Emergency room staff cut the clothes off an unresponsive homeless man, and several rats leap from his body onto the floor. Doctors examine a child who won’t wake up and discover he ate one of his father’s cannabis gummies. A patient who has waited hours to see a doctor angrily cold-cocks a nurse.
The plot threads in the hit HBO Max show “The Pitt,” now in its second season, might seem like the product of an overactive imagination. But several doctors and nurses who work in emergency rooms in Massachusetts and Rhode Island said the series, which airs Thursdays, is so true to life that they urge family members to watch it to understand their jobs.
Others love the gritty show about the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center but won’t stream it right after work; they need a break, and watching an episode can feel like working another shift.
