Zombie Apocalypse Problems

Nena and I were watching Walking Dead last night (Season 2, Episode 2 - "Bloodletting"), and events started her on a short rant.

Spoilers follow, so don't jump if you don't want to know.

While looking for a lost member of the group (Sophia), Carl gets shot by a hunter named Otis. Otis leads them back to a house, where a man named Hershel can help. Hershel obviously has some medical knowledge, which he puts to use stopping Carl's bleeding, transfusing blood into him (from Rick), and medicating him as well as he can. Unfortunately, Hershel doesn't have all the tools he needs to safely remove all of the bullet fragments from Carl's abdomen.

Shane and Otis leave to get the needed supplies, and another member of the household named Maggie goes to get Lori and bring her to the house so she can be there with Rick and Carl.

Lori naturally starts asking a lot of questions about what's being done for Carl. Hershel explains what needs to be done, and she asks if he has done it before.

This is where events go on a rant-inducing downhill slide. In her defense, Lori is probably not thinking at her clearest under these circumstances, but it's still pretty bad.

Hershel explains that he is not a doctor: he's a veterinarian. Lori seems to be deeply disappointed at this revelation, almost to the point of hostility.

Why? Does she think a trauma surgeon might be hiding in the back room? She should know that she is not going to find anyone more qualified any time soon.

Furthermore, a vet is probably very qualified to help in this situation. He isn't as specialized as a trauma surgeon, of course, but he will have done a lot of surgeries in his career, and the insides of all mammals are pretty much the same. The biggest risk is that Hershel is probably not as experienced with appropriate drugs for humans, so the anaesthesia will be tricky.

Quite frankly, Lori should be thankful to have someone with any medical qualifications on hand in this situation, not denigrating the skills of the only person around with any chance of saving her son's life.

Small wonder a lot of fans don't think much of her.

In the meantime, Daryl just keeps getting more awesome with every episode.