Good Job, Brain! - 147: The Doctor is In
Episode Date: March 27, 2015Doctor, these patients need 100CC of trivia STAT! We're prescribing some extra-strength weird facts this episode so make sure to relax and breathe normally. Get the blood flowing with a general medica...l quiz, and then take a spoonful of odd lingo and code words doctors use behind your back. CLEAR! Find out what's fact and what's fiction behind common medical procedures shown in TV and movies. And how a dead half of a frog inspired one of the greatest literary classic of all time. ALSO: Marvel challenge quiz, walls that repel urine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
Hello, generous, jump-in, jolly geniuses.
Welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast.
This is episode 147, and of course, I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your
gaggle of grinning, guffying goofballs and geeks.
I'm Colin.
I'm Dana.
And still no Chris.
We haven't found him yet.
He's around here somewhere.
Yeah.
We're not going to get him out.
Did you check the refrigerator?
He's always the last place you look.
Yeah.
Well, you stop looking after you find him.
Good point.
Good point.
I have a headline.
We haven't done a bizarre headline.
Oh, yeah?
What you got?
Okay.
This is weird.
In Hamburg, in Germany, there is a kind of like,
a like a bar town or a party kind of area in Hamburg.
Here's the headline.
Urinators in Germany warned St.
Polly Wall's pee back.
What?
So St. Pauley is kind of the bar and club, the entertainment kind of a part of Hamburg.
And which means there are a lot of people who go out drinking and they would just pee on the walls or, you know, just pee in public.
Public urinators.
Yep.
And so St. Pauley, that community, have painted the most peed walls with a special paint that is designed to repel urine.
What?
Or repel fluids or liquids.
So the paint is super hydrophobic.
So, you know, does not like water.
And so it will bounce a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, not like straight bounce.
That would be really funny.
They'll bounce back like to your feet.
Ew.
That's a lot.
Yeah.
Your own pee on yourself if you pee on these walls.
Yeah.
So very, very smart.
That is.
You know, really good use of this paint.
That is.
I'm sad that it had to come to that.
But yeah.
Yep.
The party district, St. Polly in Hamburg, Germany.
And, uh, yeah.
No, so the, the paint, it says, don't pee here.
We'll pee back in German, of course.
Yeah.
But it's one word in German.
Yeah. So a lot of the bar owners, a lot of the people in the community, they're just kind of
having to clean pee or to deal with public urinators.
So there you go.
I don't know how to follow that.
It's science.
It's science.
Yay.
And let's kick off our first general trivia segment, pop quiz, hot shot.
Dana versus Call it in here.
Super random card.
I don't know what version or what card here.
I'm closing my eyes.
All right, I got one.
All right.
Here we go.
Oh, it is the silver screen edition of Trivial Pursue.
Okay.
Here we go.
I guess I don't know the, I don't know the category names says set.
So I bet setting.
Okay.
What was the outbound destination of the bounty?
Oh.
I don't even know what this is referring to.
Yeah, well, like in mute.
kidney on the bounty.
Yeah.
What was the outbound?
Yeah, where were they going?
Colin.
London.
Incorrect.
Bahamas.
It's tropical.
Tahiti.
Oh, okay.
Tahiti.
All right.
Yeah.
The next category is pink and it says tit, but I think it means title.
I hope so.
Yeah.
It just got a little blue.
Yeah, T-I-T.
Okay.
What 1962 flick?
featured Steve McQueen
as a fanatical
Flying Fortress flyboy
62
Flying Fortress
proper noun
Oh, okay
Flying Dutchman
Incorrect
So the title of the movie
Oh right
Right right
62 Steve McQueen
Got me a war movie
I don't know
What is it?
The war lover
Oh
Huh
Hmm
Okay
I don't know that one
Random Trivial Pursuit
Cute, man. All right. That was a long time ago.
Still, Steve McQueen. I don't know. But yeah, you're right.
Next one. Yellow category OFF. Off. Not really true.
What actress wound up in a pink jail cell in 1982?
Maybe that's off screen.
Oh, maybe. Oh, yeah. Off screen.
Actress in a pink jail cell.
In 1982.
Actress.
Zhaja Gabor?
That's not a bad guess
That's not a bad guess
Yeah
In that vein
Who
Sophia Loren
Okay
I wish I had more details
I know yeah
The Sophia Loren in the pink jail cell
We'll have to look that one out
That's weird
Yeah that sounds like there's an interesting story
Sophia Lauren spent her first night
Behind bars
In a private pink walled cell
With a private bathroom
And a black and white TV set
What was her
Transgression here
Why was she in a jail cell
The 47 year old film star
returned to her native Italy Wednesday to begin serving a 30-day sentence for tax evasion.
Oh.
Wow.
Sounds like she had a pretty rough there, yeah.
Yeah, man.
Next one says category is on.
