Netflix is currently surfing the wave of K-Drama content, having achieved global success with “Squid Game.” Interestingly, “The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call” (Original title: Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo) is a medical drama about a trauma center, released concurrently with “The Pitt” (2025), another show created in the US about a trauma center in Pittsburgh. It signals the resurgence of the medical drama genre, which never really died out but was given a much larger canvas and far greater sheen.
The difference is that the K-Drama, created by Choi-Kae Tang and directed by Lee Do-Yoon, is homaging the web novel and its webtoon adaptation and thus carries a very heightened nature. But since it doesn’t skimp on the stakes of the cases in the trauma surgery, as well as the gory nature of the operations, the show works.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 1 ‘Enter Doctor Maniac’ Recap:
The opening sequence of the show, following our hero riding a motorcycle through a warzone, carrying blood bags, and delivering them to a slowly decimated hospital, is handled in such a heroic fashion that it automatically explains the tone the show is going to maintain throughout the season. Our primary protagonist is Dr. Baek Gang-Hyeok, and he is one of the finest trauma surgeons in Korea if the show would have you believe. Turns out, Dr. Kang-Hyeuk would be needed, as most hospitals in Korea aren’t exactly interested in investing in trauma centers but rather in funneling that same investment as provided by the Ministry of Health and Culture towards the other, already fully stocked and well-off departments.
However, Minister Kim Hyeong-Hui intends to bring about a change in that strategy and believes that HNUH (Hankuk National University and Hospital) could be the frontline of such change, much to the chagrin of the Director of the University, Mr. Choi, as well as the heads of all the other departments. But the minister takes the opportunity to learn that the trauma surgeon Dr. Kwon is on a break due to extreme fatigue and calls in the eponymous Dr. Baek.
Our second protagonist is Dr. Young Jae-Won, who is the protégé of Dr. Han Yo-Rim, the director of surgery and a colorectologist. However due to the lack of a dedicated trauma unit or surgeon, doctors would be kept on call, and it was Yong Jae-Won’s turn. A pacifist and clearly unprepared for handling the surgery that would be brought in—a major stab wound—Jae-Won finds himself unable to understand the decision to take, whether to pull the knife out or not.
Unbeknownst to him and taking him completely by surprise, Dr. Baek, without any scrubs, had already entered the trauma unit, managed to figure out the nature of the knife wound, took the knife out as the knife had already been broken before the victim was stabbed, and then he managed to slowly yet effortlessly draw the excess blood around the heart. Prepping for surgery, Baek essentially takes over the trauma unit, and finding a position of authority, the nurses in the unit are more than happy to comply.
Well, not all of them, and certainly not all the doctors. Anaesthesiologist Dr. Hwang is clearly not used to and disinterested in working fast or in specifications to Dr. Baek, and having used ionotropic in anesthesia has led to an increase in blood pressure, which makes Baek mad and leads to him firing Hwang. His replacement—a young med student named Park Gyeong-Won, is clever on his feet to slow the heart down while Baek conducts surgery, aided by Jae-Won. It was also not lost on Baek that he is attracting an adoration-laced look from Jae-Won, as Jae-Won finds himself utterly impressed by Baek’s effortlessness.
But what also characterizes Baek is his sheer disinterest in glad-handing, and thus even as he is late to the inauguration ceremony, he instead chastises Yu-rim and all the doctors calling for an apology for his lateness. He instead chastises the state of the trauma unit and calls for it to be shut down, instead asking it to be treated as a separate trauma center, much to the horror of Director Choi and the rest of the departments, while the minister looks at the chaos in amusement.
We also meet our third protagonist in this comedic moment of misunderstanding as Baek tries to enter the trauma unit and is stopped by Nurse Cheon, who mistakes him for a gangster due to a very prominent tattoo on his arm. The resultant scuffle is ultimately broken by Jae-Won, who had already dressed up to go to their next case, albeit unwillingly.
Baek wants to treat a serious accident on a mountain and treat it on-site and wants Jae-Won, AKA Anus—a nickname bestowed upon him by Baek on account of his colorectomy specialization—to accompany him. Considering that he has a fear of heights, Jae-Won is not at all happy about this endeavor, and it becomes further out of the norm when Baek basically takes over the reins of the helicopter and navigates it through the fog, before rappelling himself onto the rope and jumping down with a screaming Jae-Won in tow.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 2 ‘The Birth of Protege No. 1’ Recap:
While Jae-Won is terrified upon finding himself at the edge of a mountainside, and it’s just his first day in the trauma unit, he is coached calmly by Baek as they secure him and send him up on the helicopter. However, as they climb back up, Baek proceeds to essentially begin the operation within the helicopter himself, as time is running out. Instructing Jae-Won to clean his scalp, he soon manages to make a makeshift drill and create a hole in the man’s skull to decrease the blood pressure, which stabilizes him for the time being. It is a method that is quite unconventional, but considering Baek’s experience in war zones like Afghanistan, Jae-Won learns about location experience and perhaps the importance of said experience far more than even a textbook could possibly help.
