Harvest (Numbers)
FBI and mathematicians hunt for a missing organ tourist.
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"Harvest" is the 14th episode of the second season of the American television show Numbers. Inspired by a Christian Science Monitor article about organ tourists and an algorithm developed in the United States, the episode features FBI agents and mathematicians attempting to locate a missing organ tourist before she is killed. After airing on CBS on January 27, 2006, the episode received mixed reviews and has inspired academic case studies linking it to increased organ donation willingness.
Plot summary
On the night Dr. Amita Ramanujan receives a prestigious mathematics award, FBI Special Agents Don Eppes and David Sinclair respond to a hotel disturbance and find a young Indian woman hiding in a blood-stained basement. She refuses to speak until Amita asks to see her; the woman, Santi, explains that she and her sister Prita came from Chennai, India, as organ tourists, selling their kidneys on the black market to support their families. Dr. Charlie Eppes and Dr. Larry Fleinhardt determine the time of another victim's death. Following tips, FBI Special Agent Megan Reeves goes to a hospital and learns a young Indian woman died from kidney-removal complications.
Santi identifies the woman as fellow organ tourist Sonali and mentions another missing friend, Jaya. Charlie and Larry use the driver's log to find he returned to the hospital during off-hours. In the morgue, the team finds Jaya dead and discovers a doctor was behind the black-market organ transplants.
Origin
Series writer J. David Harden was inspired by a Christian Science Monitor article about organ tourists. He contacted the Hollywood, Health & Society program to learn about organ donation needs and matching processes. Harden initially faced resistance from the medical community, which feared misinformation could increase public resistance to donations. He incorporated an algorithm by Dorry Segev and Summer Gentry for matching transplant donors and recipients.
Gentry, a United States Naval Academy applied mathematician, and Segev, a Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon, sought to improve the Top Trading Cycles and Chains algorithm developed by economists Alvin Roth, Tayfun Sonmez, and Utku Unver. That algorithm required an unrealistically large number of donors and recipients. Using a modified version of Jack Edmonds' computational complexity algorithm, Gentry and Segev found their algorithm could create a national organ donor registry.
Reception
First airing on January 27, 2006, "Harvest" was watched by over 13.22 million people on CBS. Television critics gave mixed reviews; Cynthia Boris of DVD Verdict noted "nice twists", and Anil Padmanabhan of India Today called it Rawat's "best exposure". Medical community opinions were mixed: Kevin B. O'Reilly of the American Medical Association's MedNews called it "a mixed bag" despite a "positive" message about organ donations, while other experts disliked the black-market storyline. Joyce Somsak of the Health Resources and Services Administration said it was "really good".
The episode inspired two academic case studies. A George Washington University study examined effects of television writers consulting medical professionals; a University of Southern California and Purdue University survey found viewers were more likely to believe black-market organs exist and to become organ donors. A Hollywood, Health & Society online survey also found increased belief in black-market trafficking and willingness to donate. "Harvest" won the University of Southern California Annenberg School's Norman Lear Center 2006 Sentinel for Health Award in the primetime drama category, and Jim Vickers' stunt coordination was nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy but lost to an episode of E-Ring.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Harvest (Numbers) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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