So I assume on screen.
Okay.
Who sang Pinball Wizard in the movie Tommy?
Yeah.
Colin.
Uh, that's the who.
Incorrect.
Oh.
Oh, okay.
Who sang that song?
Pinball Wizard.
Oh, in the movie?
Was it Elton John?
Correct.
It is Elton John.
He was, I guess, the former pinball wizard, and now he's seen about Tommy.
That's right.
That's right.
All right.
Teal green, a green category for PRO, Pro.
Who conceived, wrote, and directed the producers?
Mel Brooks.
Mel Brooks.
Mel Brooks.
Mel Brooks.
Correct.
I think those people are the same people in my mind.
I just realized.
Mel Blanc and Mel Brooks.
Yeah, I think I was conflating them.
All right.
Last question.
What real-life cop did Al Pacino play in 1973?
God, what year is this card from?
Colin.
That was Serpico.
Frank.
Frank Serpico.
The movie was Serpico.
Sorry, yes.
Yeah, right.
He did have a name.
Frank Serpico.
It doesn't say a year, but this seems kind of,
Oldish card.
You're right.
You're right.
All right.
I'm not done yet.
Two episodes ago in our all quiz, Chris did something interesting.
He basically wrote a quiz challenging each other between me and Colin because I'm very strong at Disney.
So he asked Colin Disney questions.
Colin's very strong on sports.
And he asked me sports questions.
But these are like generic, easy to get if you are fans of those things.
Okay.
So a listener wrote in.
and made a quiz to challenge you, Colin,
since you are a Marvel fan
and a comic book expert.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask Dana these questions
to see if she gets them.
I mean boo.
Are you ready?
I'll just be sending you mental.
Yesp.
Yeah.
Okay.
And this is from Megan,
her Marvel character quiz.
Here we go.
The actor that portrays this.
This character in the movie was actually the model for the comic book character.
So the comic book character came first, was modeled after an actor.
Turns out that actor then played this character in movies.
Lou Fragno?
That's an interesting one.
Let me see here.
Maybe like Lou Frigno.
Is Marvel Hulk?
Hulk is Marvel.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Probably not Toby McGot.
Yeah, the eras.
The eras don't really line up.
Let's be an older one. Oh, maybe Superman?
I don't think that's D.C.
That's D.C. I think the aeros don't line up.
That's interesting. I'm kind of trying to run through here.
I'm not sure.
I actually, I knew this one.
I mean, it's not Tony Stark.
No.
It's not Captain America.
It's not Spider-Man.
It's not Thor.
It's not...
It's in the Marvel universe.
Okay.
It's not Black Widow.
It's, is it like, Storm?
No.
It's not...
Is it...
Is it the Hulk?
No.
I don't know.
Colin, do you know?
You're not sure either.
It's got to be somebody...
It's got to be a more recent...
You're going to kick yourself.
Based...
Yeah, I'm sure I am.
It's got to be somebody just obvious I'm not thinking of.
Nick Fury.
Samuel L. Jackson.
Yes, of course.
The new Nick Fury.
That's right.
They redesigned Nick Fury for the Ultimates and they...
Completely after Samuel L. Jackson.
Then he played him.
And he does.
And he really does.
like just like the comic yeah yeah all right all right dana who was the first main character of
marvel comics in 1939 first main character of marvel comics in 1939 here's a hint he was later
revived in fantastic four captain america incorrect Colin do you know i believe it's prince
namor yeah is that what they're looking for namor the submariner incorrect
It is the human torch
Oh, right, right, okay, duh.
Asterisk, at first he was an android who could surround himself with flames,
but then in Fantastic Four, he was a human with firepowers.
Of which character, who now has at least one movie,
did Stanley say,
I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like,
none of our readers would like,
and shove him down their throats and make them like him.
Oh, interesting.
Somebody nobody would like.
Incredible Hull?
Incorrect.
Oh.
I mean, it's going to either be Iron Man or Spider-Man,
would be my guess.
Character that nobody would like and shove it down their throats.
It's funny out of those two, you know, nobody would like?
Yeah, I don't know.
I'll guess Iron Man.
It is Iron Man, Tony Stark.
Yeah, because he's kind of abrasive and he's kind of a jerk.
I guess maybe that's what he means.
Robert Donnie, Jr., though, was the exact right person.
Yeah.
All right, number four, Dana, which actor portrays two,
superheroes in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe.
Which actor does two
of them?
I don't know.
Whoever plays Spider-Man plays evil
Spider-Man? I don't know.
Did you say evil Spider-Man?
It's not Mark Ruffalo.
I have no idea.
Colin?
Two heroes.
We've mentioned both of these heroes.
Okay.
