How Doctor Odyssey’s High-Seas Emergencies Were Just Debunked By Real-Life Cruise Medical Expert

ABC is juggling two medical dramas on Thursday nights, with Doctor Odyssey pushing Grey’s Anatomy back an hour on the 2024 TV schedule to dive into the eccentric emergencies that occur on the high seas. There’s a pretty big difference, however, between Ellen Pompeo’s medical drama — which goes to lengths to portray medicine in a realistic sense — and Joshua Jackson’s new show from Ryan Murphy, which… doesn’t. So just how often do cruise ships really see the wild maladies plaguing The Odyssey’s passengers? A real-life cruise medical expert has spoken about just that.
So far on Doctor Odyssey’s premiere season — which stars Joshua Jackson giving Dawson’s Creek vibes as Dr. Max Bankman — we’ve seen copper poisoning from ingesting raw organ meat, a collapsed lung from an acupuncture session gone wrong and an appendectomy in a hurricane. Frankly it’s enough to make the bravest of travelers stay tethered to dry land and close to a fully equipped ER. Liz Baugh, lead medical consultant for Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, however, assured USA TODAY the kinds of emergencies depicted on the show are rare:
It’s not that common. I really like the idea that people do these TV shows where they bring a different part of the world into somebody’s living area. And I get why they sometimes make it look a bit more dramatic than it might actually be, because in medicine we’re very, very measured.
Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story, right? That philosophy works better on fictional series like Doctor Odyssey than it does on some of Ryan Murphy’s other creations that are based on real events — like American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez and Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story. Stretching the truth too far in those cases has broken the faith of some Murphy apologists .
In one notable example from Doctor Odyssey’s premiere, Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo) tells Dr. Bankman that a passenger gets iodine poisoning from eating too much shrimp at the buffet at least once every trip. Liz Baugh debunked that myth, saying:
We have never had a case of iodine poisoning, ever. I’ve been working at least 25 years and never had a case. From my own personal experience, it’s not something that happens commonly.
What’s more common, according to the consultant, is seasickness, bladder infections, or illnesses involving the ear, nose or throat. Cruise lines also take steps to head off many negative situations by encouraging passengers to bring plenty of the medications they will need.
As ridiculous and unrealistic as some of the situations on Doctor Odyssey are, it’s fun to see the show channeling the cruise ship crisis of fellow Ryan Murphy project and Thursday night sister series 9-1-1.
If you’d like to catch up on all the high-seas hijinks, episodes of Doctor Odyssey are available to stream with a Hulu subscription , and be sure to tune in for new episodes at 9 p.m. ET Thursdays on ABC.