History Main / ArtisticLicenseMedicine

* In ''Literature/TheImmortals'', a pregnant dragon who's already at the point of having contractions miscarries and the contractions stop. Daine, who's only just learned how to heal mundane animals, has a bout of PowerIncontinence and heals her - the dragon's fetus returns to life and the contractions start again, and she flies off to give birth. In live bearing animals, contractions happen regardless of whether a fetus is alive - it still has to leave the womb. Admittedly, this is a dragon.

** In "Jaws Wired Shut", Homer gets his jaw wired shut and can't speak. Speaking with one's jaw wired shut is harder, but not impossible.

* ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'' operations are completed within a few minutes each; the time limit for most operations is 5 minutes, and 10 minutes for FinalBoss-type illnesses. In real life, a patient is highly, highly unlikely to be in and out of the O.R. in recovering condition in just 10 minutes. After all, [[RuleOfFun this is a game, not medical school]]. It's quite possible that in-universe, the procedures take much longer than the 5-10 minutes that serve as an out-of-universe mechanism in favor of the player.

* In ''Film/{{Madame Web|2024}}'', a woman is told that her unborn baby has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myasthenia_gravis myasthenia gravis]]. There is no way to diagnose it before birth ''now'', let alone in 1973 when the scene in question is set. Myasthenia gravis is not a genetic condition but an autoimmune disorder.

* Music/PaulaCole's iconic "I Don't Want To Wait" (best known as the theme song to ''Series/DawsonsCreek'') contains the lyrics "She had two babies; one was six months, one was three." Barring the very rare condition of [[https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/conditions/uterine-didelphys uterine didelphys]], that's impossible-- births have to happen at least nine months apart.

* Literature/StationEleven features a mutated superflu with no incubation period and a near 100% mortality rate that kills off 99.99% of humanity. In reality, such a virus would kill all its hosts long before it could spread globally.

* “Literature/StationEleven” features a mutated superflu with no incubation period and a near 100% mortality rate that kills off 99.99% of humanity. In reality, such a virus would kill all its hosts long before it could spread globally.

* ''Literature/MelaniesMarvelousMeasles'' has Melanie allegedly suffering from the titular disease, but she's still active and her rash doesn't even itch, however, her doctor claims it's the worst case he's seen. In reality, the rash nearly always itches, the disease nearly always makes you sleepy, and in the worst cases, it can kill you.

* BaldnessMeansSickness: When having a terminal illness automatically causes you to lose [only] the hair on your scalp, when in real-life it's the chemotherapy used to treat many forms of cancer that actually causes hair loss, and causes the patient to lose ''all'' the hair on their body.

* ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture: Electroconvulsive Therapy has been performed safely for decades. It's also been shown to be a positive treatment for several mental illnesses. Also, unlike the fictional depictions, the patient is unconscious while it happens, thanks to muscle relaxants and short-term anesthetics. That said, it's ''because'' the treatment used to be so torturous and synonymous with punishment that advancements were made, leading to the milder modern version.

* ''Film/CoolCatFightsCoronavirus'' is so unbelievably inaccurate that it would seem like a parody, were its [[Creator/DerekSavage creator]] not deadly serious about the whole thing. The film starts off dubiously with Cool Cat punching away some tennis ball-sized coronavirus molecules, complete with pinball sound effects. That could possibly be justified as a stylised depiction of Cool Cat fighting COVID, but then Dirty Dog comes along, trying to spread COVID to kids by coughing on them. This is despite the fact that he's a dog and therefore can't catch COVID, and that children are the age group least at risk from COVID. But the pinnacle is when Dirty Dog literally grabs a coronavirus molecule out of the air, adds his "magic sauce" to make it grow, then thanks the "witch-dogs" for the magic powers. And then Cool Cat comes along and punches the coronavirus, making it explode and ending the entire pandemic. Reminder, this is in a supposedly educational PSA for children.
** Dogs definitely ''can'' catch COVID-19, and even die from it, as can cats. However, there has never been a documented case of a person catching Covid from a dog; it's always the other way 'round. (There is also a completely different coronavirus that causes diarrhea in young puppies that's been in puppy Distemper Combo vaccines for ages, hence specifying "COVID-19" above, but humans can't catch that coronavirus at all.)