Not Chris Evans.
it is Chris Evans he's in the fantastic four he's human tors yeah you're right you're right
this is one of his first big movies man that's right he's the brother that movie was so bad
yeah I think I fell asleep yeah but Chris Evans yep oh wow you're right and now more known as
Captain America okay and he was actually pretty good at being cocky kind of Johnny Storm yeah
you're right yeah I forgot about that yeah I even said it I couldn't remember all right last question
True or false, 50-50.
Spider-Man shoots webs from his fingers.
False.
Correct. It is false.
Correct.
It's from his wrists.
Yes.
His web shooters attach to his wrist, but his hands are sticky.
His fingertips are sticky.
Yeah, yeah.
And in one of the movies, they actually made them come out of his body.
They changed a little bit.
In the comics, it was originally like a thing that Peter Parker invented.
Invented.
But they made it biological in the movies, so it's a little grosser.
Excuse me.
They made it more biological.
Yeah.
Like how you're mocking him.
In a sub-quiz about comic books on a trivia podcast, I'm being mocked for being nerdy.
Guess what?
It's Morble.
Okay, Professor Marvel.
All right.
Well, thank you, Megan, for this kind of hard quiz.
It was kind of rough.
That was good.
Made you think.
Made you think.
Made you think.
All right, this week, it seems like it's the end of, we're nearing the end of flu season.
People were dropping like flies.
I got sick.
I got super sick for like two months.
And so we thought we would talk about medicine this week.
Just weird things about medicine, weird facts, quizzes, trivia.
And so this week, turn your head and cough.
No, it's bad.
So this week, the doctor is in.
Although we're not
To call you doctor
Wokem up said
Doctor
Ain't there nothing I can take a set
Although we are not professional
We are not in any sentence
We don't even have PhDs
None of us do.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
Yeah, that's true.
We're not even academic doctors.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Our show should be used as an absolute literal last resort for medical diagnoses and medical problems.
But for facts, yes.
Sure, sure, yeah.
Weird facts?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Giggles, laughs around the bar.
Fine.
Life-saving advice.
No.
Please look somewhere else first.
No.
I will start us off.
I have a grab bag.
general trivia, medicine, and medical-related terms quiz for you guys.
I will begin with a question that I know we've had a public quiz before.
So, you know, these are the ones.
We've got to see.
How well do we remember this?
I think you guys, between the two of you, you guys can team up if you want here.
As you know, ancient and medieval medicine often focused on the idea that if your humors were out of balance, you could attribute most maladies to an overabundance or underabundance.
of a particular humor.
There were four humors.
So please tell me what were the four traditional humors?
Blood.
Yes.
Black bile.
Black bile.
Yeah.
Yellow bile.
Yes.
Yeah.
Flem?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
Blood, phleg, black bile, yellow bile.
Yeah.
A lot of bile going on.
Yeah, two kinds.
Two kinds of bile.
Are there really two kinds of bile?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, again, I mean, we should mention that.
What's bile?
Well, so, so they, they, they.
They believed that black bile was generated by your kidneys and your spleen, they believed.
Is it poop?
It was related.
It could be related.
It was just pee and poop.
Their concept of phlegm is not exactly what we talk about when we talk about, about flam.
Not exactly the same.
Okay.
Yeah, phlegmatic.
Blood, they got right.
They got the blood right.
Yeah.
All the fluids in your body, they kind of boiled down to four categories.
Dana, though, as you said, you're right.
Yeah.
Like somebody who had too much phlegm, they, they were.
We're phlegmatic.
Yeah.
And you guys, do you know,
melancholy?
Yeah.
Like, that's,
you had too much black bile.
Like,
melancholy literally means black bile,
dark bile.
Oh.
The idea being that if you had too much,
you would be a melancholy person.
Yeah.
Oh.
Yeah.
If something is autotoxic,
O-T-O-Toxic,
something is autotoxic.
Okay.
What part of your body is being harmed?
Oto man
Oto
No that's O'nor
O no centaur
Yeah
O no centaur
Oto
What part of your body has toxins
Or is toxic
If something is ototoxic
It will damage this part of your body
Your ear
It is your ear
Oh
Oh
Your inner ear in particular
That's so specific
What I mean it's toxic to my ear
You can damage
the neurology and the functioning of your inner ear.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can cause deafness, partial deafness.
Got it.
Yeah.
Ototoxicity.
Yeah.
Okay.
Over a 10-year span in the mid-1300s, this disease killed an estimated 30 to 60% the entire population
of Europe.
Wow.
Yeah.
It was bad news.
What disease is this?
The mid-1300s.
Oh, the black plague?
Black death.
It was the entire.
The Black Death.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The old favorite, the Black Death.
Yeah.
Wait, is the Black Plague and Black Death two different things?
So the Black Death, I'm so glad you asked.
Oh, okay, good.
So the Black Death actually, you know, people will commonly say, oh, the bubonic plague.
But it's, the Black Death was a collection of plagues.
It was a, it was a Poperi of plagues.
