Reality Is Different, but That Is What Makes the Genius Doctor Story Even More Compelling

Source - SBS

I first became a fan of actor Park Eun-bin through the drama <Stove League>.

Playing the head of a professional baseball team’s operations unit, she showed both a cool-headed side and a warm humanity at the same time.

After that, I made sure not to miss any of Park Eun-bin’s works, including <Extraordinary Attorney Woo> and <Castaway Diva>, and in the recently aired <Hyper Knife>, she once again did not disappoint.

This time, she appeared as neurosurgeon ‘Jung Se-ok.’

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Source - Disney+

In the drama, Jung Se-ok enters medical school at a young age, performs every exam and clinical practice flawlessly, and succeeds effortlessly even in difficult surgeries.

She is the kind of character whose surgical skill is so outstanding that even professors are left speechless, and in every episode she overcomes unexpected medical crises with remarkable quick thinking.

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In medical dramas, an ordinary doctor rarely becomes the main character.

To take center stage, the character usually has to be either a genius with a difficult personality but extraordinary diagnostic ability, like in <House>, or someone who shows surreal surgical skills, like in <Doctor Strange>.

At the very least, even if they are a resident, they need to have professor-level surgical skill.

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But the reality I experienced firsthand was quite different.

When I spent my residency at a university hospital, what was demanded of me was not genius-level ability, but superhuman stamina and patience.

Even when I went into the operating room, I rarely performed the surgery myself; most of the time, I was assisting the professor.

My main task was to help with the surgery carefully so as not to obstruct the professor’s field of vision.

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The protagonist of the manga <Igano Kabamaru>, which I read as a medical student, was portrayed as a genius surgeon who broke the hospital’s existing order and put the patient’s life first.

He solved difficult surgeries in astonishing ways and saved lives.

Watching that kind of manga, I built up an idealized image of surgeons, but reality was different.

I had to watch the professor’s mood before I could even pay attention to the patient on the operating table.

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Source - MBC

Jang Jun-hyeok from <White Tower> is a particularly memorable character.

He has outstanding surgical skills as well as political savvy, and struggles to survive amid the fierce power struggles in the medical world.

At the time that drama aired, I was a fourth-year resident, and I remember watching it with my fellow trainees and laughing, saying, “It’s exaggerated, but it’s surprisingly close to reality.”

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The genius doctors in medical dramas leave a strong impression on people.

Such characters often also create the prejudice that “this is what a doctor should be like.” I was one of those who decided to become a doctor after watching the drama <General Hospital> as a child.

But once I actually became a doctor, I came to realize that there was a wide gap between the genius doctors in dramas and who I was in real life.

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I operate every day, yet I still feel tension and fear before surgery.

It is difficult to proceed with surgery as effortlessly as the protagonists in dramas do.

When I was a first-year resident, I even remember dozing off while assisting in surgery.

I had been up all night on emergency room duty the day before, so fatigue had piled up.

I didn’t just doze off; I also unconsciously stepped backward, and when I came to my senses, the professor and the nurses were staring at me intensely.

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I still remember what the professor said then.

“Are you Michael Jackson? Why are you doing the moonwalk during surgery?”

The genius doctors in dramas probably would not have made that kind of mistake.

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Even though I clearly know the difference between reality and drama, I still like dramas that feature genius doctor characters.

They perform the surgeries I cannot do, and sometimes help me forget the frustrations of reality.

There is certainly something appealing about that world, where I can secondhand experience dramatic scenes that are impossible in real life.

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So today as well, I turn on the TV and think:

'What new medical drama has started this time?'

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