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Nikea McCoy
ENG 101
Professor Bolton
February 16, 2012
Last Holiday: Technical Difficulties
The movie Last Holiday is about a woman, Georgia Byrd, played by Queen Latifah, who is a shy
cookware salesclerk in New Orleans. At the beginning of the movie, Georgia bumps her head and her
doctor, Dr. Gupta, immediately orders a CAT scan to be done. The machine is used, but it is “new” inside
the office. After the first scan results, he is in shock;he done a
second test just to be sure. The same results appear which
leads Dr. Gupta to his diagnosis. He tells Georgia she has a
brain tumor. Doctors tell her she has approximately four
weeks to live if she doesn’t have the median cranial
debulking surgery she needs. Georgia’s HMO’s administrator
tells her this surgery will cost a fortune because it is not
covered by her insurance. Georgia is in disbelief: “But I feel
fine. I feel great. I have a tiny bump on my head, that’s all!” It is hard for Georgia to accept what the
doctors are telling her because she just thinks it is a minor bump. Towards the end of the movie, Dr.
Gupta decides to get in the CAT scan himself after another patient. He discovers that something is
wrong with the machine; Georgia does not have a brain tumor and she isn’t going to die. The movie
shows how doctors strongly rely on their medical devices. Although I agree that people depend quite a
lot on all technology, I disagree with how Georgia accepted the Doctor’s diagnosis.
I agree that people,especially doctors, depend a lot on technology. In the movie, Dr. Gupta
believes his machine’s results are totally correct after scanning Georgia’s head. After the doctor falsely

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diagnoses her with a brain tumor, everything begins to get stressful for Georgia and even the doctor
himself. The doctors rely so much on the CAT scan that they don’t consider to do a check test to see if
the used machine is functioning correctly. Throughout the years,technological devices have been getting
smaller and smaller as well as faster. Our televisions, phones and computers are now thinner and more
portable, and some are evenmade as touch screens. All these devices now are combined into one
“smart phone.” People now expect to have these types of devices to make life more fun and simpler.
Doctors are getting all different kinds of new technology updates every year to make the job a little
easier. By them relying so much on their medical technology, some doctors can be misled to a false
diagnosis. Most things in the hospitals now are digitalsuch as blood pressure cups, thermometers, pulse
oxometers, and much more. Each year we expect something new and exciting to be created. The falling
climax of the movie is towards the end when Dr. Gupta scans another patient and he sees a brain tumor
that is very similar to Georgia’s results. He decides to get in the CAT scan himself, and to find out there is
a big problem with the machine.
ThoughI agree, I also disagree with how Georgia believes the doctor’s diagnosisafter they tell
her she has a brain tumor. The doctors came to this conclusion after the results of the CAT scan, which
was false information. They tell her she has 4 months to live if she does not get the surgery she needs to
get rid of the brain tumor. Of course this is horrible news to receive, but Georgia did not do as most
people would have done which is to get a second opinion. Georgia goes to the bank to take out all of her
money. She plans on spending every cent of it because she believes she does not have time to waste.
When one doctor tells a patient information that they do not want to hear or is unbelievable, then they
have the right to go to another doctor for a second opinion. A while back, one of my family members
went to her doctor because she was having weird lower abdominal pains. One of the doctors there gave
her an ultrasound and he told her he saw some kidney stones. He said that she may need to have a
procedure done or let them pass on their own. The next day she went to the hospital and they gave her

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an x ray. The results didn’t show any signs of kidney stones but there was still some pain. The doctor
ordered her a GI cocktail, which is an antacid. About 15 minutes after drinking the cocktail her pain
subsided so therefore there were nokidney stones. The first doctor’s ultrasound was not clear and
showed false information. Luckily, she did not have any kind of procedure done without getting a
second opinion first. This whole mistake shows that people cannot always accept results of machines,
electronics or any other technological devices because they are not always correct.
Overall, Last Holiday is a great and funny movie. It shows how most people would react and
what they would do if a doctor told them they were expected to die. In this case, Georgia blows all of
her life savings because of the horrible news she is given. Even though I disagree with how Georgia
accepted the doctor’s diagnosis, I agree that people rely a lot on technology.

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Works Cited
Last Holiday.Dir. Wayne Wang.Perf.Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, and Timothy Hutton. Paramount Pictures,
2006. DVD.