Yeah.
So the Black Death collectively was bubonic plague, septicemic plague,
and pneumonic plague
And they were all
I mean they were all bacterial
They were all caused by the same bacterium
But yeah
It wasn't any one particular
It's a cocktail
Yeah yeah
Any of those plagues
Was part of the Black Death
Wow
They estimate it killed more than 20%
Of the world population
When it was at its worst
Wow
It's bananas
Glad we do not have to deal with that
On a widespread basis
Moving right along
I'll try and cheer it up
from the black from the black death okay what part of the body does a hepatologist study
hepa hEPA tologist well hepatitis is a kidney or liver like yeah you're on the right track
you're on the right track okay body part yeah yeah if you have hepatitis what is affected
kidney kidney kidney it's liver yes yes yes hepatology the liver and the livery systems
Okay.
Yeah, and that's why it's hepatitis.
Yeah, yeah.
Hepatose just means liver.
To be honest, I actually don't know what some of our body parts in our organs.
Hepatitis in the ears, right?
That's the one.
Yeah.
What?
This is a great medical word here.
What does a sphigmo-manometer measure?
I know you have seen one.
I know you have encountered one.
Blood pressure.
Yes.
Oh.
It's blood pressure.
The sleeve?
Yeah, the little pumpy sleeve that they wrap around the cuff around and inflate it.
Yes.
Can you say it again?
S-F-M-M-M-O-M-E-T-E-R.
This is a fantastic word, and that's S-P-H-H-Y-G-M-O-M-E-T-E-R.
That O is the first vowel that shows up.
Svigmos.
Svigmos means pulse.
Oh.
And then manometer is just like a pressure gauge or a pressure meter.
Svigmo-monometer.
All right.
Last one here.
Introduced just two years apart in the 1890s.
These two drugs sold by the Bayer Corporation, both ended with the letters I-N.
Aspirin.
Aspirin is one.
Oh, what's another?
Claritin.
No, that's a brand name.
Ibuprofen?
1890s.
I'll give you, they were, so like,
Aspirin, this other one was originally a trademark name and is now a genericized name.
Huh.
So aspirin was official bear.
Pamprin.
What's the, get little, yellow, new print.
You've got to go back even further.
Let's say that one of these drugs is very well respected these days.
The other drug is not so well respected.
Marphine.
You're on the right track.
I'm looking for heroin.
Oh.
Oh, yes.
Heroin, heroin and aspirin.
Yes, two of their, two of their biggest sellers at the turn of the century.
Lots of aspirin, lots of heroin.
They don't sell quite as much heroin anymore.
Do they still do?
No, they don't say it.
Oh, okay, okay.
You say as if they kind of scaled back to production levels of it.
Not as much compared to aspirin.
Yeah, aspirin and heroin.
Both made Bayer Company a lot of money, both.
now genericized, of course, in different areas of life.
All right.
That was our intro to medicine here.
Good job, guys.
Yeah.
Again, we are not professional doctors, and this will be very clear in my next segment.
Okay.
So one of the, I think even before we started, Good Job Brain, I think this was in our Kickstarter
write up, in our Kickstarter biography, I've always been so interested in.
in the secret vocabulary and career terms doctors use to describe patients.
Yeah.
And this is not, obviously, medical students and medicine professionals, you can, of course,
write in and say that, you know, we don't use these anymore or here are some more that we use.
Half of it is they use these kind of code words is because it's faster.
It is faster to write on a piece of paper or on a clipboard, like, this is what this patient is suffering from
or is what is like.
The other one is basically to maybe, yeah, secret code, maybe to trash talk a little bit.
So here I have a list, and I'm not going to do quizzing because some of these are really specific.
I'm just going to share some interesting ones with you.
A gunshot wound is called acute lead poisoning, or ALP.
And a lot of these terms also is trying, you know, when they're conversing from,
nurses to doctors or doctors to doctors to doctors to not freak the patient out if they're there.
Right. Right. Right. So that's where the code plays in, too. And not only is ALP acute lead poisoning, a gunshot wound, there's different specific types of it for different gunshot wounds. So there's 185 grain injection acute lead poisoning, which is a 9mm gunshot wound. And then air-conditioned acute lead poisoning means multiple gunshot wounds.
It's just, it's really, tongue firmly in cheek.
Yes, yes.
A lot of these are pretty cheeky.
But, you know, if someone's family is there or you don't want to freak someone out, you know, you kind of just like ALP.
Oh, got it.
Okay.
This is, some of these, I'm sure, do not get used anymore because some of these are kind of like mean to the patients.
Maybe they still get used.
Maybe there's a whole new subset of vocabulary these days.
Yeah, there's some, like, I think it's just more like diner or career slangs, like baby catcher.
is OBGY and obstetrician, right, because we're catching babies.
It's like we're like in an old-timey diner.
