Gray's Anatomy post XL show..man shot by a bazooka

[InfidelSerf]

Ok I have never watched this show before, but the ads during the game enticed me to stick around a little longer to check it out.
The primary story is a guy that comes into the ER with an EMS tech's hand stuck deep inside his chest.(she is trying to prevent him from bleeding out)
Turns out he and a friend built a WWII M20 bazooka replica.. it malfunctions, he steps infront of the bazooka to inspect it, and it becomes an intimate part of him.
Later we see an xray of the live shell... it looks like a maglite sized 223. round  certainly not this

Everyone also seems to be under the illusion that it could blow up the entire wing of the hospital.

Now the only thing I really know about the bazooka was that it was nicknamed that after a popular musical instrument.
That being said what I dug up on it was that it typically used a 3.5lb to 9lb warhead.

My question is this, What is the realistic explosive effect from a bazooka round?

Of course I realize its just the usual inaccurate drivel hollywierd likes to put out.

[Warren]

Yeah, I was so in shock over the stupidity of this plot line.

First it is a direct steal of a plotline from the show Emergency almost 30 years ago. Only in that ep it was a rifle grenade instead of a bazooka round.

Second they evacutate the entire hospital for a small bomb like this when at most it will damage the OR and maybe the outer rooms but the rest of the hospital? No. I would not leave unless orderded to do so by a hospital superior (not an overly-dramatic cop) and only if he/she was fully aware of the lack of a threat this bomb posed and I had no patients that could not be moved as I would not leave them.

Third given the ass-hats that built the thing what are the odds they used an actual explosive rather than just pouring a bunch of modern smokeless powder in there and expecting it to explode when fired?

Fourth I would fire that happy-gas doc for leaving that poor EMT in there alone. I would have stayed, I may have stood behind the girl or used the table as a shield but I would not have left her alone.

I think this ep is just another show where some TV/movie types want a plot to revolve around a weapon of some sort but then do NO research whatsoever and just wing it.

[Guest]

Hospitals (particlarly operating rooms) have a intricite structure of liquid or gaseous oxygen along with several other flamable gasses running throught the length of the building. A fiery explosion in even one operating room could have pretty nasty effects on the rest of the building. Even if the building itself survived, the chances of it being in any shape to actually provide medical attention to its patients woud likely be compromised to the point that it would be unsafe to keep them there. One of the dirty little secrets of operating rooms is how often small fires break out under normal conditions, adding an explosive would make the situation, well, explosive.

The "real world" solution to this problem would be to simply let the idiot die at the scene and let the bomb squad detonate the explosive. No EMT in the world loads up some guy with a live explosive in his chest and no hospital accepts that patient. Remember the pizza delevery guy / bomber / bank robber? If the guy already got into the building somehow you wouldnt have time to count to three before the whole OR emptied out of staff. Despite what you see on TV very few healthcare people are willing to become hamburger to save some guy from his own stupidity.