Dr. Gupta is no hero!

I was really disappointed in CNN the other day. Truth be told, I haven't been pleased with the way they portray the news in quite some time; however, yesterday was a new low. The headline on their website read, "UN doctors and nurses leave hospital in Haiti leaving our Dr. Sanjay Gupta to treat everyone."

Wow.

Now the truth. The UN doctors and nurses were told to leave because mobs of angry people, most with machetes, were becoming rowdy around the hospital, and for the safety of everyone they were ordered to leave. Dr. Gupta, on the other hand, was surrounded (off camera of course) by tons of the private security forces hired by CNN to shoot the faces of anyone that could be a threat to Gupta. Did the UN MDs and RNs have the same luxury of private security (or even UN security at the time)? No.

Personal safety always comes first and patient care a very close second. One hundred dead doctors are about as useful as one Sanjay Gupta alive. Don't misunderstand me, I have nothing against the man, just the was CNN tried to portray on him.

The tragedy in Haiti is exactly that, a tragedy, but the media exploitation of it has made the situation that much worse. Shame on you CNN.

I don't know how many out there are reading this. I'm thankful for all who do and I hope you gain some insight in to emergency medicine from it. I promise to not make this my soapbox and to return writing about EM stuff in my next post. CNN, and most of the media, just really pissed me off this week.