Yeah, and Blinky the fish is a radiologist because of the...
It's like the Simpsons.
Yes, the three-eyed fish from the Simpsons.
That's great.
Because of the radiation.
Bone heads, of course.
Bone heads.
Orthopedics.
Is an anesthesiologist like the Candyman or something like that?
Let's see.
let's see no oh sandman put you to sleep put you to sleep oh that's a good one uh chocolate hostage
chocolate hot constipation yeah that's gross terrible yeah that's not very professional sounding
either i think a lot of these are just doctors trying to make other doctors laugh yeah actually
if any medical professionals listening and and is like oh no we use these let us know i'm curious
I'm sure they're, like, newer ones.
You don't think chocolate hostage has just certain a timeless, just a timeless charm to it.
I can't place it in time.
Oh, my God.
It makes me just shudder.
It's really gross.
Do you guys know the term gomer?
Have you ever heard of that one?
A gomer?
Get out of my emergency route?
That's exactly what it is.
That's exactly what it is.
Wait, so do you call, is a person a gomer?
Yeah, like this gomer, you know, it's like, it's like, it's a-
Someone's like, I want to be in there.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like, I need this person out of my emergency room.
And this is one of my favorite ones.
I'll end up with this.
A Jack Bauer.
A Jack Bauer is a doctor still up and working after 24 hours.
Okay, one more.
Sorry.
It's so good.
A Pokemon.
Uh-huh.
Is, well, we say Pokemon, but doctors pronounce a Pokey man, which is the medic who drains abscesses.
E.
Because you're a Pokey.
He's a Pokey.
Man.
In the U.K., they're called Lancelots.
Oh,
because they lance a lot.
That's good.
That's so clever.
The Lancelot is good.
Yeah.
It certainly seems, it sounds classier than Pokemon.
Yeah.
Lancealot.
Oh, I'm the Pokemon.
I'm the Pokemon.
Yeah.
We need security over here right now.
Oh.
There's so many of them.
I'm sure it ranges from hospital to hospital.
from clinic to clinic.
And a lot of gallows humor.
Yeah, yeah.
There we go.
All right.
I have a tidbit about doctors for you.
Speaking of like goofing off, but this is goofing off that pays, pays off as well.
In 2007, there was a study that found that surgeons who played about three hours of video games a week were better at laparoscopic surgery than others.
They were faster and they made fewer errors.
And so laparoscopic surgery is the surgery kind of through that tube.
It's a, there's a light and a video camera, and then they, like, maybe extract some tissue through the tube.
A little keyhole surgery.
Yeah, it's a little keyhole surgery.
So they're better at controlling the hand-eye coordination.
Like a video game.
I mean, it totally makes sense.
You practice doing that for hours a week.
You probably...
I'm really good at that claw machine, you know, like, you see at, like, the amusement park.
So, ergo, I'm a good surgeon.
The finding from the study was...
That video game skill correlates to laparoscopic surgical skills and that training curricula should include video games because it will help them with the technical interface between the surgeon and the screen.
That makes sense.
Well, you know, they have all the kind of the space, the astronaut simulation test, right?
I mean, that technically is a video game because there's a screen simulating what happens.
Yeah.
Depends on what video games, though.
You know, if it's like a button masher, I don't want that person to operate on me.
It's like, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, but even then, it's like, oh, I'll move around.
I'm getting used to like the speed of things.
You're mapping it.
They're playing lots of Minecraft.
Where's the square heart?
Anyway, video games for the win.
All right, we're going to take a quick break, a word from our sponsor.
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You're listening to Good Job Brain, and this week we're talking about medicine and doctors.
So, no surprise.
I watch a lot of movies and TV.
And if you know me, this will not shock you this statement.
So I wanted to really talk about medicine and doctors and first aid as seen in movies and TV.
Precisely because so much of it is so bad and so wrong and so simplified.
from what you should actually do in real-life situations.
I actually had a hard time narrowing down
of just like the myriad ways that things are simplified
or just backward in movies and TV.
So I narrowed this down to three things I want to talk about
that I think that we all see a lot
and that may not be portrayed in quite a realistic fashion.
So the name of this segment is called Worst Aid.
And I have to get credit to the website TVTropes.org.
It's a trope.
It's great.
I mean,
an invaluable resource to trivia and pop culture nerds.
Again, you can spend hours on TV tropes.
So tip of the hat for worst aid, the concept.
So, all right, so the first thing, like, we've all seen enough medical dramas, right?
You know, it's like, oh, the patient, you know, oh, he's flatlining, he's having cardiac arrest.
They get out the device.
They're like rubbing the paddle.
together. They're like, clear, you know, and they're like, boom, you know, and the patient,
maybe the heartbeat comes back to life, right? We've all seen this.
Yes. Is that not right? Well, I've got two questions for you guys. All right. Two questions.
