OT and TV

     As an avid medical show enthusiast, and since recently - an OT student, television has become exciting to a new level. One series that has kept me glued to the couch is “The Good Doctor”. The story centers around Shawn, who is a surgical resident with savant syndrome and how he experiences everyday obstacles in his professional field and personal life. (Don’t worry, I had to look it up too), savant syndrome is a condition where a diagnosed individual will exhibit significant mental disabilities, as well as demonstrating certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills at which savants excel are generally related to memory, mathematics, and in this case science. It is caused by neurodevelopmental disorder such as autism spectrum disorder, or brain injury.

In this episode one of the patients with a middle-age male with a complaint of back pain that shoots down through the lower extremities. I know, back pain is not very interesting… unless it is coming from a man with paraplegia. Hunter was a paraplegic due to a motorcycle accident 11 years ago. The site of injury was T1, meaning all movement and sensory function below T1 was compromised. Thus, it is not at all unreasonable that the surgical team first thought it was phantom pain. However, an MRI scan showed the spinal cord at the site of injury appeared almost normal. In rare cases, when the spinal cord is bruised and not severed, it is possible for the damaged section to heal itself and potentially restore function.

Mr. Hunter was filled with hope. Unfortunately, it was discovered the cause of the heal was a mass. A spinal arachnoid meningioma was found at T1. It is normally noticed earlier in its’ growth stages because of the secondary pain and weakness, but in this case Mr. Hunters could not feel it until is spread above the injury site. By that time, the cyst was wrapped around the spinal cord and fused with the dura and was compressing the healthy cord and just letting the pain through. The patient was left with two options: since the cyst was done growing, they could implant a nerve block to treat the pain, but he would lose all possibilities of walking. He chose the surgery.

I chose this episode because it matched with the material we were going over in class (SCI). Since I already had the basic understanding, I was able to appreciate the prognosis, rarity of incidence, and could relate to the emotions of a student entering the healthcare field. Also, a big theme of this episode is how people with disabilities feel like outsiders. It breaks my heart that a person is willing to die for a chance to be perceived as a man and not “a person in a wheel chair”. I think we as a society need to work on being more understanding and considerate towards each other. It definitely made me re-evaluate myself, and I hope I’m not the only one. If you want to watch this show and talk about it after, you can find it on ABC television, Hulu, and maybe Netflix!

APA Citation

Renaud, D, Rotko, W. L.  (Writer), & Liddi-Brown, A. (Director). (March 12,2018). Pain [Television series episode]. In D. Shore (Producer), The Good Doctor. Vancouver, British Columbia: Shore Z Productions

Smith-Gabai, H., & Holm, S. E. (2017). Occupational Therapy in Acute Care (2^nd ed.). Bethesda, MD: AOTA Press

Spinal Cord Injury | MedlinePlus. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://medlineplus.gov/spinalcordinjuries.html