The C- Section
Hospital Playlist returns this week with its strongest episode to date, featuring some very tense scenes involving the doctors and their work while following their interesting story lines. The drama may have a lot of characters but it has managed to weave the secondary characters with the main cast well, who are of course the glue that holds everything together. Episode 8 of Hospital Playlist starts with Gyeol-Wool asking Jeong-Won to buy her dinner at the weekend. Unfortunately, he tells her he has planned to visit his mother. Meanwhile, Seok-Min relays to Chi-Yong and Sun-Bin what has happened to Jae-Hak and the scam he is a victim off. He has now lost all his money and will have to move as he’s not able to pay the rent. Ik-Jun is seeing a patient whom he suspects has liver cancer but tries reassuring him and his family as it is quite small but needs more testing while Jun-Wan’s patient is a baby boy with a grave heart condition with both his valves leaking. He tells the parents that surgery is dangerous but they have no other choice but to try it. After going to the bank, Jeong-Won meets with his mum who still insists on him getting a girlfriend and suggests it be Song-Hwa. They then talk about her birthday and after her son mentions a party and a trip, Rosa tells him that she just want to go away with him, Jong-Su and Song-Hwa. After her son leaves, Rosa receives a call from the priest who tells her that Jeong-Won’s letter of recommendation has been accepted and that he has an interview. Rosa then decides to tell him that her son won’t be able to attend. When Jeong-Won comes back in the room, she tells him about the call and asks him again to stay by her side and live a normal life. Meanwhile, Jae-Hak’s day goes from bad to worse when he receives a call from the husband of a patient who is angry his wife is still on a ventilator. He explains that she had pneumonia before the surgery and apologises. He then gets a call from the daughter who apologies to him about her father which prompts Jae-Hak to start defending himself to her. Just as Song-Hwa is about to leave to go to her friend’s wedding, Ik-jun joins her in the staff room but burns his fingers on the kettle while Jong-Su meets with Rosa who berates him for not relying on his kids more, especially now after he fell in his bathroom. He tries to justify himself and explains that he is able to manage on his own. In the evening, the five doctors meet for their usual dinner in a restaurant. Jeong-Won offers to pay as his savings account has matured. He also explains that he has been putting some of his money in an orphanage. They then move on the conversation to Seok-Hyeong who tells them his mother will not divorce his father even if he gives her all his estates. Doctor Jang goes to see a patient who insists on having narcotic painkillers but she sees that he doesn’t need it and may be addicted, so she refuses to give it to him. Later on, Ju-Jeon calls Ik-Jun, Jeong-Won and another doctor in his office to talk about how Doctor Jang dealt with the drug addict. He tells them that residents need to be more careful how they speak to patients as they get complaints. Ik-Jun doesn’t think she was completely wrong but promises to talk to her, which he does later on. While mentioning Jeong-Won playing with his son last weekend, Doctor Jang realizes that Jeong-Won lied to her when he said he was busy. The director meets with Cheon and Jun-Wan as the daughter of Jae-Hak’s patient is now complaining for the way he spoke to her. Since she is a lawyer, she wants him to be punished and so the director suggests a 3 month pay cut for the resident. In the staff room, Min-Ah tells Jang that she has a friend that she should go out with. She then goes to sleep as she has been overwhelmed with her work and been unable to leave. After Seok-Hyeong leaves, one of the nurses tells her that one of their demanding patients, Do Jae-Yeong, is complaining of abdominal pain again. Reluctant and tired, Min-Ah gets up to check on her. When she arrives in the room, she sees a lot of blood in the bed and concludes that her placenta has erupted. Panicking, she calls Seok-Hyeong who tells her to prepare an OR and see if another surgeon can assist. Seok-Hyeong rushes out of the restaurant as Min-Ah calls him back to say that the other doctors are busy with surgeries. He tells her that she may have to get the baby out herself or both will die. Min-Ah starts to cry as she is only a second year resident and shakily starts the C-section. Thankfully, Seok-Hyeong arrives in time to deliver the baby successfully. She later comes to see him and apologises as she has been misjudging him up until now. He tells her he is sorry too as he should have looked out for her more but that she acted very responsibly today and will be a good doctor. Jun-Wan is struggling with the surgery on the baby boy as he is unable to stop the heart valves from leaking. After the procedure, he relays this to the parents and tells them that nothing else can be done. We then see Jae-Hak speaking to his wife on the phone about having to stay in hospital to finish up some things. As he hangs up, Seok-Min arrives and asks him what Jun-Wan thought of his resignation letter. He replies that Jun-Wan doesn’t care about people’s personal lives as we cut to the latter asking the baby’s parent permission to donate their child’s heart for studying. This would make sure he’d be more prepared next time a patient with this condition comes to his care. We then see the parents painfully saying goodbye to their child as his life support machine gets turned of. Later on, Jae-Hak heads into Ju-Jeon’s office to see if his letter of resignation has been accepted. He replies that the new chief of CS has declined it and reveals that Jun-Wan has accepted the position. He then calls the guardians of the patient who complained about Jae-Hak and convinces them to just accept an apology from him. At the same time, Ik-Jun gives his cancer patient and his family the good news that his cancer hasn’t spread. The family are over the moon and thank everyone, including the other patients in the room as they have kept him company while they weren’t there. Seok-Hyeong and Min-Ah visit the mother who thank them for saving her and her baby’s lives. In the evening, Jeong-Won and Gyeol-Wool leave the hospital together. He sees her getting picked up by another guy before his friends pull up to take him home. They all discuss their patients then head to do some rehearsing. At the same time, we see Ik-Jun and Jae-Hak coming to pay their respects to the grieving parents of his baby patient. The episode ends with Seok-Hyeong’s mother being brought in as an emergency as the paramedics frantically try to restart her heart. This latest chapter brought us one of the most tense scene so far as we watch poor Min-Ah almost at breaking point and having to perform life saving surgery on a mother and her unborn child. Thankfully, Seok-Hyeong arrived in time to save the day but also acknowledged how well she dealt with the situation. On the other hand, we saw Jun-Wan getting very frustrated with his baby patient who he was unable to save. We also saw another side of him as he is determined to learn from this for any future patients and with his new position, has already made a difference by making sure Jae-Hak didn’t lose any money after the complaint. This showed that he may not be as insensitive as people think. Hospital Playlist has certainly improved each week as we see the doctors face some difficult situations at work and also in their personal lives. The drama has done a great job with the characterisation and at keeping the same tone throughout. After this week’s cliffhanger, it has certainly added more suspense that I am sure will keep a lot of the audience hooked on this medical drama.
