Chicago Med: Fans Call The Show Out On Its Overuse Of Liver Ailments
"Chicago Med" fans have seen their fair share of patients with rare illnesses and conditions make their way into the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center over the years. However, for all the times that the show introduces something new and unexpected, so too does it fall back on a couple old tropes. In fact, some fans are calling the show out for repeatedly featuring one particular type of ailment far more than others.
"Chicago Med" Season 8, Episode 20, titled "The Winds of Change Are Starting to Blow" features a patient named Jan, who resists the team's help due to her conspiracist views that the hospital will secretly make her sick. It's very clear from the get-go that Jan isn't doing well, though, as both her skin and her eyes are discolored. "Jan is looking mighty yellow," @ShalleneHolley tweeted.
It didn't take regular viewers long to realize that the woman had jaundice, a common symptom of liver failure caused in this case by pancreatic cancer. As fans pointed out, this episode is far from the first time that the show has dealt with liver ailments. "There's so many episodes on 'Chicago Med' about liver failure and about how they all look the same with the green color in the eyes and green color in the face," @Allyiscute1993 tweeted.
Chicago Med features many liver-related stories, but it's not unrealistic
Fans arguing that "Chicago Med" features a lot of liver-related medical cases aren't wrong. Season 8, Episode 13, which aired just months prior to Episode 20, featured a case in which a piece of a blade got caught in the liver of a stabbing victim. Prior to that, Episode 8 of the same season featured a patient in desperate need of a liver transplant. These examples are just a few highlights from a single season of the show — rounding up every time the show has dealt with liver problems over its entire run would take quite a bit longer.
However, despite the frequency with which the show elects to feature plot threads built around this one particular human organ, its recurring presence isn't a medical inaccuracy on "Chicago Med's" part. According to statistics obtained by the American Liver Foundation, over 100 million residents of the United States have some form of liver-related illness. The CDC has also noted there are currently over 4.5 million adults dealing with diagnosed liver disease.
Indeed, fans are correct that "Chicago Med" relies on liver problem cases quite a bit. However, based on the real-life information, it might actually be stranger if the show reduced how common these types of ailments are in a medical setting.