Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Monday Mornings: Brain Patients, Publicity, and Legal Issues

Having a main character brush death is one heck of a way to end a first season. We've seen some interesting patients, sat threw some legal issues, and picked our favorite doctors, despite the fact that each makes mistakes here and there. Should this series receive a renewal from TNT, I will continue to watch, but I'm still on the fence about this medical drama. It seems that the characters are likable but not lovable, that the cases are original but not overly intriguing, that the drama comes and goes without really attracting much attention. I want more out of this series... don't you?

Monday Mornings "Wheels within Wheels" (S01E09): Park works on a seizure patient who covered his body in words because he's a writer who didn't have paper. [sounds kinda out there already...] His mother tried to stop him from writing so he could focus on other issues in his life (ANY other issues, actually). He's not schizophrenic or bi-polar, but still somewhat obsessed with writing. He believes that he has a right temporal lobe abnormality that makes him hypographic. [aka extremely verbose.] They can remove a lesion, but the kid doesn't want to lose the ability to write constantly, and Park actually decides to encourage the guy to keep writing. [haha at Ridgeway calling out Park on his "not do, dead" line!] Park supporting the patient is questioned by Hooten during an M&M. [isn't this somewhat similar to the case where the chef lost her ability to smell because of a procedure?]
Doug Hyun
Patients from a car accident are rushed in, and Robidaux barely saves one of them because she struggled through the woman's neck fat. Villanueva gives Robidaux a beer, then shows her a little meditation. Fran talks to the couple and Robidaux about filming a short segment for television news. Everything sounds great until Hooten calls on Robidaux during an M&M because of the complications and Robidaux's failure to ask for more help during the emergency procedure. [good point.]

Wilson suggests an MRI for a judge patient with whom Hooten has a history. She has a growth in her brain, and just a biopsy will require 4-6 weeks of recovery. [WOW!] Turns out, she has syphilis, which she likely contracted 40 years earlier. [this reminded me of Ibsen's A Doll's House, LoL.] Further damage is unlikely, but she's still worried that this will stop her from being named to the Supreme Court because of cognitive decline. When the diagnosis is leaked to the media, Hooten asks Wilson who he told about the situation, and when Napur points out that hundreds of people had access to that information, not including hackers, she's appointed the head of a special task force to work on privacy concerns in the 21st century. [while this could lead to something interesting down the line, part of me wonders if it's more of a political act.] 

Monday Mornings "Family Ties" (S01E10): A guy with back pain comes into the hospital for painkillers, but Villanueva won't write him another prescription when he has a history of multiple hospitals and pharmacies. [an age-old issue. I think even Little House on the Prairie tackled this one.] The guy assaults Ridgeway and Robidaux in the parking garage when they won't write him a prescription, either, but Ridgeway is badly injured, requiring brain surgery. After several hours knocked out, she comes to and has her language skills in tact.

A mother is brain dead and her son doesn't think his mother understood what was involved when she agreed to be an organ donor. He gets a lawyer, and Hooten and Buck have to go to the courthouse immediately over the issue, where Hooten is put on the stand about the process of organ donation. [I actually didn't know about the skin thing, either.] The son is happy with no compromise (upset that his mother wasn't able to be saved but her body will save others), but eventually the hospital wins and they use several of her organs immediately.

A 16-year-old has a heart attack after chasing a classmate, and he requires a cardiac stent. Napur talks to the boy's grandmother about making some lifestyle changes, but she is such an enabler (always giving him sodas and such) that Napur files a neglect and endangerment claim with Child Services, which Hooten calls that overstepping in the M&M. [it probably was! she's shown as so staunch in her beliefs that she's almost unrelatable, though. also, people rushing out of the M&M when Wilson came in to save Ridgeway has awakened.]
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