Hospital dramas:

Women getting defibrillated while still wearing their bras. There's an obvious reason why shows don't want to be accurate here - depending on the film/show nudity can be a no-no - but in real life if they need to defibrillate then all clothing on the upper body has to come off. 

Nasal cannulas - those tubes that go under the noses of people in hospital. They are for delivering oxygen to patients with breathing issues, so most patients don't need them, but umpteen hospital dramas see them used for anyone in hospital, regardless of what they are being treated for.

 

zuckyd1 wrote:

Loki wrote:

Hospital dramas:

Nasal cannulas - those tubes that go under the noses of people in hospital. They are for delivering oxygen to patients with breathing issues, so most patients don't need them, but umpteen hospital dramas see them used for anyone in hospital, regardless of what they are being treated for.

 

Not sure if this counts as a "breathing issue", but every time I've been put under anesthesia they've been put on me.

For being put under, sure, but watch how many dramas have them on anyone who is lying in a hospital bed.

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More Legal:

Incorrect: One side in a trial can surprise the other side in a trial with new evidence or testimony.
Truth: Both sides are supposed to fully disclose both to the other side prior to the trial. If new evidence were to show up mid-trial, both sides would need to be made aware of this to properly prepare their arguments.

Incorrect: A good lawyer can get the guilty party to confess during a trial, be they the accused or a witness The guilty party immediately goes to jail.
Truth: While not impossible, this is unlikely (changing a plea to guilty is common but not a tearful breakdown confession). I'm not sure if someone in the US would be arrested on the spot as they';d be waiving their Fifth Amendment but likely it would simply be the start of an investigation. In Canada, testimony is immune from direct direct prosecution but the police can use the information provided. So if you confess and say the murder weapon is in your garden, your confession can't be used against you, but the police will be heading to your garden.

Incorrect: Sentencing happens right after a guilty plea or conviction.
Truth: Sentencing usually takes months or even years, in part because if the accused is cooperating with the police against a "bigger fish", how useful the information is might take a while to determine.
 

Physics:
Incorrect: If a plane door opens characters can resist being sucked out for long periods of time, if there's any effect whatsoever.
Truth: Unless there are some sort of restraints, the characters will likely soon be sucked out of the plane.
 

Time travel

Incorrect: An item can be sent to the past and then arrive in the present where it gets sent back to the past in a circular fashion.
Truth: The above would require something to simply come into existence with no originating or end point. Matter can't simply blink into existence for a limited period of time without having been transformed from something else and without transforming into something else.

Incorrect: Someone can be their own ancestor
Truth: The above issue arises. In addition the mix of the time traveller's DNA and the partner's DNA should prevent an exact duplicate of the time traveller from being born.

Incorrect: If history is changed before someone is born, they will still exist, albeit possibly part of some underground movement or some other significantly altered scenario.
Truth: There is only a very limited window where someone could still exist. First, their parents still have to have met each other and have an encounter with each other. The exact genetic material must still be in their bodies (I don't think I need to spell out the various ways this may not be the case), and the exact same genetic material from both sexes must still interact to create the same child. So conditions have to match up close enough for this to still occur. Maybe a delay of just a few seconds will result in the same child, but the longer the delay, the less likely that the same child will be conceived. The odds drop even further if there are multiple generations, e.g. the history change occurs in their grandparents', great-grandparents', etc. era.
 

Incorrect: People who get arrested in the US get one free phone call.
Truth: You can probably call, but not for free. Reformed drug dealer Jessica Kent discusses this here: