Doctor Reacts To UK Medical Drama 'Casualty'

Casualty is the longest running medical drama in the UK, now in its 36th season! I've reacted to medical shows from Korea (The Good Doctor), Japan (Cells At Work), and even the 70's (MASH) so I thought it was time to show some love to our friends across the pond and react to their beloved program. I chose to watch the Season 36 (or "series 36" as they call it) premiere that just came out titled "Begin Again". While I'm always comfortable reacting to the medical accuracy of any show, I do want to apologize in advance for not having any knowledge of Casualty, and considering there are 35 seasons of content I'm unfamiliar with, I might be a little... in the dark. In this episode we look at trauma from car accidents, dislocated shoulders, dementia, brain damage, airway troubles, and those fun UK ambulances.

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-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 **

[MadSpacePig]

Mike: There should be 7 more people in the room.

The UK's highly stressed and understaffed NHS: 👀

[Rhaegarion]

Her description of it being mild dementia is actually tapping into a british cultural thing of downplaying issues so as not to be seen to be making a fuss.

[emilywalpole]

Did any other Brits remember watching horrible histories as a kid? I really want to see him reacting to some of the medical sketches in that.

[tilly]

You should watch 24 hours in A and E! It's a documentary type show inside a real UK hospital. Would be cool to see how US care differs to UK care :)

[cassandrabellingham]

I’ve worked in UK ER’s and ITU’s and there’s always a bigger team around them but the calmness is pretty realistic. I’ve always watched US shows and wondered why they’re all rushing and yelling at each other?

[mattharvey-ingram]

Just a heads up Dr Mike, there is less "staff" in the big trauma bits like the intubation because it was all filmed during covid with social distancing :)

[thesmething]

"there should be more people" - I've been to A&E a lot recently and unfortunately I can say that our medical professionals are stretched so thin that I don't even doubt some of the reality of this😂 one nurse even left me to take my own blood pressure because she didn't have time to do it for me. The NHS desperately needs more funding

[DomCombatVids]

Mike reacting to the crippling shortage of staff in the NHS is amazing lmao

[zf]

“Everyone is too calm and cool, this doesn’t seem realistic” lol Dr Mike, we’re British, we keep calm and carry on. 🤣

[allyssadehaan]

Thank you for bringing light to huntington's disease. I was diagnosed 7 years ago, I am 31 but still presymptomatic. My mom died a year and a half ago from it at 49. 💙

[LillithVexx]

I think you took the "mild dementia" line too literally, to me it seemed like she said it was mild to try and avoid someone else (especially police) from going to her van and to give the doctors an incentive to release her from A&E

[adzkebabz]

As a British person I personally love this TV series. "24 hours in A & E" is worth reacting to as well especially as a American

[LiaaRo]

I’d love to see your reaction to “999: What’s your emergency”, “24Hrs in A&E” or GP’s: Behind closed doors”. How are these different from your own knowledge/experience?, what shocks you the most? And just your overall take of it?

[kidney]

6:50 when they did too many takes and you can't wait to get out of that hospital bed 😱

[TraceUK]

“There should be a whole team here” “It’s way too calm” - WELCOME TO THE NHS!!!!

[lxxgxll]

"This is such an awkward conversation. Nothing about it seems genuine or authentic" ... Tell me you've never had to make small talk with a British people without telling me you've never had to make small talk with a British person 😅😁

[scarlettwoodbridge]

Absolutely love casualty, the reason there's so little people is because they were filming during covid. You should now react to Holby city as that's set in the same hospital but us on the wards.

[jd_alsobrook]

"Emma! Emma! Who did this? What happened!?" LOL Emma has a tube down her throat, she can't talk now

[MrPaulMorris]

From my experience in A&E (as a patient, a parent with a sick child and accompanying an adult with an idiopathic seizure) the calm atmosphere seems entirely accurate. On one of those occasions, by pure coincidence a colleague was brought in by ambulance suffering a heart attack and was attended in the bay next to me. I gave him a few wave as he was wheeled by and, of course, could hardly avoid overhearing as paramedics gave a handover, the doctor instructed the team and they got on calmly and quietly with the roles they had carried out countless times before. Half an hour later an alarm sounded to indicate, as I later found out, that he had gone into VF. The team responded quickly but without fuss and yes, they did shock to restore normal rhythm--for once I actually got to hear "Clear!".

As others noted, this was filmed under pandemic restrictions so numbers were limited on set giving a rather sparse manning even for a UK NHS hospital!

[francesmmarsh]

in the UK we have loads of 'fly on the wall' medical tv shows about hospitals, gp surgery's and ambulance crews that it would be really cool to see you react to. As a brit its really interesting to see your take on the differences in our medical systems