How Realistic Is ‘Doctor Odyssey’?
An expert weighs in on how the show portrays medical treatment on cruises.
“You’re the queen of cruising, so you have to start watching Doctor Odyssey with me so we can discuss it,” exclaimed my good friend Aly. “It’s like a modern-day Love Boat, and you follow the medical team around as they handle passenger emergencies and sleep with each other,” she explained. “I wonder how accurate it is.”
Intrigued, I watched the first episode that evening, then zoomed through a few more. While I certainly expected the fictionalized drama to be more salacious than real life, I was fascinated by just how far it went. This over-the-top portrayal of life on a luxury cruise ship seemed like a far cry from what I’ve experienced onboard the 24 cruises I’ve taken—and that includes my own visit to a medical facility onboard a ship while docked in Barcelona last year.
In the pilot, one passenger gets iodine poisoning at the seafood buffet, a honeymooner suffers a penile fracture during sex with his bride, and a man high on molly falls overboard one evening—but don’t worry, the ship’s brand new doctor, Max Bankman (actor Joshua Jackson) not only joins the search and rescue party, but even dives into the ocean to pull him to safety. Just another day on the Odyssey, apparently.
In the following episodes, there’s a syphilis outbreak during “singles week” that infects dozens of passengers, a passenger’s nose literally falls off poolside during a post-rhinoplasty cocaine binge, and the medical team stuffs a deceased passenger into a laundry cart, parades him through the pool deck, and deposits the body into the flower-chiller-turned-makeshift-morgue.
But just how steeped in reality is this show? Not very, according to Liz Baugh, lead medical consultant for Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours. “We rarely see strange and unusual things, and our day-to-day work is mostly seeing minor issues,” she says. She helps set the record straight on the medical myths perpetuated in Doctor Odyssey so would-be cruisers, like my friend Aly, can feel confident in cruising.
Myth 1: Cruise ships face nonstop high-stakes medical emergencies
“In my experience, these emergencies are not common at all,” says Baugh. “In fact, I would say they are very rare.” For instance, she says that iodine poisoning is difficult to detect and not common despite the dialogue on the show insisting it “happens at least once per cruise.”
As for the syphilis outbreak, Baugh says it has an incubation period of 10 days or more, so an outbreak during one cruise is unlikely to be detected as most of those people exposed would be asymptomatic. However, she does give the show’s writers points for accurately depicting the contact tracing procedure used to track down everyone who slept with patient zero. “Contract tracing is the correct procedure,” she says.
What Baugh does appreciate about the show are the moments of actual education, as was the case with the penile fracture. “It was good that the show explained that this isn’t actually a fracture, as the penis is not a bone and fractures affect bones,” she says. “Dispelling myths like that is important in medicine so that we don’t have any misunderstandings.”
Myth 2: It’s the medical team’s duty to rescue a man overboard
A man-overboard emergency is pretty rare (though one did just happen on a Taylor Swift-themed cruise), however Baugh says the doctor absolutely would not be diving in to make a rescue. “The medical team would remain on the cruise ship preparing the facilities to receive a casualty who has potentially drowned, or suffered from hypothermia or other injuries caused by the fall,” she explains. “It is not protocol to have someone dive in to rescue a person from the water. Ship crews are highly trained in a variety of other rescue methods that don’t involve directly putting another life at risk by having them in the water.”
Myth 3: There’s nowhere to store a deceased passenger
Deaths onboard do happen and can increase depending on the passenger demographic. Cruise ships usually have a proper morgue facility, explains Baugh, but there was some truth to the episode about storing the body in the flower refrigerator. “On Scenic vessels we have a portable morgue that we would set up if we needed it, but thankfully that has never happened,” she says. “If the ship is too small to have one, then they may use one of the chiller rooms.”
Myth 4: Cruise ship medical teams can handle anything that comes their way
While the medical facility onboard the Odyssey is enormous and filled with all the latest equipment and technology, real cruise ships won’t have as much space or as many bells and whistles. For instance, Scenic ships have X-ray machines, blood analyzers, and a variety of point-of-care tests, and can manage an intensive-care patient on a ventilator—but there’s no advanced imaging like CT or MRI.
“I am afraid the show does make it look like anything is possible medically speaking,” says Baugh. “Our facilities, whilst pretty comprehensive, cannot deal with every single medical problem that we are faced with, so we do sometimes have to seek help ashore when the ship goes into port.”
She explains that the teams train incredibly hard for the worst-case scenario because they must be ready for anything—and part of that training is knowing your limits and when to request additional help from shoreside facilities.
Myth 5: Crew members are free to party and have relations amongst themselves and with passengers
In the first episode, Dr. Bankman attends a port day beach party with the entire crew, gets drunk, and ends up dirty dancing and making out with his nurse, Avery Morgan (played by Phillipa Soo), in front of everyone. In another episode, Morgan has a make-out session with the other nurse onboard, Tristan Silva (played by Sean Teale)—and that’s right before she decides to take a random passenger up on his invitation to go back to his cabin for a nightcap. And in yet another scene, Dr. Bankman and Morgan have a sexual encounter in the medical facility.
“Our team has a very strict set of professional boundaries that they uphold at all times regardless of whether they are on or off duty and on or off the ship,” says Baugh. “So, I am afraid the partying ashore and relationships amongst themselves and the guest population just doesn’t happen. Medics are there to do a job and take their professional responsibilities incredibly seriously.”
Myth 6: Cruise medical teams also handle all off-ship emergencies
In the fourth episode, a passenger gets her arm trapped between rocks in a cave while on an excursion and the medical team is brought to her for a rescue mission (which almost involves amputation). That’s not quite how it would work in real life.
“We provide medical cover for expeditions led by the ship’s specialist teams,” says Baugh, “but if there was an emergency, then we would also be asking the local Coastguards for assistance as well.”
Let’s face it: Part of Doctor Odyssey’s appeal is the far-fetched scenarios it brings to viewers—a show about what it’s really like onboard wouldn’t get picked up for season two. As my friend Aly puts it, “I wouldn’t be surprised if an upcoming episode somehow manages to tackle an at-sea organ transplant in the middle of a typhoon.” Here’s hoping!