A bunch of real-life nurses say Jack’s death was preventable, as if this couldn’t be more tragic
The scenes that lead to Jack Pearson’s death on This Is Us continue to play over and over in our heads. Jack heroically saves everyone from the house fire. He goes back inside to rescue Louie the dog and salvage a bunch of family heirlooms. He inhales a ton of smoke and accrues second-degree burns on his hands. But even after all of that, we were led to believe that he was going to be okay…UNTIL HE WASN’T. Just when we thought Jack had a good chance of surviving, he goes into cardiac arrest and abruptly dies; he had a “widowmaker’s heart attack” due to the damage the smoke had put on his lungs.
Yes, we’re crying again just thinking about this. But like, you are too, right???
Look, we’re not claiming to be Dr. Meredith Grey here, but some appear to believe that there was some sort of medical oversight, and that Jack could’ve been SAVED — and they might just have a point. Real-life nurses and other medical professionals weighed in on the circumstances surrounding Jack’s death, and they are infuriated over how easily the TV doctors and nurses could have prevented it from happening. And like, please say it ain’t so. It would hurt TOO much.
https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/960366206451703808
Me as a nurse right now:
Jack looks like crap.
WHY does he not have oxygen on?
What are his vitals? How high is that heart rate?Really. Who is monitoring this man?!?!#ThisIsUs #feelslike #derekshepherd #alloveragain
— Ayslinn (@AystheAce) February 5, 2018
nurse thoughts: Jack Pearson wouldn’t be dead if they coded him for longer than two minutes #thisisus @NBCThisisUs 😭😭😭😭
— Desiree Alessandra (@NurseDezRN_BSN) February 6, 2018
This episode of this is us is KILLING the nurse in me rn…the man has soot in his nose is coughing and probs has an inhalation injury INTUBATE BEFORE HE DECOMPENSATES PEOPLE
— Mackenzie Cole (@MackenzieAChase) February 5, 2018
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What’s more, the IRL nurses also believe that the medical staff on the show let Jack go too soon.
If only adult Sophie had been there, this wouldn’t have happened, amirite?
ok the nurse in me is fixing 2 come out…
THE CODE ON JACK WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH
why wasn't the room an absolute mess
they only cut open his shirt
you can't tell if its the "widow-maker" unless they send him to the cath lab
the hospital did the Pearson family a disservice
— hannaH (@HannahSchiller2) February 6, 2018
They sure didn’t code Jack for very long… But with smoke inhalation one never knows I guess… #ThisIsUs
— Sarah Schultz (@sarahscutflowrs) February 5, 2018
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According to one of them, if the ultimate cause of Jack’s death on This Is Us really was the widowmaker’s heart attack, then it means that he already had a prior plaque build up in his coronary arteries. Translation: He would have died eventually, and the smoke inhalation just happened to speed the process.
Just a little nurse logic here to comfort you- Jack would have died from a heart attack eventually. He already had plaque build up in the coronary arteries (thats how “widowmakers” work). The smoke inhalation just sped up the inevitable by stressing the heart.💔 #ThisIsUs
— Name (@relaxmanitscool) February 6, 2018
Dr. Richard Katz, director of the George Washington University Heart and Vascular Institute, echoed when speaking with Time.
"A widowmaker heart attack occurs when that artery suddenly goes from 80% or 90% narrowed to 100% narrowed. It happens very quickly, and suddenly you’re depriving a large chunk of that heart muscle from oxygen," he explained. "Sometimes this is transient and people wake back up. But when the blockage occurs in the LAD, sadly this is when we see sudden cardiac death much more often."
At the end of the day, This Is Us is just a TV show, but that doesn’t mean Jack’s death didn’t hurt any less. ESPECIALLY if it could’ve been avoided, even if for the time being.