A medical expert weighs in on the accuracy of a particularly ridiculous Chicago Med case and actually applauds the strategy a psychiatrist used to ultimately save an uncooperative patient. Chicago Med is the third installment in the One Chicago franchise and follows the emergency department team at the fictional hospital Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. Like most medical dramas on TV, Chicago Med is a blend of fact and fiction. It tries to include realistic medical terms, practices, and cases, but takes creative liberties for drama and entertainment.
However, one particularly outlandish episode got partial approval from an expert. On his YouTube channel, Doctor Mike (Dr. Mikhail “Mike” Varshavski D.O.) reacted to Chicago Med season 5, episode 8, “Too Close to the Sun,” and weighed in on its accuracy.
In the segment, which starts at 7:00, Dr. Mike watches the case of a young man with appendicitis, who refuses surgery because his social media followers dictate what he does. Dr. Mike makes several interesting points about the case’s accuracy. While he explains that filming in a hospital is highly illegal and would not have been allowed, he did praise the psychiatrist’s strategy to prove the patient wasn’t of a sound mind to deny surgery.
How Medically Accurate Is Chicago Med?
It’s a little difficult to determine Chicago Med‘s accuracy because different individuals have different perspectives. According to those working on the show, it is one of the most accurate medical dramas out there. The show utilizes the input of Executive Medical Advisor Dr. Andrew Dennis, who is a medical professional in real life. According to Dennis, Chicago Med is 85% accurate.
The creators and writers have claimed that Chicago Med pulls from published medical cases for its inspiration, though it does dramatize them significantly. It has also boasted appearances from an actual neurosurgeon, Dr. Oren Gottfried, who also makes suggestions and emphasizes depicting medical protocol accurately. However, even those working on Chicago Med admit that to capitalize on drama, these medical shows usually depict cases with very unlikely complications, sometimes making it seem as if extraordinarily rare or extreme cases are the norm.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mike has slammed Chicago Med before for being unrealistic. In particular, he was appalled by one episode that saw a surgeon performing heart surgery on a panda. He called out the show for making things up, as there’s no way a human surgeon would know how to operate on a panda or would operate on a panda in a hospital with human patients waiting for treatment. Hence, while Chicago Med might be more accurate than some medical dramas out there, there are both minor and major dramatizations that may sometimes pop up and detract from accuracy.
