Quick Takes

August 22nd, 2007

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

scene from Birds of Prey #109
scene from Birds of Prey #109 (Script by Bedard, art by Scott)

I’m sure I can’t be the first one to mention this, but Shado is not Connor’s mother (or that would have added a whole ‘nother layer of Oedipal creepiness to the recent Connor Hawke mini-series).

I noticed that this issue started with a caption stating that “This story takes place before the events of the Black Canary mini-series.” It has been my experience that no good comic books start with one of these “takes place before” captions. Consider that one of Scott’s Laws of Comic Books.

scene from Gamma Corps #2Scene from Gamma Corps #2 (Script by Tieri, art by Ferreira).

You can’t put the patient’s name on the door like that; it’s a privacy act violation. Basically, you wouldn’t want some some third-party strolling down the hall and being able to tell who is in the hospital. It’s the same reason why hospitals got rid of those big dry erase boards behind the nurses’ station listing all the patients on a floor (sure, some hospitals still have them, but they use initials or codes instead of the full name, or have them in very out-of-the-way places).

Also, that’s a strange configuration for an ICU room — down a hallway from the nurses’ station and behind a closed door. ICU rooms are designed to give quick and easy access to an unstable patient, and a narrow hallway and door would make it difficult.

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5 Responses to “ Quick Takes ”

  1. Jon
    August 23rd, 2007 at 10:33 am

    Ugh, I can’t believe that saying that Shado is Connor’s mother got past editorial. That’s almost Worse than the “Your watching LA Ink” thing on TLC.
    I haven’t actually read BoP yet (I buy my comics on Wednesday, then read them on Saturday at work, as it’s the slowest, most deadly dull day of my work week), but this scene doesn’t bode well for the post-Simone period of the title.
    The name on the door thing and the mention of the dry erase board remind me of when I used to work in a grocery store. Each register had a list of the names of the cashiers working that day and what their shifts were, as well as similar list for stockers. As a cashier, you needed to know who else was available to work the registers, and you had to know which stockers were available to come up to the front to bag groceries.
    We ran into a problem with the list of cashiers – who were mostly female – being easily spotted by customers, as some of the cashiers were cute and many of the customers were creeps who would attempt to put the knowledge of when the object of their “affection” got off work to confront them in the parking lot.
    In one instance it was actually a woman who was stalking one of the cashiers, as the cashier was dating the woman’s ex-boyfriend and the woman had issues with “letting go.”
    In the end, the solution was to simply cover the cashier schedule with the stocker schedule, as it was assumed that the stockers – mostly male – could take care of themselves.

  2. SanctumSanctorumComix
    August 23rd, 2007 at 11:38 am

    When did it become policy to take patient’s names off the doorway?

    Thankfully, I haven’t had to visit anyone in a hospital in several years (sometimes in a regular room, sometimes in ICU and such), but their names (Last name, First Initial) were always on a little card-slot holder on the wall to the side of the door.

    I guess I’m GLAD that policy changed, but when did it do so?
    (And is it a blanket country-wide policy?)

    ThanX!

    ~P~
    P-TOR

  3. Dwight Williams
    August 23rd, 2007 at 12:53 pm

    As much of a supporter of real-time character aging for the DCU characters as I am, no way can I see that panel’s dialogue being an accurate remembrance of anyone’s about the events in question. Not without a lot of time-travel on “Shado” Tomonaga’s part, anyway!

    Not to mention that wee met Connor’s mom during Dixon’s run, a lady name of Moonday Hawke.

  4. Arkonbey
    August 24th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

    Looks like HIPAA didn’t pass in the DCU…

  5. Wanderer
    March 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    Item #1: It’s not the same in all hospitals. Down here in Texas, the dry-erase board and patient nameplates are still very much in use.

    Item #2: To be fair, Tony Bedard acknowledges the Shado/Sandra mixup as “just a good old fashioned fuck-up on my part”. Shado did father a child by Oliver Queen, but his name is Robert; he and Connor have met.

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