A cruise ship medical expert fact-checks ‘Doctor Odyssey’

In the ABC medical drama “Doctor Odyssey”, Dr. Max Bankman’s employment on a cruise ship starts with a misdiagnosis.
What Bankman (played by Joshua Jackson) – an otherwise decorated physician – thinks is a passenger’s adverse reaction to an antibiotic turns out to be iodine poisoning because he ate too much shrimp. “This happens at least once a trip,” nurse Tristan Silva (Sean Teale), who is more familiar with ailments found at sea, says in the pilot.
After treating the patient, nurse practitioner Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo) further schools the newbie. “We see a lot of different things on cruises,” she said. “We also see a lot of the same things.”
In reality, iodine poisoning probably isn’t one of them. “We have never had a case of iodine poisoning, ever,” Liz Baugh, Lead Medical Consultant for Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, which operates small upscale vessels much like the show’s titular Odyssey, told USA TODAY.
“I’ve been working at least 25 years and never had a case,” Baugh, who is also a formal Royal Navy medic and has worked with Scenic since 2020, continued. “From my own personal experience, it’s not something that happens commonly.”
That was just one instance of dramatized health crises on cruises in the new TV show. Baugh helped USA TODAY separate fact from fiction.
In some ways, yes. For instance, the fictional ship has one doctor and two nurses, while Scenic’s ships have one doctor and one nurse. The medical facilities also closely mirror what is depicted on the show.
“So, on Scenic, we have quite small facilities,” said Baugh. “We have a one-bedded ward where we can manage an intensive care patient, and we also have a doctor’s consultation office where minor procedures and things can take place.”
There is also a small lab area for basic tests like bloodwork and X-ray machines. The line also recently took delivery of ultrasound devices.
Similar to the series’ medical personnel, who do not perform surgery except in cases of emergency, Scenic does not have surgical capabilities on board.
“For us, a surgical emergency will be a medical evacuation because we don’t have the ability to provide the follow-up care that somebody needs post-surgery, let alone all the equipment and all the anesthetics that would be required to put somebody under for surgery,” Baugh said.
That said, there may be times when ships have to treat patients for an extended period. The Odyssey’s Captain Robert Massey (Don Johnson) warns Bankman that the ship is typically three hours from land and that “medevac in the deep ocean is not even a possibility.”
When sailing close to land, Baugh said real passengers needing additional care could be transferred via boat or by helicopter if they are farther out.
“When you go out of helicopter range, which is normally, I think, from 200 to 250 miles offshore, then you’re in a situation where you can’t get your patient to definitive care, and you become it,” she said. “You do have to look after your patient, and those are the things that you’ve got to be really prepared for.”
Scenic has one medical evacuation – involving calling coast guards for assistance with a helicopter – per ship each year on average.
Also yes. While the show primarily centers around a seemingly nonstop barrage of severe ailments – appendicitis, copper poisoning and a punctured lung, to name a few – Baugh said the most common reasons guests visit the medical center are milder.
Those include bladder infections or infections affecting the ears, nose and throat. “We get a lot of seasickness, especially if people aren’t used to being on the water,” Baugh added.
Will I get seasick on a cruise?:Here’s what travelers should know.
Real passengers also sometimes suffer soft tissue injuries, such as bruises, when they extend a hand to steady themselves.
Cruise ships are required to have automated external defibrillators, which would usually be located in public areas, and most also have a more advanced version in the medical facility, according to Baugh. Those kinds of devices are used at least twice in the first few episodes of “Doctor Odyssey” alone.
Baugh hasn’t seen any cardiac arrests among Scenic guests in the four years she’s been working with them but said the frequency might vary depending on the age and fitness of a line’s guests.
Despite a scene in which Bankman gallantly dives from a boat to save a passenger who has gone overboard, Baugh said other crew usually handle those operations — and can do so without getting in the water themselves. Medical staff, meanwhile, would prepare the facility accordingly.
“Because with the best will in the world, if I started throwing myself into the water, what’s the guarantee that I’m going to survive it?” she said. “You need to have a functioning medic to be able to save a patient that’s been in the water.”
ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While the fictional medical staff on “Doctor Odyssey” faces a slew of high-stakes cases each week, Baugh said real-life travelers shouldn’t be too concerned.
“It’s not that common,” she said. Baugh noted that the line takes many steps before and during a cruise to prevent bad health outcomes, from encouraging guests to bring enough of any medications they need to warning them about potentially choppy waters.
“I really like the idea that people do these TV shows where they bring a different part of the world into somebody’s living area,” she said. “And I get why they sometimes make it look a bit more dramatic than it might actually be, because in medicine we’re very, very measured.”
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].