Polite Dissent

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #5
Joe Casey, writer
Scott Kolins, penciler

In Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #5, the Wasp is shot by Count Nefaria’s men and her teammates rush her to the hospital. We are treated to a wonderful scene of Thor getting medieval in the ER (and by medieval I mean King James Version medieval, not Pulp Fiction “getting medieval”). At this point in his career, Thor’s alter-ego is Dr. Donald Blake, so you would think Thor knows what he’s talking about. He does, mostly. Let’s look at it one line at a time:

Nurse! ‘Tis a GSW to the chest

Thor is describing the injury to the emergency department personnel. “GSW” stands for Gun Shot Wound.

Her pulse is 40 palp

This line doesn’t make much sense. “Palp” stands for “palpable” and Thor seems to be saying that not only can he count her pulse, but he can feel it too! This is redundant because by definition a pulse must be palpable to be present. If you can’t feel it, there is no detectable pulse. This is also an abnormally low pulse for a person in shock from blood loss; I’d expect it to be much higher as the poor heart speeds up valiantly trying to pump her little remaining blood to vital areas.

A blood pressure would be a nice number to know, and I suspect this is the information Thor is actually trying to convey. The Avengers don’t carry blood pressure cuffs out in the field, but tradition holds that the systolic blood pressure can be estimated by the pulse: If only the carotid pulse can be detected, then the systolic blood pressure is assumed to be 50-60; if both the carotid and femoral pulse can both be detected, then the systolic blood pressure is assumed to be around 70; if the carotid, femoral and brachial pulses can all be palpated then the systolic blood pressure is assumed to be about 80-90. I think Thor is trying to say that he estimates the Wasp’s systolic blood pressure at 40 after checking for palpable pulses — sure it’s a lower number than I mentioned above, but maybe Asgardians have more sensitive fingers. (Recent studies have cast some doubt on these numbers, but Don Blake/Thor is an old-time physician, so he’s probably sticking with what he learned in medical school.)

Start an I.V.

Good idea. The Wasp needs fluids quickly.

Type and Crossmatch.

Another good idea. She’s going to need a transfusion, especially if she’s going into surgery.