ABC’s new medical drama, Doctor Odyssey, takes place almost entirely on a luxury cruise ship, named The Odyssey, which Captain Robert Massey (Don Johnson) calls,
“heaven.”
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Doctor Odyssey is created by Jon Robin Baitz, Ryan Murphy, and Joe Baken, and centers on Dr. Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson), the new doctor on the cruise ship. Dr. Bankman is accompanied by two of his nurses, Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo, technically a nurse practitioner) and Tristan Silva (Sean Teale).
This trio of a doctor and two nurses follow various medical crises on the ship, which range from mild ones like fight wounds to extreme ones like Huntington's disease or a cardiac arrest.
However, not all the health incidents and emergencies shown on the show are accurate. Liz Baugh, Lead Medical Consultant for Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, shed some light on what inaccuracies Doctor Odyssey has shown, sharing her insights with USA Today.
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Are Doctor Odyssey's medical emergencies factually accurate?
Liz Baugh said that in some ways Doctor Odyssey is realistic. For instance, she mentioned that the show has two nurses and one doctor on the luxury cruise ship, and the Scenic’s ships have one doctor and one nurse on board, making the number of available doctors and nurses reliable.
She also mentioned that medical facilities depicted on the show are quite accurate, saying,
“So, on Scenic, we have quite small facilities. We have a one-bedded ward where we can manage an intensive care patient, and we also have a doctor's consultation office where minor procedures and things can take place.”
Similar to the show’s medical personnel who do not operate except in cases of emergency, Scenic also does not have surgical capabilities on board.
To explain this, Baugh said,
“For us, a surgical emergency will be a medical evacuation because we don't have the ability to provide the follow-up care that somebody needs post-surgery, let alone all the equipment and all the anesthetics that would be required to put somebody under for surgery.”
While this holds true, there can be times when some patients on the ship need treatment for an extended period of time. In Doctor Odyssey, Captain Robert Massey warns Dr. Bankman that the ship is generally three hours from land and,
“medevac in the deep ocean is not even a possibility.”
In this regard, Baugh said that if real passengers need that kind of additional care, they could be transferred to the land via helicopter or boat, depending upon the gravity of the situation.
She also mentioned that per ship each year on average, Scenic requires one medical evacuation. It involves calling coast guards assistance with a helicopter and helping the patients out.
Is Doctor Odyssey rather exaggerated?
Yes, Doctor Odyssey, is kind of exaggerated since it shows a constant barrage of severe ailments, like appendicitis, a punctured lung, or copper poisoning, to name a few. Baugh said that instead of such severe problems, the ailments that people face on a cruise are milder in nature.
She mentioned that those mild ailments include several kinds of infections like bladder infection or issues with nose, ears, and throat. She also added,
“We get a lot of seasickness, especially if people aren't used to being on the water.”
Talking about a scene where Dr. Bankman dives into the water to save a passenger who has gone overboard, Baugh mentioned that in real life scenarios, there are generally other people equipped to handle these kinds of situations without the medical professionals having to step in a literal way.
“To sum up her take on the show, Baugh mentioned, I really like the idea that people do these TV shows where they bring a different part of the world into somebody's living area,” she said. “And I get why they sometimes make it look a bit more dramatic than it might actually be, because in medicine we're very, very measured.”
Doctor Odyssey can be streamed on Disney+.
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