As someone who has gone through their share of various physical problems only to be told by the Docs that they are merely due to age and stress, though you feel in your bones that they are something more, I instantly took to the premise of the new drama “19 Banme no Karte~The 19th Medical Chart” to heart, where patients of a fast-moving hospital are quickly (and generically) diagnosed so as to “move them along”, sometimes dangerously detrimental so, until a new Doctor arrives with a new mindset to shake up the old ways, prioritizing time and understanding in order to best serve the patients.
Fuka Koshiba plays Mizuki Takino, a doctor specializing in orthopedics in the hospital, who is frustrated at the limited amount of time she can give each patient as well as the fact that once the patient’s problem moves out of her specific field, she no longer can faithfully look over them or make judgement over their follow up care.
While looking over Dr. Takino helping an elderly patient in for a broken ankle, Tokushima observes things about the patient that she doesn’t immediately identify, and after asking the patient about his information regarding his lifestyle, job, and the way he injured his ankle, has him properly operated on for a much larger overarching malady.
Turns out this Dr. Tokushige is the newest Physician in the building, the head of a brand new department of General Medicine, where his role will be looking over the various problems of the patients, make a clear and concise diagnosis, and, with the help of the other specialists in the Hospital, prepare what is best for the patients.
Humbled, amazed, and inspired, Mizuki confronts him, asking how he knows so much about diseases and afflictions that he can make such detailed determinations, and if there is a way to become like him, a super- doctor who can save every single patient he sees! He gently tells her that there is no one who can cure all, not even him, but she nonetheless sees in him something to aspire to.
Mizuki aside, Doctor Tokushige’s unorthodox way of spending so much time with each patient case and his way of involving himself in their diagnoses and patients makes him somewhat of an outcast among the other doctors, who feel they have no need for outside advice!!!
Kimura Yoshino
Taiiku Okazaki
First Summer Uika
Hiroya Shimizu
Tsuda Kanji
Below: Patient Kuroiwa (RiisaNaka) is in constant pain but, despite having seen many doctors, is told that the malady is either due to stress or simply in her mind! With Takino's advice, she takes her in to see Dr. Tokushige.
He sits her down and talks through her past medical history, her current job and routines, and when the pain began. And though he cannot immediately give her an answer to her problems, he is at least listening with his full attention and resolve to see things through.
It's all one can ask in a doctor, and with his help, they find a way to identify her malady, discuss treatment, and get her back to living!
That was quite a first episode! As some of you know, I only initially downloaded this for Fuka Koshiba, and was kind of disappointed that she had what I call those “reactionary” roles, i.e. a secondary character whose main presence is to look on in awe for every stunt the main characters does, and while there IS some of that, I somehow really liked the show!
I mentioned before in my post about RADIATION HOUSE that I do not necessarily like Doctor Dramas as a whole (too many predictable and irritating cliches) but I’m a sucker for those dramas like that doctor in the Jack Nicholson film “As Good As It Gets”, where Helen Hunt has been taking her boy to one bad doc after another without change and is finally given a good one (played wonderfully by Harold Ramis!)...“ Look, whatever I find, I promise you, at the very least, from now on your son is going to feel a great deal better, okay? ” he assures her, and Helen Hunt melts with gratitude. THAT’s the kind of Doctor shows I LOVE, and 19 Banme no Karte seems to be shaping up nicely!!!
Looking forward to seeing more!
