Based on Kandahar hospital, TV’s ‘Combat Hospital’ tries to keep it real - Entertainment, TV, Television - Navy Times

Based on Kandahar hospital, TV’s ‘Combat Hospital’ tries to keep it real

Whether ABC’s new war-zone drama “Combat Hospital” is curing your summer TV season blues or making matters worse, in many ways you can thank Canadian Regimental Sgt. Maj. Chris Kaye.

As most military viewers know, “Combat Hospital” is a fictional show about a very real hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Of course, some know it far better than most. One of the few top-tier trauma centers in the war zone, tens of thousands of wounded — along with the legions of military medical staff who have stitched them up — have passed through its operating rooms over the past 10 years.

Kaye is one of them.

An infantryman-turned-warrant officer and physician assistant, Kaye was among the leadership at the hospital during his tour there in 2007, as the Canadian military was assuming primary responsibility in running the hospital.

“We were holding down the fort for about three years until the Americans could get back from Iraq,” he says. The U.S. Navy took the lead there about a year ago.

Although Kaye is still serving part time in the Canadian army reserve, he’s now the full-time military adviser to “Combat Hospital.”

Producers, he says, have taken pains to build the show’s sprawling set — just outside Toronto — with exacting detail.

“I’ve brought other veterans who’ve served on Kandahar on set and they’re amazed,” he says. “Standing in the middle of the trauma bays can feel like déjà vu. Sometimes I find myself drifting back.”

But if you’re among those who’ve chafed at some of the liberties producers have taken, he doesn’t blame you.

“Every military prides itself on discipline — so when you see things like the fraternization or alcohol on the show, of course it makes you cringe,” he says.

During the script-writing, he fights the good fight to keep it as real as possible. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses.

“I have to keep reminding myself that this is a TV drama and it’s meant to entertain,” he says.

Some of the plot lines may be more realistic many realize. A mystery infection that plagues patients in the second episode, for example, was based on the real-life battles physicians faced trying to diagnose legions of unfamiliar bacteria and fungi.

“As far as I know, we’re the first production that has official cooperation from both the Canadian forces medical service and the U.S. Defense Department,” says co-producer and writer Daniel Petrie Jr. The opening scenes in the pilot episode, for example, were aboard an Air Force C-17 on loan at March Joint Air Reserve Base in California.

“But it doesn’t mean we don’t get things wrong,” he says. Head-smackers have included the lieutenant colonel who was unintentionally frocked to full bird and an Australian major who’s bearing lieutenant’s rank. “No one caught it and now we’re practically finished filming.”

In return for military assistance, the Pentagon and Canadian brass get final chop on all scripts before filming begins, says Petrie.

“The script reviews haven’t been burdensome at all, because they want things to be accurate and so do we,” he says. “But they also understand that we have to make a show, and that we’re not making a documentary.”

Despite all the military cooperation, it’s unclear if hospital staff now stationed at Kandahar even like the show. Officials there declined interview requests about the show, ignored written questions on their involvement and refused to allow troops there to discuss it.

“They have heard about the show,” conceded hospital spokesman Army Lt. Col. Randy Taylor in an email, but added “it probably is not prudent to have hospital members, in their official capacity, commenting on the show.”