All right. Okay. First of all, what are the paddles? Why are they rubbing the paddles together?
They always do the little, the rub the paddles together. What is that about? Is it defibrillator?
It is a defibrillator. Yes, you're right. It has electronic charge.
Yeah. Yeah. Are they trying to get rid of like normal static?
That's funny. A lot of people think it's like a static thing or to like balance out the polarity or something like that. No, it's just they there's a, they put gel on the paddles. It's just like, yeah. They're lubricating. Yep, it's just a conductive gel and they want to make sure that it's evenly coated on the paddles before they stick it on the patient's chest. And Karen, you're right. It is a defibrillator. Technically, it's an AED, an automated external defibrillator. And you can figure out what all those letters stand for there. Yeah.
Oh, it's the gel.
They never show you the gel.
They show the gel sometimes.
Sometimes.
Yeah.
I think on the more realistic the show, the more likely you are to see.
Like on ER, I think, like, they were pretty good with this.
Yeah.
Okay.
So that's the one thing.
Why do they yell clear?
What's the clear?
They always yell, clear.
And then they...
You should not be touching that body when that happens, right?
Everybody get away from it because we're going to electrocute this person or what, charge them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
It's like stand.
It's telling everybody.
in the vicinity. Stand clear of the body. Both also, we don't want you touching the body because
we're about to send a charge through it, but also because, you know, when they do it, the body kind of jumps
around a little bit, you know, it's like, stand clear. Don't get it. Hands off, hands off all bets. Yeah,
on the table. Most of the time when we see an AED, a defibrillator in movies or TVs, it's just,
it's grossly exaggerated. Like, what it does, you know, what it can do, the extent of its abilities.
So, like, the first thing that they get wrong, I guess, you know,
is you really, you need to use this device very, very quickly.
Like if somebody is having a cardiac arrest, like, the best time to use a defibrillator
is, like, within just a couple minutes.
Like, you need to do this almost right away.
Like, you do CPR first.
Then if that's not helping, if, you know, if the heartbeat is not regular, you go to
the defibrillator.
And, again, that's sort of the second part is, like, if someone's already flatlining,
like, no, this is not, this is not going to reanimate.
jump start or, you know, like, kickstart the heart.
Like the car.
It doesn't kickstart the heart.
This is if somebody has a fibrillation, you know, just in very simple terms, their heart is not beating effectively.
The heart is not beating regularly and effectively.
It's kind of just a hope is that you just give it a jolt and it normalizes and stabilizes the heartbeat.
So it's beating regularly, not too fast, not too slow, and pumping blood effectively.
That's the thing that you're trying to get back to normal.
Oh, okay, so it does send a charge.
It does send a charge.
What is the science behind the charge through?
In very basic terms, the science behind it is that we're electric beings.
That, you know, we have electrical impulses traveling through our bodies, and our heart is in some way, an electric organ.
So it's kind of just to sort of reset it.
It's like hitting your reset switch, if you really want to simplify it, you know.
And again, you go CPR first.
The CPR is the first order.
And you go to the shock, you know, please don't electrocate any.
You know, please, please don't ever, like, pull a wire out of the wall, you know.
It's like, oh, we'll do a homemade shock, you know.
It's like those comedies.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that will not work.
Jesus, see, that is.
You will, you will, you will, you will kill somebody doing that.
Make it worse.
Not only do you want to use this device quickly if you are going to use it, but if it doesn't
work the first time, you're not going to keep, we'll do it again.
We're going to do it one more time, you know, and then we'll wake them.
The third or fourth, the dramatic charge.
You know, the person comes back to life.
No, in fact, like, with each successive time you do it, your chances of success.
Why do they do this in TV movies?
It's so dramatic.
That's why they do it.
That's why they do it.
Tuck on your heartstrings.
And although this was true at one time, they were a lot noisier and flashier.
Like these days, the really modern ones, they don't go to chachunk.
They don't make the violent sound that you see.
The body doesn't flail around wild.
mildly. It's much more mild and every from top to bottom, a mild device and interaction.
That makes sense that they would have improved that.
Yeah, after years and years.
I mean, like you get a concussion from it.
It's like a rag dog.
Yeah. I think we touched on this one briefly in the wilderness episode of snake bites.
Like what to do in a snake bite, right?
You know, again, we've all seen the westerns.
Hold still. You got the bite. I'm going to suck out the poison.
I'm going to suck out the poison.
Yes.
If you are with somebody and they get a snake bite, for the love of God, please do not suck out the poison.
Yeah, because when I was kid, I was like, okay, it's in your body.
Why do you want it to be in someone else's body?
Yeah.
Because it's toxic.
Yeah.
Believe it or not, believe it or not, turns out putting your mouth on a poison wound, not good for anybody.
Not good for anybody.
The biggest problems are, one, you can train.
Transfer bacteria from your mouth to an open wound on a person.
