Producer Q & A (cont'd)
Q: Is it difficult to obtain consent to air a patient case on national television?
A: We take patient confidentiality very seriously and only feature patients who sign releases. In fact, many featured patients focus on how their personal trauma could benefit their community and the nationwide audience by alerting others, for example, of the importance of wearing seat belts or of child safety tips.
Q: What kind of backgrounds do you look for in your video journalists?
A: We choose caring and compassionate people. In order to capture the intensity, drama, and humor of the daily workings of an E.R., you need to have a certain passion for the job and understanding for those in pain. Crewmembers also exemplify the combination of different visual sensibilities, different styles and different storytelling techniques that we like to bring to the show. On a lighter note, when we hire people, we ask, "How's your stomach? Do you pass out at the sight of blood?"
Q: What were the biggest surprises for you?
A: The volume of traumas these hospitals experience. And more surprisingly, how organized trauma care really is. It looks very chaotic on TV, but there's a real system with a rigid protocol to follow.
Q: What were some of the challenges faced while making the series?
A: One of the biggest challenges is to select which caregivers to feature, because all are so exemplary. The medical professionals we encounter are experts in their field, and narrowing it down to a select few is an arduous process. Also, regarding our more personal challenges, once you film a trauma — once you see what death really means, up close — it changes you as a person. It changes how you view death … and life.
Q: How does this program differ from fictional dramas about emergency medicine?
A: What we show is real — that's the bottom line. Fictional dramas, no matter how realistic, leave viewers wondering if it could really happen. For us, that question is erased. Emotions are pushed to the edge with documentary television because you realize these are real people in real life and death situations.
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