NEED TO KNOW
- Like many healthcare professionals, Dr. J. Mack Slaughter started watching The Pitt to see if it was an accurate representation of his profession
- The ER doctor tells PEOPLE he never expected to gain something from the series
- However, the show taught him a new way to console grieving patients and their families
Healthcare professionals often watch medical dramas with a wary eye, looking out for inaccuracies and highly dramatized versions of their day-to-day. So when Dr. J. Mack Slaughter turned on The Pitt, he wasn’t expecting to take anything away from the show, but he did.
Dr. Slaughter, an ER doctor in Texas, tells PEOPLE there’s one line from the show that he has implemented into his own medical practice — and will stick with him “forever.”
The 42-year-old recounts a scene from season 1, when Dr. Michael ‘Robby’ Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle, consoles two grieving children as they process the impending death of their father and don’t know how to say goodbye.
“Dr. Robby tells family members as they’re trying to say goodbye to their dad, because they’re like, ‘We don’t know how to do this. How do we do this?’ He quotes the Hawaiian practice of Hoʻoponopono,” Dr. Slaughter says. “It makes me emotional, but it’s, ‘I love you. Thank you. I forgive you. Please forgive me.’ ”
John Johnson/Max
The scene hit Dr. Slaughter hard, as he’s had to “have those difficult discussions with patients, regarding their loved ones,” time and time again.
“Either they’re getting this terrible diagnosis, and they’re trying to process what this journey is gonna be like, or their loved one has died, before they even got to the emergency department,” he shares.
“My job is to help them go to the bedside and say goodbye, and to have a roadmap for that. I really didn’t have [one] before,” he shares. “I’m very grateful to The Pitt for that because it’s one of the most beautiful moments in The Pitt that’ll just stand with me for the rest of my career.”
Dr. Slaughter admits he went into The Pitt expecting just another unrealistic medical drama.
“I didn’t really expect to be watching a TV show and unlocking essentially a tool that I would be able to use, like a roadmap for saying goodbye to family members. That’s not what I watched The Pitt for,” he shares. “I watched The Pitt to be like, ‘Did you guys get it right or did you get it wrong?’ And then I ended up learning something from Dr. Robby that changes how I approach patients and families at the end.”
J Mack Slaughter, Jr., M.D.
As an emergency doctor himself, he says the show can be “hard to watch,” noting that “anybody who’s worked in the front lines has accumulated a certain amount of long-lasting memories of traumatic experiences.”
“When you’re watching The Pitt, you’re reliving some very difficult moments during your career,” he says. “It’s a double-edged sword when a show gets it so right with the emergency room because you’re like, ‘Wait, I feel like I’m at work right now,’ in a beautiful way, but also in a difficult way.”
Ultimately, he shares that he’s really enjoyed watching the show and is “very grateful.”
“I’m grateful that somebody has captured it with such fidelity because in 30 years, when my career’s coming to an end, I’m gonna be able to look back and re-experience it and, maybe show my grandkids and say, ‘This is what your granddad did at one point,'” he says.
Dr. Slaughter, who has over 1.4 million followers across social platforms, adds that he is “very thankful” to everyone involved in the show for dedicating so much time to getting it right.
“It’s really capturing a moment in time in emergency medicine,” he says.
The Pitt season 2 is now airing on HBO Max.