Not good.
You can transfer venom or poison from the wound into your mouth.
Your mouth is so permeable.
Yeah, exactly.
You're so sensitive.
Also, like, just if you're, like, making incisions or suction or pressure, like, you can just
increase damage.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Damage to the tissue, to the organs, whatever.
You know, it's funny, it's not even Western, like, growing up in Asia,
Like, that's a, that's a trope too.
I have some, these are instructions here.
This is what to do in the event of a snake bite.
This is from the Mayo Clinic and all sources.
You may see these in a slightly worded differently, but pretty much all the authorities agree.
These are these steps.
If a snake bites you, stay calm.
First rule of any trauma.
Stay calm.
Don't panic.
Immobilize with the armored leg that you've been bitten.
Loosen your clothing in case you start to sort.
swell um why uh because you know if you have like say you've got like a a tight ring or a tight
shoe or something on and it starts swelling up you don't want to constrict the blood flow so you take
off jewelry take off tight clothing you do want to keep the wound below heart level like they do
show that you know you want to keep it so yeah um so at or below uh level of your heart uh
you want to maybe lightly clean it but you don't i'm like scrub it in there you're not like you
You're not flushing it out.
You want to just gently leave it alone.
No tourniquets, no ice.
Yeah.
You know, nothing like that.
Don't cut the wound.
Don't try and suck the poison out.
Don't try and get the venom out of there.
The last step the Mayo Clinic advises it is...
Go to the doctor.
Don't try to capture the snake.
It's okay.
We'll believe you.
Yeah.
I can assure you, like, that's going to be the last thing on my mind.
Because people I think, oh, I got to share the snake.
oh, I got to show the doctor what kind of sneak
it is. I think you're right. Get the serum
or something. I don't know. They do
say, yeah, try and remember the color and
the shape so you can, yeah, you know, so you
can pick them out of a lineup, I suppose.
But yes, please, please,
do not try and make an
incision and suck the venom out.
No, you're just going to make things worse for
everybody. Get to a doctor. I mean, like, again,
for all of these situations,
first rule, get to a doctor.
All right, the last one. The last
the third thing that we i've seen this in so many movies and tv shows especially in the 80s
yeah all right someone gets shot you know they're like all right hey hang on buddy hang on all right
just sit still first thing we got to do is get that bullet out is not no no the first thing you do not need
to get the bullet out like just the general rule of thumb is in almost every situation
getting the bullet out is the last thing because you're trying to
Stop that a medical professional would try and do.
Oh.
Yeah.
You know, it's only in the case of like if the bullet is like still loose in your body or, you know, moving around and continuing to cause more trauma.
You just, you leave it in there.
It's okay.
Especially with modern ammunition, it is true that most of the time the bullet will self-steralize.
The bullet itself is going to be, it's going to be a hot chunk of metal.
The bullet itself is going to be sterile.
most of the time what you're a danger of is germs or dirt or in the wound bits of fabric bits
of debris that may have gotten pushed into the wound along with the bullet interesting so it's like you know
we'll see like the hero's like heating up a knife in the flame it's like this is going to hurt a bit but
I'm going to get it out it's oh no don't do this and then you hear the thuck and it falls in like a little
metal bowl I got it out yeah you're a paper clip or something it's funny I
I'm always like, and then what?
Because now they have a big, bloody hole.
Exactly.
Yeah.
You can cause more damage by trying to get this bullet out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Again, the number one rule, get to a doctor, get to an emergency room, and, you know, they'll clean
the wound, they'll take a look at it, they'll make sure there's not any internal
bleeding.
And really, once they've taken care of everything else, then they'll, all right, now we can
go in and get this bullet out.
Wow.
God, this makes me think like, what?
else do these things get wrong. Maybe like pregnancy, like delivering a kid. There is a, oh, God,
you're right. The whole whole just litany of things around pregnancy, for sure. Yeah. God, it's so
interesting that you're talking about the first thing. Defibrillators and electricity in your
body. I mean, you're like, oh, yeah, because we're electrical beings and we, you know, how our brains
tell us to move our knee. I mean, that's through a, it's crazy to think that's like.
Electrical impulse.
The electrical impulse from one end to another end is through charges communicating from one part of our body to another.
People didn't know that before.
Back then, people did not know how we move.
It still seems like magic.
What animates us.
Yeah.
And there were so many theories.
One of them was called the balloon theory that were made out of like hydraulic pressure, like pistons or something.
That's how we move our muscles is a series of air and fluids and tubes.
Interesting.
You know, that's how, yeah.
They had just discovered hydraulics, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Very excited.
Or pneumatics, I suppose.
And this is, you know, we're talking about like, God, 1600 or 1700, like, people
are still trying to figure it out.
And it took one person's accident that basically made us finally realize, oh, what makes
us move is electricity and all of our cells have electricity.
