a choice, and lives with the natural consequences.  Especially at that stage of the pandemic, she shouldn't have been allowed to make a decision that endangers public health and continue to be employed as a healthcare worker, particularly one flying around in a small space right next to patients. 

1 hour ago, RoxiP said:

I would like to know how he recovered.

Same here; we know he was able to walk out of the hospital, but I wondered how much he'd recovered in terms of mental function.  I wasn't expecting him to still be alive at the end of the first episode, never mind the series.  I hope he's doing well.

[RoxiP]

The thing is - she had worked the entire pandemic (as had many other health care workers, emergency personnel, teachers, military personnel, etc.) before a vaccine was created, endangering her own life to make sure others received quality care.  I still honestly feel like a lot of the vaccine policies were more political than they were effective (and this is from me who received three vaccine shots - the first two because I was job hunting and knew that they would be mandatory in order to get a job and the third because I was diagnosed with cancer and was told I needed to get the third booster before I started treatment).  If I hadn't been job hunting I probably would have not gotten the vaccine to be honest.  The third booster was supposedly only effective for about 6-8 weeks!

I have been exposed to Covid multiple times and have always tested negative.  Guess I'm just one of the lucky ones.

In no way am I making light of the many people who lost their lives during that time period.  I just feel like you shouldn't have to lose your job over a decision to get an untested and untried lab experiment tested on people.  If I had a small child they would not be used as a lab rat.  Most vaccines undergo decades of trial and testing and this one was rolled out in what - less than a year?

Edited April 5, 2023 by RoxiP

[AheadofStraight]

2 hours ago, RoxiP said:

I really liked that they arced the storylines about the patients over more than one episode - the young man who was shot was on the entire run of the show wasn't he?  And his mother.  I guess Covid meant they couldn't do much in the way of follow-up but I would like to know how he recovered.  (Oh I just went back and read and apparently he wanted to remain anonymous - Paul wasn't his real name.)

Do you mean Josh? My googling only turned up that they relocated and I couldn't find anything further.

On 4/1/2023 at 10:00 PM, Bastet said:

FYI: The producers did an earlier series for Netflix, Lenox Hill, and the two neurosurgeons and ER doctor from that hospital featured in this series were also featured in that one.  I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but it's interesting to go back and see them before COVID.

Thanks so much for this tip! I'm watching now.

[RoxiP]

Sorry, for some reason I got the name Paul from an article I was reading...obviously not a great source...LOL!

[Bastet]

7 hours ago, RoxiP said:

The thing is - she had worked the entire pandemic (as had many other health care workers, emergency personnel, teachers, military personnel, etc.) before a vaccine was created, endangering her own life to make sure others received quality care. 

Yes, and my hat is off to her for that.  But then, when people were still dropping like flies and a safe and effective vaccine thankfully became available to finally do more than put a bandage on the problem, she chose - and indeed chose, she had no medical condition that made vaccination inadvisable - not to do her part (vaccinations only work society-wide if the overwhelming majority of us who can get it do).  Nobody told her she had to go live in shame somewhere, they just said she couldn't continue to do that job anymore.  She again made a choice.  I applaud the work she did while she was there.  But I do not feel sorry for her choosing not to continue doing it because of a perfectly reasonable requirement.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Bastet

[starri]

COVID vaccines are well outside the scope of this show.  Let's circle back to topic, please.

[starri]

I finally sat down to watch the first episode, because I had some spare time, and also because I work for the health system featured on the show, and they've been hyping it on the screensavers on all the hospital computers.

It's kind of a weird experience for me.  I've never worked at Lenox Hill, but I spent most of my last two years of medical school at Staten Island University Hospital (where the stroke patient was picked up in the first episode), and also trained at Cohen Children's Medical Center (and the psychiatric hospital that's on the same campus).  I keep looking for people I know.

I do call foul on one thing.  CCMC shares a campus with Long Island Jewish Medical Center (for adults) and Zucker Hillside Hospital (the aforementioned psych hospital).  ZHH is in Queens, but the county line runs down the middle of the campus and LIJ and CCMC are on the other side of it.

[SnarkAttack]

I enjoyed the series, but thought it was going to focus solely on the emergency room.  

The gunshot victim kid just seemed so out of it the entire time, I really didn't think it would end well.

[SoCal Mema]

I was really bugged that the female EMT that drove one of the med units rarely wore her seat belt.

Edited April 17, 2023 by SoCal Mema

[DanielleBowden]

On 4/1/2023 at 9:00 PM, Bastet said:

The producers did an earlier series for Netflix, Lenox Hill, and the two neurosurgeons and ER doctor from that hospital featured in this series were also featured in that one. 

I found Lenox Hill after Emergency: NYC.  I wonder if Emergency was going to be a season 2 of Lenox Hill and morphed into a look at the whole system. Lenox Hill is pre-Covid and is very compelling.

 

On 3/29/2023 at 4:26 PM, Bastet said:

The producers probably had to stop themselves from clapping with glee when they realized they were going to wind up with a storyline about the Neurology Chairperson worrying he was going to wind up paralyzed.  I found the discussion about whether he should be treated in his own hospital by his own department interesting.

Spoiler

On Lenox Hill, a spine surgeon from the same practice is diagnosed with head and neck cancer and grapples with treatment decisions as well.  A chief resident receives a Noonan's syndrome diagnosis for her unborn child on camera.  I don't know if being a doctor makes it easier or harder to deal with that kind of news.

 

[SunnyBeBe]

I’ve watched most of this series and am now watching Lenox Hill.  There’s a British show about an ER in England too, that I’ve watched in the past.  I really like all of these shows. I think I should have gone into medicine.   (I chose law instead)

Does anyone know WHEN this series was filmed? 

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Does anyone know WHEN this series was filmed?

