Dr Romantic – Season 3 Episode 15 Recap & Review

The Game Changer

Episode 15 of Dr Romantic Season 3 starts with a clip of Dr Sim Hye-jin returning to Doldam Hospital after her long sabbatical.We then move to Doldam Hospital where Teacher Kim receives a call from In-soo about the forest fires and the number of patients coming into the two medical organisations seeking treatment.

At the Trauma Centre, Min-guk lashes out at Dong-ju for not maintaining order at the new institution, which actually caused the doctors to boycott them. He is worried that the medical officer will strike Doldam Trauma Centre as an unfit organisation which will lead them to lose the provincial budget.

Meanwhile, Woo-jin ruses to see Ha-joon and the team of doctors boycotting Dong-ju. He tries to convince them to put their grievances aside and work together in the crisis that has fallen over them as healthcare workers.

Eun-jae backs him up while Nurse Joy recalls her conversation with Nurse Oh where the latter talked about putting patients first. All of the medical staff but Ha-joon end the protest and get to the Trauma Centre to help with the onset of patients.

Teacher Kim talks to his staff at Doldam Hospital, asking them to be prepared for the worst in terms of the number of patients that are going to be admitted into the two medical institutions given the disaster. There is some awkward tension between A-reum and Eun-tak following their breakup but the doctors put that at bay and started treating the incoming patients.

The Trauma Centre starts admitting patients from the forest fire and Nurse Oh is shocked to see Paramedic Heo is one of the trauma patients. Nurse Oh is worried for Paramedic Heo while In-soo realises that another paramedic is suffering from a cardiac arrest while he is brought in. The doctors from the protest including Woo-jin and Eun-jae join the team at the Trauma Centre as all of the medical staff work together to treat the frontline workers. In-soo starts administering CPR on the paramedic, taking him into the Operating Room.

Woo-jin tells Dong-ju that the staff are only back because of the disaster and that he needed to right his wrongs with them once everything is over. Meanwhile, at Doldam Hospital, Seon-ung and Dong-hwa end their dinner break and rush to treat patients. Dong-hwa recalls his conversation with Do-il from earlier that night and thinks about how Jang Hyun-ju is the first person to call Teacher Kim by that title. Dong-hwa then recalls looking at his cassette of a playlist made by Hyun-ju.

However, he is brought back to reality when patients start being brought into the hospital. Seon-ung and Dong-hwa work together on treating a patient when Seon-ung gets overwhelmed because he is not able to see the red scars on the patient’s body. Teacher Kim joins the duo and takes over the patient. Seon-ung is embarrassed because he is incompetent to help and rushes outside, apologising. Teacher Kim asks Dong-hwa to start washing out the patient’s eyes with saline first since he has been exposed to chemicals before he escaped the fire.

Teacher Kim calls the paramedics and asks them to set up a camp outside Doldam Hospital so that they could sanitise the patients with saline before they were brought into the hospital for treatment to ease the process for the doctors. He then rushes to the break room to calm Seon-ung down after what just happened. Teacher Kim reassures Seon-ung that he’s doing a great job, despite his colour blindness and asks him to muster up courage since the hospital really need him.

Meanwhile, Nurse Nom is shocked to hear that A-reum and Eun-tak have broken up. Eun-tak overhears A-reum telling Nurse Nom that she wishes for Eun-tak to be remorseful after the breakup and wants him to beg her to stay together. A-reum thinks that Eun-tak is relieved by the breakup which leaves the nurse shocked.

Meanwhile, there is chaos at the Trauma Centre with the staff running around all kinds of patients. Dong-ju asks Nurse Oh why the normal patients were admitted to the Trauma Centre but Woo-jin intervenes in the conversation and claims that the disaster calls for an exception where all patients are allowed into the medical institution.

Dong-ju walks into the operating room and finds out that In-soo had been trying to resuscitate the patient for the last 30 minutes. In-soo is determined to bring the patient back but feels heartbroken when Dong-ju forces him to give up and call his time of death.

