Federal agent Jack Bauer of Fox's 24 gives new meaning to "all in a day's work." But seriously, how much can one man take?

Within a span of 12 hours, Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) has a wooden stake driven into his thigh during a plane crash, parachutes from another plane, gazes at a Hiroshima-size nuclear explosion, is brutally tortured with electric shocks, dies, is resuscitated and is tortured again.

But this Jack-in-the-Box is up within minutes and assaulting bad guys with three hours left on the Fox thriller (tonight, 9 ET/PT).

By now, Bauer is getting used to this. Only a year and a half earlier, Bauer spent a day being beaten and shot at by conspirators while trying to foil the assassination of a presidential candidate and locate his own wife and their trouble-prone daughter, who had been kidnapped.

It's usually not a good idea to believe what one sees on TV, but medical experts say these events this season are even stretching the limits of incredulity.

"I watch 24 religiously with my kids," says Saif Nazir, a doctor and president of the Illinois chapter of the American College of Emergency Room Physicians. "The last couple of episodes, where the gentleman was dead for all practical purposes and is being resuscitated without an airway, are just appalling."

Nazir says he began rolling his eyes when Bauer's plane crashed and the hero pulled a tree branch from his leg. Such a wound would be enough to send a soldier home from battle. The muscle and tendons would be damaged, bleeding would be extensive and infection would set in immediately. Bauer was barely limping 15 minutes later, and he didn't even need a Band-Aid.

Nazir recommends that real secret agents apply a pressure bandage, clean the wound as soon as possible and not parachute from an airplane later the same day.

But just seven hours later, Bauer jumps from a Cessna that is to crash four minutes later as a nuclear bomb explodes. Assuming the Cessna is traveling at 110 miles an hour, Jack will be about 7 miles from ground zero. Based on the size of the explosion portrayed, the blast wave would travel at a minimum of 700 miles per hour and would reach Bauer within 35 seconds.

Rush Inlow of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, which conducted testing of nuclear weapons during the Cold War, does not recommend trying this at home.

Inlow says the odds of surviving a blast depend on the yield of the weapon and the height of the blast. Heat, radiation and the blast force are the biggest concerns.

"At the Hiroshima event, there were people within a couple of miles of ground zero who survived," Inlow says. As for the TV show, "given the weapon was detonated in a depression at ground level, there are good odds he could survive the blast and heat. As for watching the event itself, that is not something you recommend for a healthy life."

Such an explosion would create a shock wave that travels faster than the speed of sound in a pattern similar to waves created by a pebble dropped in a pool of water.

If Bauer were blocked from the blast wave, air turbulence certainly would prohibit aircraft from entering the blast zone — meaning the Counter Terrorist Unit wouldn't be able to send a rescue chopper.

In the event of a nuclear blast, experts say, don't sit up and look at it. Get behind something sturdy, stay flat and keep your eyes closed.

The cardinal sin committed by 24 writers is Bauer's revival after being tortured. He has been repeatedly shocked using defibrillator paddles in the back room of an outpatient emergency care clinic. When Bauer dies, his torturers force a doctor to revive him by plunging a syringe of epinephrine, a form of adrenaline, into Bauer's heart. The torture team then uses the defibrillator to shock the heart back into rhythm. The problem: Bauer gets no oxygen for as long as five or six minutes.

"I can imagine this type of treatment being given in a Third World country, but in this day and age, to show a resuscitation without giving oxygen first is very sad," Nazir says. "The man is dead and 15 minutes later is up again and killing people. The writers should have had someone to guide them."

A typical patient would require a couple of weeks in a coronary care unit after this type of resuscitation.

One puzzle from the torture scenes is the use of a drug called "Beroglide" to paralyze Bauer's diaphragm and make him unable to breathe. Physician Susan Nezda of the board of directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians says paralytic drugs are commonly used during surgeries, but she has never heard of this one. Typically, succinylcholine or pancuronium are used.

And that stabbing in the heart thing is so yesterday.

"We did that 17 years ago, but we quit," Nezda says. "Today, you give epinephrine by IV fluids or through the endotracheal (airway) tube that drips into the lungs."

These experts agree that the bottom line for Bauer is a flat line. "You cannot bring a person back to life without airway management," Nazir says. "It's very sad, very sad."

Originally posted by Blaster1
Kate is sitting in a bubble bath. Kate agrees to go pick up Kim. I think I know where that is leading.[/spoiler]

Originally posted by PalmerJoss

This show has just continued to stretch the bounds of believability that I almost laugh at every "plot twist" each week. I just hope that the final 2 episodes can be as good as the final 2 from last season.

Originally posted by MrX
I hope Palmer lets Aaron lose on Mike after this is all over.

Kim finnaly had a useful scene with her shooting Gary. Hopefully we'll continue to see less of her now.

It's still hard to tell which side Sherri is working for.

Originally posted by leepyswetr
Aww, yeah. Hot lesbian scene.