By Caitlyn Meisner | Copy Editor
I recently watched Netflix’s new documentary “Emergency NYC,” and I couldn’t believe how much my view changed on the medical field in just eight episodes.
The show follows doctors and nurses in New York City and the dozens of patients they have on a daily basis. From neurosurgeons, ambulance drivers, flight nurses and emergency room doctors, these people showed the audience what it was like to spend a day in their chaotic life.
There was no shortage of action throughout the episodes; children were being brought into the emergency room left and right, whether they suffered gunshot wounds or were having trouble breathing, along with severe cases of illness like emergency liver transplants or brain tumors.
Each doctor took on their cases with compassion and understanding, regardless of the circumstances or stress they were under in their personal lives. Two of the main medical staff were pregnant during filming, and it showed them coming back to work after delivering their first children.
As I sat glued to my TV each episode, I became more and more emotional as I watched. These people’s stories were harrowing. I felt for the mother of a 17-year-old who was shot on the streets of New York City; I felt for the father and son who were undergoing kidney transplants together; and I rejoiced in the moment each aforementioned woman gave birth to their first child.
I truly felt with these people. And that’s what they are: people. Sometimes I feel it’s so easy to forget the people behind the mask we see in our doctor’s offices or in the emergency room. I felt like I was apart of their lives throughout these eight episodes, and it was an honor and a privilege to be able to have a window into their lives. I have so much more compassion for their field and what they see each and every day.
I also feel like I had an “inside” look at the problems other humans unfortunately face every day. Especially with the parents of children who came into the emergency rooms with gunshot wounds — yes, there was more than just one — I felt so much closer to the crisis facing American youth today.
Instead of just reading another headline about gun violence, I saw the impact of it firsthand. I watched this boy’s mother watch silently and speechlessly as her son was attended to by dozens of doctors and nurses to save his life.
It’s moments like these that make me understand the volume of issues that are being faced each and every day by people like me, people like us.
This is not going to turn into an opinion about gun violence, but rather connecting us to the real impact and stories of people who are harmed and affected by real-world issues.
There’s just something in shows like “Emergency NYC” that “Grey’s Anatomy” or “Scrubs” can’t teach us. Sure, “Grey’s Anatomy” is great to get involved in the fictional drama and sex lives of surgeons in Seattle, but “Emergency NYC” is the real life trials and tribulations of real people.
I’m not sure if I can stress that enough: these are real human beings going through real human being things.
That’s why everyone should go and watch “Emergency NYC,” or at least shows like that. “Lenox Hill,” which is also on Netflix, features two of the neurosurgeons in “Emergency NYC.”