Dong-ju overrules Eun-jae’s call and claims that he will be joining her during Paramedic Heo’s complicated surgery. A nurse tells the doctors that President Heo did not have any other family member to consent to his surgery other than his two kids who are at the hospital. Hye-jin shows up at the Trauma Centre to help Woo-jin and Do-il out.

Dong-ju talks to Paramedic Heo’s son and lets him see his father. Dong-ju asks the young boy to sign the surgery consent form with a promise to do their best to save Paramedic Heo.

Dong-ju, Woo-jin and Eun-jae prepare for their respective surgeries. Dong-ju brings up their past conflict where he had fought with Woo-jin for bickering with Eun-jae. He claims that the two had started dating immediately after that. Eun-jae tells Dong-ju that she no longer faints during surgery and joins him in the OR to operate on Paramedic Heo.

In the other surgery room, Nurse Oh and Hye-jin talk about how with the Trauma Centre is running smoothly alongside Doldam Hospital; Teacher Kim’s dream is finally coming true. Woo-jin joins Nurse Oh and Hye-in in surgery where they start working on the patient, while Dong-ju, Eun-jae and Seon-ung start treating Paramedic Heo. Just then, Teacher Kim gets a call from Ki-tae informing him that the forest fire is worsening and slowly inching towards Doldam Hospital and the Trauma Centre.

Teacher Kim is shattered and worried. He asks Ki-tae to talk to Min-guk and alert him about the situation that has befallen them. Just then, Eun-jae calls Teacher Kim to tell him that Paramedic Heo’s liver is bleeding into his stomach. Do-il tells him that the paramedic is also suffering some brain damage. Teacher Kim asks Eun-tak to get the operation room at the Trauma Centre ready for him as he would also be treating Paramedic Heo. Moon-jung tells A-reum and the other Doldam Hospital staff to evacuate the patients to a safer hospital in Seoul.

At the same time, Min-guk starts evacuating the critical patients from the Trauma Centre to somewhere safe. Woo-jin’s surgery ends successfully just as the doctors get their notification about the evacuation. He asks Hye-jin to accompany their patient to the hospital in Seoul while Nurse Oh rushes outside to help with the evacuation. Teacher Kim and Eun-tak join Do-il, Seon-ung, Dong-ju and Eun-jae in surgery. Woo-jin also joins them and the six doctors and one nurse decide to work in unison to get Paramedic Heo out of surgery in time for his safe evacuation.

With the fire reaching close to the Trauma Centre and Doldam Hospital, A-reum is worried that Eun-tak has joined the doctors for another surgery inside the Trauma Centre. All the doctors are able to perform the surgery in time though as Teacher Kim instructs Do-il to safely transport Paramedic Heo to Seoul. All the patients are safely evacuated from Doldam, however one patient from the Trauma Centre is causing a scene.

Despite In-soo’s efforts, he is not able to manage the rogue patient when Nurse Oh unleashes her anger and yells at the patient for being selfish during a disaster. The health officer notices Nurse Oh’s behaviour and looks proud of how she’s handling a patient that’s clearly hindering the safety of the rest. Nurse Oh escorts Paramedic Heo’s children outside, promising that the best doctors are taking care of his father. 

Teacher Kim asks Min-guk to check to make sure that both medical institutions have no patients left behind and that it’s his responsibility to have all the staff leave both medical institutions safely. Teacher Kim takes one look at the Trauma Centre, on the verge of tears, before leaving to go back to Doldam.

At the same time, all the doctors and medical staff rush out of the medical institutions feeling overwhelmed about leaving Doldam Hospital and the Trauma Centre as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

This episode will bring you to tears at the end because things started off so well with Hye-jin finally coming back. However, seeing the preview to the season finale, I am worried that the makers are going to end this season in a way that we will have no hope for a season 4.

To see all the main doctors of both medical institutions work together on one patient is really inspiring. The doctors all unite to save a friend and fulfill the promise they made to his son. While I am sure something heartbreaking will come from the next episode, I cannot help but hope that the season finale ends the show on a happy note with everything falling back into place.

While there is a lot of uncertainty about the forest fire spreading to the hospital, we can only hope that actress Seo Hyun-jin comes back to reprise her role of Dr Yoon Seo-jung, even if it is for one episode at the end of Season 3.