I list a lot of movie references in my blogs. There was a time when my movie collection
rivaled the local video stores. That was
a long time and a lot of VHS tapes ago (and during the era of video stores!). These days, my schedule prevents me from seeing
the latest movie every couple of weeks and in fact, most of the time when I do
take the time to unwind and watch a movie, I inevitably miss most of it when I
fall asleep. But I still love movies –
usually funny movies, and of course, the quintessential chick flick. But lately, at this time of year, I am in the
mood for a scary movie or two. And last
weekend’s couch surfing adventure yielded two movies: Chernobyl Diaries and The
Hills Have Eyes. Both of these movies bring to mind one word: “ew.”
 |
| Me, zombified. |
I didn’t realize going into the double feature that the
evening would have a distinct theme beyond the horror genre. First we watched Chernobyl Diaries, where a
group of young tourists take a forbidden tour into the town of Pripyat, near
the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Their
van breaks down and one by one, they are attacked by an unseen force. In the Hills Have Eyes, a nuclear bombing
testing ground in New Mexico is home to miners who refused to leave during the
testing. After disabling a family’s truck
and motor home, the deformed miners take revenge on the unsuspecting tourists. After watching both movies, I came to a very
troubling conclusion: exposure to excessive radiation turns people into
cannibals. So here are your somewhat
belated codes for the day with a Halloween twist:
- F50.8, Other eating disorders
- W88.1xxS, Exposure to radioactive isotopes, sequela
I know what you’re thinking.
Cannibalism? An eating
disorder? I usually come up with my
codes for the day myself, but having done a little research and realizing that
cannibalism is not classified by the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) and
therefore not by ICD-10-CM, I consulted a colleague. We had a rather sordid discussion on how best
to classify these radiation victims. And
this is what we came up with: Merriam-Webster defines pica as “an abnormal
desire to eat substances (as chalk or ashes) not normally eaten.” We found a reference that stated that a
person who chews his own fingernails and then swallows them could be classified
as having pica. And this type of
self-pica is considered a type of cannibalism. I know we’re taking liberties
here, but I’m coding characters from a movie.
I really don’t know what I will do should I ever have to code a real
case for a cannibal. Let’s hope it never
comes to that.
The exposure code was the easy one. Notice the 7th character extension
of “S” for sequela. The Chernobyl
disaster occurred in 1986. The nuclear
testing in The Hills Have Eyes appears to have occurred in the 1950s, so these
particular radiation-infused cannibals were all suffering long term effects, or
sequelae, from their radiation injuries.
As for the horror movies, I’m ready to trade them in for the
warm and fuzzy holiday movies!