According to this article:

Quote

The documentary captures a large swath of the pandemic, too, as a Netflix rep confirmed to Bustle that directors Ruthie Shatz and Adi Barash began filming Emergency: NYC in December 2020 before wrapping in August 2022.

 

[AnnMarie17]

On 6/11/2023 at 1:40 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

I’ve watched most of this series and am now watching Lenox Hill.  There’s a British show about an ER in England too, that I’ve watched in the past.  I really like all of these shows. I think I should have gone into medicine.   (I chose law instead)

Does anyone know WHEN this series was filmed? 

Not sure if you'll see this since I'm quoting you from almost three months ago, but if you could share the name of the English ER show you watched, I'd be very grateful.  Thank you!

[SunnyBeBe]

9 hours ago, AnnMarie17 said:

Not sure if you'll see this since I'm quoting you from almost three months ago, but if you could share the name of the English ER show you watched, I'd be very grateful.  Thank you!

Yes!  It’s called 24 Hours in A&E.  There are many seasons.  I think I watched it on Netflix. It’s really good.  I have binged watched multiple shows over the weekend. I hope you’ll enjoy it.  
 

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by SunnyBeBe

[AnnMarie17]

56 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Yes!  It’s called 24 Hours in A&E.  There are many seasons.  I think I watched it on Netflix. It’s really good.  I have binged watched multiple shows over the weekend.  There are trailers for it on you tube. I’m not sure if posting those links are allowed, so I haven’t done that.  I hope you’ll enjoy it.  

Thank you so much!

[RoxiP]

I wonder why this show (and Lenox Hill) stopped filming?  I found myself so invested in the lives of the doctors on this show - the one who ended up having a brain tumor (who recently retired from what I have seen on social media), the one who had a brain injury from skiing...I want to know what happened to these people and where they are now!

[DanielleBowden]

I'd love another season!

[Bastet]

7 hours ago, RoxiP said:

I wonder why this show (and Lenox Hill) stopped filming?

I suspect at some point the disruption caused by filming is no longer worth the benefit of getting these stories out there.  They were there for two years on this series alone (I don't know how long for Lenox Hill); that's a lot to ask of staff and patients. 

[RoxiP]

That is probably true, and also Covid probably had a huge effect (affect?) on filming this type of shows.  With the massive lockdowns the accessibility just dried up plus so many surgeries were postponed.

[aghst]

On 4/1/2023 at 7:00 PM, Bastet said:

FYI: The producers did an earlier series for Netflix, Lenox Hill, and the two neurosurgeons and ER doctor from that hospital featured in this series were also featured in that one.  I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but it's interesting to go back and see them before COVID.

Watched Lenox Hill a couple of years ago.  Found it compelling telling the story of Ground Zero as covid hit NYC and it was an all-hands situation, with two of the leading brain surgeons in the country triaging covid patients.

When I heard about this show, I thought it was odd that Langer and Boockvar would do another series.  But it really sounds like they were filming for Emergency NYC (Dr. Macri as well) and then covid hit and the filmmakers shifted gears and made it about dealing with covid and got that series out first.

So they probably didn't agree to do more than one show but it became two shows because of the unanticipated crisis which emerged in 2020.

First episode of Emergency NYC I found intense, people being rushed to the different hospitals, especially Josh, the gunshot victim.  More intense than I recall Lenox Hill being.

It was very moving how much these professionals cared.  In one of the episodes, a doctor says NYC has humanity which is unique in the country or the world.  I don't know if that's the case but clearly the compassion and the way the doctors tried to connect with patients and their loved ones looked unusual after what we witnessed with the pandemic, people being pretty selfish.

All the stories are moving but I wonder how much the cameras changed the behavior of those being filmed, particularly the doctors.  I have no reason to believe that Langer and Boockvar aren't kind, well-resepected and well-loved by the staff, given their stature.

But if an asshole boss did get filmed for a documentary, I would think he or she would restrain themselves, not curse at staff or engage in any kind of bullying, which probably happens even in medicine.

All the doctors in the show explain what they're doing, especially before, during and after surgery.  Are they doing it for the benefit of their staff, to educate them?

Or are they doing it for the cameras, so that viewers can get a better understanding of what they're doing, why some of the procedures are big deals.

I liked the dedication shown by Mackenzie and one of the paramedic drivers, the Honduran woman.  Both worked well into their pregnancies and both had to have C-sections to deliver their children because there were complications.

It seems MacKenzie is all about her daughter, no longer all about the job.

But again, it was impressive to see how compassionate and caring they came across, though again with the caveat that cameras can change behavior.

Of course the same for Dr. Macri, who admits to feeling burnout, possibly seeing the end of being an ER doctor.  But she's always calm and very nice to the people she treats.

 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

All the doctors in the show explain what they're doing, especially before, during and after surgery.  Are they doing it for the benefit of their staff, to educate them?

Or are they doing it for the cameras, so that viewers can get a better understanding of what they're doing, why some of the procedures are big deals.

I had surgery last year and the team spoke just like the doctors on this series before surgery, everybody confirming what was going to be done.  It wasn't like that the last time I had surgery, about 25 years ago.  I think it's like the implementation of Crew Resource Management in aviation, where instead of the pilot and surgeon being godlike figures no one else in the cockpit or operating room can question - which led to many problems, including things as serious as plane crashes and major malpractice like the wrong limb being amputated - everyone is empowered to speak up if someone does something/proposes to do something that is a mistake.

How much communication went on during and after the surgery, I obviously have no idea, since I was out, but I think it remains procedure to say "Now I'm going to X" so there's a chance for objection or pointing out a concern.  Plus, Lenox Hill is a teaching hospital, and some of the others may be as well.  There's probably also a bit of layperson explanation added for the TV audience in a situation like this.