The Walking Dead 904: A medical professional weighs in

The Walking Dead episode “The Obliged” ended with a cliffhanger for the ages. A medical professional weighs in on what could happen to Rick.

It seems like the old rebar-through-the-gut story has been featured at least once on every major medical drama on television with varying degrees of artistic license. Even though things tend to work out reasonably well on Grey’s Anatomy, this is The Walking Dead and Rick Grimes is stuck (pun intended) in the middle of nowhere. From what we can tell, no one is coming for him because no one knows he’s there. And there are two walker herds converging on him.

Talk about your rock and a hard place scenario.

In order to determine the likelihood of Rick surviving this mess, I turned to an actual medical professional. I asked a dear nurse practitioner friend of mine about the situation. He works in a bustling ER and sees more than his fair share of trauma, so I trust his assessment.

I’d seen the screener and the episode was under embargo so I had to be vague about the situation while relying upon my human anatomy knowledge from 11th grade AP Anatomy and Physiology to provide a solid accounting of the scenario and the injury. That said, I had to ask.

Can Rick Grimes survive this?