Three Rivers

Since the end of baseball season, I've been flipping the channels, trying to find shows to watch until April. Sunday night, Three Rivers came on, and because it had Mandy Patinkin in it, a favorite from Chicago Hope and Criminal Minds, I started to watch but dozed off after a few minutes. I woke up towards the end, and after seeing the end, I rewound it to watch the whole thing. I was horrified and am still thinking about it three days later.

Mandy Patinkin played Victor, a man with ALS. He had been in a car accident (as the driver) and was admitted to Three Rivers. I guess that's the name of the hospital, and it seems to be a hospital that does a lot of transplants. Victor decided that he no longer wanted to live and wanted to be taken off life support, and people started lining up begging for his organs, while a couple of doctors and Victor's daughter tried to convince him to change his mind.

First of all, I don't know who their medical consultants are. Maybe they don't have any. An end-stage ALS patient driving a car to pick up his scooter? I don't think so. But, it is just fiction, and the show won a People's Choice nomination for best new drama so apparently little things like that don't bother other people. I won't mention all his facial expressions and his ability to talk without effort.

The final scenes were the doctor accepting Victor's wish to be taken off of life support and agreeing to do the surgery (the scene that made me rewind it to see what kind of surgery), a tearful goodbye with his daughter, and the wheeling of the gurney down the hall past the loved ones of the patients about to get his organs, through the doors into the light.

I don't know the name of the episode, but possibly it's "Dr. Kevorkian Goes Hollywood." Scary that the premise of the show is considered entertainment.