Explaining Ogilvie's bloody 'The Pitt' screw-up, how show filmed it
- - Explaining Ogilvie's bloody 'The Pitt' screw-up, how show filmed it
Bryan Alexander, USA TODAYJanuary 30, 2026 at 4:35 AM
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Warning: Spoilers ahead for Episode 4 of "The Pitt." And a bloody photo.
"The Pitt" parkour accident took a nearly disastrous turn, becoming Episode 4’s must-watch ER scene (now streaming on HBO Max).
The sequence also led to a satisfying, overdue smackdown for cocky fourth-year medical student James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson), who sparked the near-cataclysm.
Here's what happened: Unconscious Vince Cole (Kevin Morgan), who fell through a florist's skylight while filming a building acrobatics TikTok video, seems to be stable: No broken bones, and initial scans show no internal injuries. But his parkour-filming partner, Tanya (Shaun Holmes), notices bleeding from the back, making the situation urgent.
"It's a perfect storm that led to this uncontrollable bleeding," Joe Sachs, an executive producer on "The Pitt" and a consulting emergency physician, tells USA TODAY. "This patient has over 100 glass lacerations, and some of these can clot off. It takes time to find them all."
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Cocky med student James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson) screws up in Episode 4. What happened to his parkour patient?
Moving the patient for the scans is most likely to cause noticeable bleeding. When the ER doctors flip the patient over to inspect the source, a one-inch laceration is visible.
Ogilvie oversteps his duties by sticking his forceps in and beginning to pull out what turns out to be a large shard of glass — before he's stopped mid-pull. The glass had been pressuring an artery.
"It's bigger than I thought it would be," Ogilvie stammers, holding the glass still with the forceps.
"His rookie mistake is to assume it was a superficial piece of glass," says Sachs. "The rule is you never pull out a foreign body in the ER. You do that in the controlled setting of the operating room. Boom, the dam breaks, and the blood starts pouring out."
Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson) starts to remove the glass. Near-disaster.How 'The Pitt' parkour patient was patched
Dr. Robby (Noah Wylie) injects hemostatic sponges into the wound to contain the bleeding, just as a call comes in from the CT lab saying the resident had missed the "foreign body" in the lumbar region. Robby calls the oversight "first week in July syndrome."
"People always say to never get sick the first week of July," explains Sachs. "That's when everyone moves up in status, but they might not have the experience. Here, a medical student (Ogilvie) jumped the gun, and then the resident did the initial scan and missed the glass."
TikToker Tanya (Shaun Holmes) looks on as Joy Kwon (Irene Choi) works on the patient.How did 'The Pitt' film the operation?
The blue surgical drape placed over the patient is necessary for the swift procedure. At a Hollywood level, the draping masks the prosthetic that holds the glass shard and conceals the special effects plumbing for the blood flow, Sachs says.
"In the blink of an eye, we go from real to this custom prosthetic that blends in with the actual patient's body seamlessly," says Sachs.
Sepideh Moafi steps into "The Pitt" Season 2 as the new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. Who else is new for Season 2 of HBO Max's Emmy-winning drama? And why are they at the Pittsburgh ER? Find out on January 8.
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1 / 5Who's new on 'The Pitt' Season 2? Meet Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi and more
Sepideh Moafi steps into "The Pitt" Season 2 as the new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. Who else is new for Season 2 of HBO Max's Emmy-winning drama? And why are they at the Pittsburgh ER? Find out on January 8.
Could this really happen in an ER?
Sachs says it's "within the realm of the possible" for "The Pitt" scene to play out in real life.
"It's rare," says Sachs. "It requires a perfect storm for the scan to be missed for five minutes, and for the med student to be overzealous and remove this large piece of glass."
Ogilvie gets humbled by 'The Pitt' blunder
Moments before the screw-up, Ogilvie was his fantastically cocky self. Straight-faced medical student Joy Kwon (Irene Choi) speaks for the nation by proclaiming, "Someone is annoying, and it’s not me."
But Ogilvie's hasty removal of the glass is horrifying, especially before the situation is stabilized. "Next time, leave the decisions for the adults," the crestfallen Ogilvie is told. Robby also reminds him not to go rogue in the ER.
"Pride goes before the fall," says Sachs. "This was definitely a step back for Ogilvie, who was so confident and cocky in the first three episodes."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Pitt' bloody Ep. 4 glass disaster, Ogilvie's screw-up explained
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
