Doctor Reacts To Breaking Bad Medical Scenes

Breaking Bad is considered by many to be the greatest show in the history of television. While that is a bold claim and a juicy conversation, today we're focusing more on how accurate all the medical scenes were throughout this show. How realistic was Walter White's cancer diagnosis? Is ricin real and can it actually be used as an untraceable poison? Could Uncle Hank actually survive the shootout in the parking lot with the twins? There is so much to unpack here and I really hope you enjoy this as much as I did making it! Were there any other scenes you think I should have reacted to? Let me know down below.

I LOVE reading your comments and take your suggestions seriously. If there’s a subject you want me to discuss or something you’d like for me to react to, leave a comment down below. Many of my videos have been born out of suggestions directly from you, so don’t hold back!
-Doctor Mike Varshavski

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* Select photos/videos provided by Getty Images *

** The information in this video is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/health professional **

[aaroncrilly]

My mom is a cancer survivor and watched Breaking Bad for the first time recently, she said the scene in which Walter zones out and focuses on the mustard stain on the doctor's jacket after being told the news about his cancer is the most realistic portrayal she's ever seen of that situation

[sarah-anneperry]

Mike being proud of Tuco for knowing to do ''that thing''. I laughed.

[ImNotBirb]

3:47 I like how he is more worried about tuco's knuckle than the guy that is literally being punched in the skull

[Hank..]

Interesting fact: in the original script for Jane's death (the one who choked to death on her vomit), Walt was written to have taken advantage of her unconscious state by intentionally overdosing her. It was later decided doing that would be too cold blooded for his character to still be liked by the audience. It was rewritten to him seeing her begin to vomit and intentionally rolling her from her side onto her back so she'd choke, and then rewritten again to the current version, where he accidentally moves her onto her back while shaking Jesse, and then intentionally chooses not to act when she begins to choke.

The scene was still extremely shocking for audiences at the time, but it went over a lot better than the original version would have.

[henrypeters]

In fairness to his paramedic, he didn't necessarily know that Walt had cancer, he just knew that he had really bad lungs for a 50 year old non-smoker.

[coin]

The idea of straightening his tie being the last thing Gus does before dying is to demonstrate that this act itself comes instinctively to him, almost like a defense mechanism. He's been obsessing over portraying a put together, perfectly inconspicuous businessman as long as he's been a criminal, this is the very persona that has enabled him to hide in plain sight. Therefore the actor thought it was only fitting for his death scene to reflect this innate part of his personality, to show that in a life or death situation where he's clearly in shock, the first thing Gus instinctively cares about is blending in, looking innocent, keeping up his charade.

[ObsidianHunter]

As unrealistic as Gus's death scene was, I still think it's fully in character for him to get up, walk out of the room like nothing's wrong to keep up appearances, and then realize "oh half my face is just gone" and die on the spot

[DowntownTasty]

Honestly tuco in my opinion is so underrated. His performance was amazing and very genuine. He plays a perfect sociopath even down to the juvenile laugh. A lot of them are very juvenile. And the “do that thing!” Is so spot on for people like him lmao

[SF-cqlh]

“That’s a needle”

Well gee, I sure am glad we have a doctor here who was able to clear that up for me

[ToSingToActToBe]

As a paramedic, I can confidently say that he heard absolutely nothing useful in the back of a moving ambulance driving lights and sirens 😂😂😂

[mondler]

Literally Gus walking out and fixing his tie is so ridiculous, but so iconic 😂

[thereligion]

The emt didn’t diagnose him with lung cancer just asked if he was a smoker he could’ve just wanted to narrow possible causes for the sound of that ripping cough.

[jay]

The scene where Jane (black hair girl) overdoses and chokes on her vomit is actually one of the darkest scenes in BB. Earlier in the episode, Walter explains to his son how he places his infant daughter on her side so she doesn’t choke while she sleeps. Walt knows about the recovery position but deliberately chooses to let Jane die to teach Jesse a lesson.

[ceilinh]

"Do that... do that thing!"
Mimes chest compressions.

And that's all that was needed to make Doctor Mike's day.

[spamuel]

at 9:30, Gustavo actually prepared beforehand with some kind of supplement or pill, presumably to absorb some of the poison and buy himself some extra time to vomit it up. And that was not ricin, in the earlier episode Walter made a point of talking about how ricin poisoning appears as a highly aggressive flu that would take up to 3 days to kill the victim, whatever Gus used was much faster acting. One of the theories I found suggests hemlock, or a concentrated constituent alkaloid of hemlock.

[herri.]

11:51, in fact they filmed this scene with real explosives so Gus fixing his tie was genuine. Rip

[glennjanot]

Doc, in case you don't know, in the Salud episode, Gus swallowed three capsules of activated charcoal before he drank the poisoned tequila to give himself time to vomit it out later (and he still almost died). They also never specified what kind of poison he used.

[mlgamings]

10:34
Just to let you know, that's not ricin that Gus uses. It's an unknown poison but I believe someone said it was a powerful neurotoxin as it acted very quickly.

[AngryecksButActually]

I loved the part where doctor Mike said "Im the one who reacts" and then proceeded to react all over the place. truly one of the medicine of all time.

[arabicabean]

It may have been extremely far fetched and extremely non realistic but the scene where Gus walks out after the explosion was one of the coolest moments in cinema that I’ve watched.
When I saw that scene and the ending scenes after it I fell in LOVE with that episode, Nvm both of season 3 and 4.
It’s an absolutely awesome scene and I love it so much :)