george clooney doesn't work here (and none of our doctors look like him)

I don't think the public would ever believe what it is really like in an ER.  The people we really deal with.  The average person is not going to come to ER unless they truly are very sick or have an accident or something.  So the majority of people we see are not your average, functioning person.



NOT.

They are the dysfunctional, criminal, crazy people among us.  They are the people you move to the suburbs to avoid. 

Lots and lots of dysfunctional people come to ER, in fact, they are the bread and butter of the ER.  They are the people who have zero coping skills for one reason or the other.  Their life is one crisis after another and if there isn't a crisis, they will create one.  Expecting them to be organized enough in their own life to have a doctor is unrealistic.  When they come in, they act out all of that dysfunction.

We see some really creepy people in the ER too. Guys who want you to "hold the urinal for them". Sex offenders. People who "just got out of jail". Drunks who are so drunk that they pee and poop themselves. Violent people who want to kill somebody.

Then there are the truly mentally ill. People who hear voices. Manic people. People who try to hurt themselves while they are in the ER. People who get out of control and have to be restrained.  People who sometimes won't hesitate to punch us.

And we see the sad people.  Old people who lay on the floor for hours because they have no family to check on them. Young people who are already messed up because their family is dysfunctional.  Abused people.  Women who are raped.  People who are dying or die.  People who have bad things happen to them just randomly, through no fault of their own, and it will change their lives forever.
People who are terrible junkies or drunks and that's all they will be til it kills them.

This is the real ER.  The one you don't see on TV.