How Sherlock Faked His Death - The Doctor and the Paramedics
Many people have postulated that the people surrounding Sherlock after he “landed” were actually his homeless network.
As a doctor I can conclusively say that the “medical professionals” in that scene have no idea how to save a life. They are clearly not trying to save Sherlock at all, but get his body out of sight as quickly as possible and into the morgue.
How to spot a Fake Doctor and/or Paramedic
We can see from the scene after Sherlock’s Jump that at least one person is dressed up like doctor: you can tell by the stethoscope (it’s the best way for patients to recognize us)
I personally find it very suspect that a doctor just happened to be walking by at that opportune moment. Contrary to popular belief the area immediately around the hospital is devoid of doctors because they are all inside the building working and generally have very little time to wander around outside.
Sherlock might have jumped off the roof of a hospital but no-one was pre-warned about this stunt. He only really talked to John for under two minutes before he nosed dived off the ledge. That is not enough warning to start mobilizing the paramedics let alone the doctors (who have no obligation to leave the hospital for casualties anyway).
The second thing I want to point out is that this “doctor” is dressed in an outfit completely unsuitably for hospital work. His sleeves don’t look like they can roll up past his forearm let alone his elbow. The infection control nurses wouldn’t allow him near a patient dressed like that.
Finally, and most importantly please watch the scene again and you will see the first thing this doctor does when confront with Sherlock’s body is to check his carotid pulse. As I have already said before, the formula for treating casualties is airway, breathing then circulation. Any medically trained person will know this and follow this through. Even if the casaulty looks like they might be dead, doctors all still stick to this proforma in an emergency. No one will start diagnosing death before stabilization has even been attempted.
However this man is only bothered about Sherlock’s carotid pulse, which means he clearly isn’t that bothered about Sherlock’s “injuries”. Why does he want to feel the pulse?
Carotid pulses are actually not that easy to find in an emergency situation which is why members of the public are no longer taught to feel for pulses in basic life support. I think this man is trying to see how easy it is to feel a cartoid pulse on Sherlock with his coat collar in the way, just in case John breaks through the barricade and tries to find the pulse.
If you watch the scene again this “doctor” then proceeds to roll Sherlock’s body onto his back without support his head which is something you should never do to anyone who has fallen off a great height because this will accentuate any cervical spine damage. You can in effect break their neck.
This guy clearly isn’t worried about harming Sherlock and he has no idea how to do advanced life support. Thus he is clearly in on the entire plot.
If he’s not a doctor, it is very likely that the passbys are rehearsing off the same script as well.
The Invisible Ambulance
Even though Sherlock jumped off the roof of Bart’s Hospital, the paramedics arrived incredibly quickly. Generally when paramedics are called out, they bring everything, including an ambulance, even if its two steps out of the hospital because the ambulance and their bags have vital equipment needed to start resuscitation right there and then. They do not wait until they get to the hospital to start stabilizing the patient even if A&E is just around the corner.
In this case A&E wouldn’t even be just around the corner. Bart’s does not have any facilities for emergency trauma cases. If they were real paramedic they would have come from the London and not Bart’s so they would have arrive in an ambulance anyway. Sherlock would have to be transferred to The London instead if he truly jumped off a building but there is no ambulance in sight.
Again the paramedic completely fail to stabilize Sherlock’s cervical spine, they just lift him roughly onto a gurney and carry him away. They make no attempt to examine him, they don’t even attempt to check his airway to make sure he’s still breathing, which is the first thing any paramedic would do before even attempting to move the casualty.
This isn’t how real paramedics would treat a corpse, let along a casualty who hasn’t even been pronounced dead, so they clearly knew he wasn’t injured.
The paramedics and the doctor proceed to take Sherlock’s body into a dark side alley that looks like it leads into a private courtyard. This is mostly like the closest way into Bart’s morgue, where Molly will take delivery of his body.
For more on how Sherlock faked his death after the Jump including what Molly did with his body read: ( How Sherlock and Molly Faked his Death)