And this is what happened.
It sounds so crazy.
So, this one guy, Luigi Galvani, he was a dabbler in medicine.
I mean, he's an actual, sorry, dabbler.
He actually had degrees.
He's actually a professional.
He's a professional at that point.
The story goes that Galvani was working on a dissecting a frog on a table.
And that table previously was, he was.
was experimenting with static electricity by rubbing the frog skin.
And the legend goes, Galvani touched an exposed nerve of the frog, the sciatic nerve,
so the main nerve down the frog's spine, with a metal scalpel that was charged because
of the previous static charge experiment.
And once that scalpel touched the nerve, this dead dissected frogs, its legs moved.
His legs flipped and moved.
I mean, this is the dead frog.
Dead half of a fraud.
It doesn't even have the top half.
It's the bottom half with his smile.
It's freaky enough.
That's freaky enough.
Yep.
And so he was like, whoa, what happened?
I guess they kept electrocuting this.
I would do it again.
Let's be honest.
Let's be honest.
Yeah, you would do it again.
Yeah, we just have to make sure.
And then you do it the third time just to make sure that.
And that's what makes it science.
I think you bring some people over.
And you know, like, watch this.
I can make the frog dance, this is dead frog dance.
And so he developed the theory and his research on electricity and animation.
And that is electricity that powers movement.
And I had heard about the frog before.
You were saying that that may be embellished or that's just or some...
Or maybe simplified.
Okay, okay.
It wasn't quite as much of a serendipity, maybe.
Yeah, we're not sure.
But, I mean, this does make sense because there are drawings, notations that did support that this happened.
Because there are tons of diagrams that he drew in his research papers with frog legs and they're moving.
And this is how you electrocute a frog.
A lot of scientific drawings, very scientific.
So Galvani coined the term animal electricity.
So he got the fact that electricity does cause animation or movement, but not entirely how or
why. So his theory was that it was the frog's pelvis. There was something in the frog's pelvis that
would release energy or some control. And he thought that it was maybe a special fluid. And so he thought
that their activation was a special fluid that was in the muscle when it is not. Right. Then his
adversary, Alessandro Volta, also believed in something about electricity. And his fighting is that
that each cell is kind of like a battery, not just one part of the frog.
It is all of the parts of the frog that have some sort of ability to work as like an early battery.
And of course, Galvani and Volta, those seem like very familiar names.
Volta is where we get, Volt, the word Volt from.
And Galvani, galvanization, galvanize into action, you know, sprung into action.
Galvani's report about basically these moving dead frog legs using a little.
electricity was mentioned specifically by a miss mary shelley as part of her inspiration for of course
frankenstein and electric pizza yep and why like that i guess it's a trope i don't know is does that
count as a trope yeah whenever mad scientists are trying to reanimate things it's always through
electricity yeah and and it's thanks to luigi galvania has dead frog legs it's true i mean it's
You got to imagine, yeah, like when you're first hearing about that, it's like, well, I'll say electricity is animating dead matter.
That's, I can see, yeah, yeah, I'm going to write a story about that.
These are just legs.
Yeah.
He must have screamed so loud.
Oh, my God.
He must have been, yeah.
But we don't know if it's, you know, like the defibrillinger, if it's like the legs danced wildly, or is it just like a little pulse.
Yeah, it's true.
It's true.
That's the part that he doesn't tell you.
and so when I was reading this I was thinking you're in in when you're in like elementary school
you try to make a battery out of a potato yeah yeah remember that I was like what if you wire a potato
and then put the two ends on the dead frog well that like well that just self sustain like
the the the dead frog will just keep moving yeah you've discovered perpetual emotion
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Well, we can close out here.
I had this in the course of doing research.
I found this fun fact.
Is it really fun?
It was chocolate hostage.
Hey, I don't know if anything is
chocolate hostage levels.
Yeah.
I predict next week
someone's pub quiz team name
is going to be chocolate hostage.
Did you guys
know that during prohibition doctors were allowed to write prescriptions for alcohol oh so it's
it's illegal to buy it was illegal it was highly regulated you couldn't do it for leisure purposes
but your doctor could write you a prescription yeah you know my my patient needs whiskey for
wine needs a smoother i i read that it was uh i read that it was among the most
abused prescriptions in American history.
They must have gotten so many bribes.
I'm sure.
I'm sure, yes.
Give me my shmureen off ice.
Right.
Or cross prescribing to other doctors, right.
Oh, good point.
Yeah.
All right.
And that is our show.
Thank you guys for joining me.
And thank you guys listeners for listening in.
Hope you enjoyed weird vocabulary used in hospitals, playing video games.
Frog legs and also TVs and movies getting it wrong.
Of course, you can find our show on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and on our website,
Good Job, Brain.
And thanks to our sponsor, Warby Parker.
And we'll see you guys next week.
Bye.
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