Green Lantern #154: A Medical Review

June 28th, 2005

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

cover, Green Lantern #154By request, a look at Green Lantern #154.

Green Lantern #154 “Hate Crime, part one”
Judd Winick, writer
Dale Eaglesham, penciler

Kyle Rayner’s assistant Terry has been attacked and beaten severely. Kyle is at his bedside in the hospital intensive care unit. The splash page opens with excerpts from the doctor’s note on Terry:

Patient is a 17-year-old male suffering from multiple compound fractures of the head, chest, and extremities. He has a left orbital blowout fracture, bilateral multiple compound fractures of the lower extremities and left upper extremity, and a severe crush injury of the left hand. He is status post emergent craniotomy for decompression an epidural hematoma and thoracostomy tube placement for traumatic hemopneumothorax. Glasgow Coma Scale is 4; prognosis for neurological recovery is poor.

Rather than explain that myself (though I did throw in some helpful hyperlinks), I’ll let Kyle Rayner sum it up because he does an excellent job:

Terry has a broken arm, two broken legs – one of them in three places. His left hand is mangled. He has four broken ribs and a collapsed lung. He also has a skull fracture. He may lose an eye. They drilled holes in his head to relieve the pressure from the bleeding in his brain. He’s on a respirator. He’s in a coma. He may die.


Splash Page from Green Lantern #154The medicine is fine. The injuries described are consistent with a severe beating, and the treatment is entirely appropriate. I could make a few tiny nitpicks , but that would be more personal preference than actual medical errors, so I’ll keep my mouth shut (for once).

The art is good. As always, Eaglesham does an excellent job drawing the scene, particularly medical equipment. Still, let me point out that the notes describe the left arm as broken, yet the art shows the cast on the right arm.

I want to take this opportunity to briefly discuss the Glasgow Coma Scale. The Glasgow Coma Scale (often simply referred to as the GCS) is frequently mentioned in trauma scenes in movies and television — and sometimes even comics. It is composed of three parts: Eye Opening, Best Verbal Response and Best Motor Response. These scores are added together to give a total score of 3-15.

Eye Opening (E)
BEST Motor Response (M)
Verbal Response (V)
Spontaneous
4
   Obeys Commands
6
   Oriented
5
To speech
3
   Localizes pain
5
   Confused conversation
4
To pain
2
   Normal flexion (withdrawal)
4
   Inappropriate words
3
None
1
   Abnormal flexion (decorticate)
3
   Incomprehensible sounds
2
      Extension (decerebrate) 2   None 1
      None (flaccid) 1      
Add the scores from each of the 3 columns to reach the final GCS score

If the GCS is 13 of higher, there may be mild brain injury. A score of less than 12 is said to represent moderate brain injury and a score of 8 or less indicates severe brain injury and coma. Though the score is often reported as a single number (“A GCS of 9”), it works best when also given in its components (”E3V3M3″).

The GCS is not a perfect system. Vascular injury (stroke), intoxication, low blood sugar and shock can affect the GCS. As can be imagined, it doesn’t work well on children who are too young to talk (or other non-verbal patients). Still, the GCS is widely used because it gives a quick snapshot of the patient’s neurological status that is understood almost universally.

7 Responses to “ Green Lantern #154: A Medical Review ”

  1. TayJK
    June 29th, 2005 at 2:49 am

    I wonder what kind of research Judd Winnick did when he wrote that.

    Did he write Kyle’s part, call up a doctor friend, send him it, and told him this was the result of a beating and to put it into medical-lingo?

    Did he have the doctor write the medical lingo, then he, while the doctor explained what the medical lingo meant, wrote Kyle’s part?

    Did they work in concert, talking about what injures Terry might have recieved from a severe beating, and what the medical-lingo name for it was?

    Also, I’m not sure, but I think that is the first time a comic’s medical lingo came out without a single error when being reviewed by you. The art screwed up, but not medically, just in referance to a non-critical left/right mix-up.

    You meantioned that Eaglesham, as always, drew the medical stuff well. Forgive my poor memory, but what other medical scenes did he draw?

  2. Scott
    June 29th, 2005 at 9:30 am
    Official Comment

    Dale Eaglesham has drawn some excellent art in the Villains United mini-series, and issue #2 had a medical (or nearly-medical scene).

    This isn’t the first medical scene with a good review by me, but admittedly it’s part of a small minority of comics. Offhand, I remember that Fallen Angel #18 and Birds of Prey #78 and #80 got good medical reviews. There has been some good medicine on earlier issues of JSA, but I haven’t reviewed them. Maybe I’ll do an all JSA week sometime.

  3. TayJK
    June 29th, 2005 at 10:51 am

    You mean Doctor Mid-Nite actually did some good medicine? Or did someone on the JSA finally realize that Moctor Mid-Nite didn’t have a licence and went to an actual Emergency Room instead of getting something from Mid-Nite’s Vikakin PEZ Dispenser?

  4. Chris Brown
    June 29th, 2005 at 11:51 am

    Well Judd’s wife is a doctor. That I beleive accounts for the medical information.

  5. Scott
    June 29th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
    Official Comment

    That’s a good point. I had completely forgotten that fact.

  6. N
    June 30th, 2005 at 10:06 pm

    Could some more bad things happen to Kyle’s family and friends? Because I don’t think he’s suffered enough.

  7. Harvey
    March 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    It is issues like this that invalidate “Women in Refridgerators” for me. Men are mangled, depowered, and killed all the time. If that was catalogued as much, it would dwarf the women’s list.

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