The Unreal World: 'Miami Medical' accident injuries and surgeries a stretch?

The Los Angeles Times—July 12, 2010   

The premise: A school bus crash in the Florida Everglades hurls teacher Lori Wilson (Elizabeth Ho) into a canal and damages the spine and brain of 16-year-old Ben Sims (John Bain). They're both brought to the trauma center at Miami Medical for treatment. When Lori's hands swell and she develops a sudden inability to find words (dysphasia), Dr. Chris Deleo ( Mike Vogel) struggles to figure out what's wrong with her. An MRI of the brain is normal. He finally discovers that she has a very low sodium level (hyponatremia) from swallowing too much water in the canal and, when he treats her with hypertonic (3%) intravenous sodium chloride, she improves.

The medical questions: Can swallowing canal water lead to a low level of sodium in the blood, swollen hands and difficulty finding words? Would this be a difficult diagnosis to make and would the treatment be a 3% sodium solution?

The reality: Drinking a large quantity of pond water could dilute the blood and lead to hyponatremia, says Dr. Dale Lange, neurologist-in-chief at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. And fluid-swollen, or edematous, hands could result — as could dysphasia (difficulty communicating or comprehending) because of swelling in the brain, Lange says. But the condition would much more likely be associated with tap or bottled water; canal water is not typically as hypotonic. And a very low blood-sodium level is much easier to diagnose than the show suggests. The sodium level would be part of routine tests for accident victims.

Read the full article at latimes.com.