Post created by Jill
The Good Doctor is a medical TV show that focuses around the character Shaun Murphy, who is a surgical resident at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Shaun has autism alongside savant syndrome, making him extremely intelligent with a near photographic memory, despite his lack of communication skills. Anatomy is strung throughout each of the episodes, as it is essential for a surgeon to know the location of each blood vessel, nerve, muscle, organ, and all of the other numerous components that make up the human body, as well as the ways in which each element interacts with another. Dr. Shaun Murphy has the impeccable ability to visualize the interworking network of the human body when diagnosing patients and treating for symptoms that do not have clear immediate physical causes.
Being an autistic surgical resident certainly presents itself with complications, specifically while earning the trust of both patients and coworkers. Though skepticism of Shaun’s qualifications is exceedingly high, Shaun demonstrates time after time his unbelievable ability to act quickly and efficiently under pressure. When high-stress situations might cause other surgeons to slip up, Shaun’s work is consistent and close to text-book perfect.
In episode 6 of season 1, dozens of injured individuals are suddenly flooding into the emergency room due to a nearby bus crash on the way to a wedding. Shaun is assigned a patient with an injured leg and a punctured femoral artery that refuses to stop bleeding. No other surgeon or medical assistant is able to stop the intense bleeding, and the patient has a high chance of dying from the injury due to blood loss. As other respondents begin to lose hope, Shaun acts quickly and constructs a home-made REBOA (Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta) using bits and pieces of materials found within the emergency room. The REBOA Dr. Murphy makes uses a balloon catheter to temporarily occlude the large femoral artery, therefore stopping the bleeding almost instantaneously. This heroic act certainly gained the attention of his colleagues, who admitted that few would actually be brave enough to attempt a procedure that holds such risk. Shaun believed in himself and acted with excellence, and his diligence and sheer knowledge of the human body paid off.
Image of Dr. Shaun Murphy, retrieved from https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/the-good-doctor-fall-tv-1.14908149
Comments