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToCatchACold'': This short has a few myths, like being cold can lower your resistance (which is only true if there's a rapid ''change'' in temperature or if you're already fighting an infection), and that viruses can survive for weeks on surfaces (they generally only survive about ''a'' week on surfaces). The live-action version was made to counter these myths.

* ''Literature/AngelaNicely'': In “Matchmaker!”, Miss Darling says that she has hay fever and needs a day off. However, hay fever isn’t contagious and unless the sufferer is immunocompromised, it isn’t serious enough to incapacitate someone, so it wouldn’t generally necessitate a day off.

** Absence of libido (which ''can'' be a symptom of a medical issue such as a tumor) is equated with asexuality, a lack of sexual attraction, which is not a medical disorder.

* ''WebAnimation/TheOdd1sOut'': In "A Book I Made as a Kid", the doctor diagnoses the young James with kidney failure by putting his hand on James's face and confirming that it hurts.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In ''[[Recap/ArthurS1E18ArthursChickenPoxSickAsADog Arthur's Chickenpox]]'', the chickenpox causes Arthur to hallucinate, which is not a symptom in real life.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Even ignoring CatchYourDeathOfCold, "Cold Warriors" has a flashback to the past where Fry is said to be running a fever of 109°F (42.8°C). Given that the brain begins to liquify at about 105°F, it is all but certain that Fry would be dead long before he could reach that point. However, it's possible that the thermometer was defective.

* In ''VideoGame/ProjectHospital'', patients strip down to their underwear when undergoing a chest X-ray, including women. In real life, women are required to remove their bra and accessories and change to a hospital gown since they interfere with the X-ray. This departure from the proper procedure was likely done for [[VideoGamePerversityPrevention modesty reasons.]]

* In ''VideoGame/ProjectHospital'', patients strip down to their underwear when undergoing an X-ray. In real life, you are required to remove all underwear and accessories and change to a hospital gown since they interfere with the X-ray. This departure from the proper procedure was likely done for [[VideoGamePerversityPrevention modesty reasons.]]

* ''{{Film/Awake}}''. Oh boy, ''Awake''. Along with making the same mistake as the below-mentioned ''Seven Pounds'' (only with medication instead of jellyfish venom), there are a few. For instance, how the anesthesiologist is allowed to just step out of the operating theater to make a phone call when it's his job to stay there to make sure the patient isn't starting to wake up before the surgery is complete. Or how the donated heart for the surgery shows up AFTER they have already opened up the patient. Although, according to [[WebVideo/BadMovieBeatdown Film Brain]] at least, this helps makes the movie a so-bad-its-good experience for both non-experts and medical professionals alike.

* ''Series/TheOrville'', episode "[[Recap/TheOrvilleS2E5AllTheWorldIsABirthdayCake All the World Is a Birthday Cake]]". Doctor Finn and Lieutenant Talla are touring a Regorian hospital and are brought into a surgical suite where a C-section on a premature child is taking place. There's two pieces of artistic license here, one {{justified|Trope}}, the other not so much.

** In "Time's Arrow", Data mistakes two men who are coughing as victims of a cholera outbreak. Cholera is an intestinal disease, not a throat or lung infection.
** In "Genesis," it's claimed that it's traditional to name a new disease after the first patient discovered with it. In reality, the names of diseases can come from a wide variety of sources, including a simple description of its effects, the name of the most prominent researcher, the name of the most prominent patient, the location of the first known outbreak, and even literary references.

* ''Series/ViennaBlood'': {{Justified|Trope}} due to the show being a PeriodDrama set in mid-1900s Austria. Max, part of the main {{Buddy Cop|Show}} duo, is portrayed as thoughtful and enlightened for his belief in and use of Freudian psychology and the "talking cure". His supervising physician Gruner is portrayed as a brutal torturer for his use of electric shock therapy. In the show, it's ambiguous whether Max or Gruner was more effective at treating Amelia's dissociative disorder (though the framing supports Max since it's his story). Modern medical science has shown ECT to be really useful for quite a few mental conditions when properly performed (i.e. with muscle relaxants and anesthesia, as opposed to just hooking the patient's head up to a voltage source the way Gruner does it), while Freudian psychology, though the forerunner of modern cognitive behavioral therapy, is now dismissed as mostly nonsense.