How ‘The Pitt’ Gets Death Right
[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Season one of The Pitt.]
Boasting 13 Emmy nominations and four recent TV Critics Association Award wins, HBO Max’s breakout medical drama The Pitt has been widely lauded for its hyperrealistic portrayal of a chaotic, underfunded hospital emergency department. Among the many things the show has been credited for getting right is its nuanced depiction of death and dying. The Pitt cuts deep into the heart of harrowing end-of-life decisions and conversations faced by patients, family members and physicians, as well as the messy emotional aftermath. The upside is the show’s positive real-life impact, which initially surprised executive producer and writer Joe Sachs.
Having worked for over 30 years in Northridge Hospital’s trauma center, Sachs tells The Hollywood Reporter that he brings his own expertise on death and dying to the writing table first. “But when I want to really make sure things are good and right, we reach for consultants,” he says. “The deeper you dig, the more interesting details you get that people are unaware of and that makes for fresh storytelling. USC Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society is our lifeblood and I email the most bizarre requests to [HH&S senior outreach specialist] Roberta Cruger, who I’ve worked with since my ER days.”
HH&S program director Kate Folb tells THR that for season one’s death and dying narratives, the organization connected The Pitt to organ donation programs and to palliative care expert Dr. Ira Byock. Now deep into season two, Folb says the show has tapped into a death doula’s expertise for an upcoming storyline.
Read the full Article at The Hollywood Reporter here and all credit goes to them!”
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/how-the-pitt-death-accuracy-1236365261/