We do realize that Baek is becoming open to partnering up with Jae-Won as his protégé, but is running against the angry wall that is Han Yoo-Rim. The head of surgery and one of the many heads in the hospital worried about the increasing deficits incurred by the trauma center on account of Baek’s exorbitant efforts to save all his patients. It doesn’t help that Baek doesn’t take him seriously at all, while Yoo-Rim realizes that his protégé might be swayed to Baek’s side.
This leads to a confrontation between Yoo-Rim and Baek, with Baek finally pointing out that the choice to take the role of assistant surgeon at the Trauma Center should lie with Jae-Won rather than being imposed by the two of them. However, it’s easier said than done, because Jae-Won is already risking being influenced. His friends remind him of his fear of heights, as well as his propensity to be calm and methodical, while he is also reminded of Yoo-Rim having given him a full scholarship to pursue Colorectomy.
Meanwhile, Baek is confused and wants to know how to bring forth Jae-Won to his side, and he is willing to listen to any advice from Nurse Cheon. After all, being extra compassionate is something unthinkable for him. Even though we do witness that Baek is far more interested in displaying pictures of the patients he had saved than all the felicitations a medical professional could receive. And this is why, when Baek finally breaks down the meeting between Jae-Won and Yoo-Rim, he tries to remind Jae-Won essentially why he wanted to be a doctor in the first place—a question that would recur throughout the season.
Anyway, Jae-Won accepts the post, much to Yoo-Rim’s chagrin, who vows to bring Baek down, especially considering Baek reveals that Yoo-Rim’s prized teacup is fake, which is later revealed to also be false. However, by that point, the teacup had already been broken. But as Jae-Won and Baek walk to the quarters in the hospital, Jae-Won asks Baek why he was selected, to which Baek points out that ever since Baek met him, Jae-Won had always been running, signaling a dedication to the work that is lacking even amongst his peers. It seems, though, that this running will come in handy as Yoo-Rim, in revenge, had sent out a mail that assigns all on-call trauma duties to Jae-Ewon, which terrifies him, but Baek reminds him that this is a good thing. A trauma surgeon needs to be on call for the whole day anyway.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 3 ‘Keep On Running’ Recap:
As the episode begins, we see Jae-Won barely functioning, almost like a zombie. He would barely get some shut-eye before being woken up again. A multi-car pileup, due to a massive accident, results in a major patient inflow. For the trauma center, that’s bad news, especially if any one of the doctors isn’t moving as quickly, which Doctor Hwang, the anesthesiologist, isn’t. This results in a tussle between Hawang and Nurse Cheon, but Baek finally fires him and asks Dr. Park to assist him in anesthesiology again. What he doesn’t know is that Park is instructed by Director Choi to keep an eye on Doctor Baek as a spy, though it seems Park is not very happy about the assignment.
In a strange coincidence, the father and daughter being brought in for adjacent surgery turn out to be the donors for the brain-dead patient, for which an organ donor coordinator is responsible for dotting the t’s and the i’s. Jang-Mi remembers a collision she had with the organ coordinator. Realizing that the operation on the patient with abdominal bleeding, whose ruptured liver needs replacing, are the two donors, Baek decides to make a bold step.
He contacts the organ coordinator and decides to move forward with the transplants, as there is no next of kin to give consent. Jae-won is dumbfounded as this crosses all ethical lines, but Baek’s reasoning too—that he is ready to do as much as possible to rescue his patient—makes him different from all the arrogant doctors we are usually accustomed to seeing, even if the hero-worshipping is off the charts.
We even see in another sequence, where Baek requests the organ coordinator to ensure a kidney transplant is also in line, as he had deduced that the daughter’s kidneys would have been damaged as well, which had turned out to be the case. This helps Baek manage to shut down the orthopedic surgeon Jun-Su, a fiery supporter in Yoo-Rim’s camp who had no belief in Baek’s skills about executing a transplant in 30 minutes, to which he would be proven wrong.
But even as Baek wins so many battles, he can’t seem to stop losing as well. The audit for the hospital puts the trauma center at the red line, with the major deficits causing a lot of concern in the board. Baek, being the head of the Trauma Center, also had to attend a meeting that he had skipped. Thus he would be reprimanded by his superiors, but unlike all the other heads, Baek doesn’t hold back and reminds Chief Hong that funding from the Ministry of Health for the Trauma Centre had been used for other means at the hospital. More than the audacity, what stands out is Baek refusing to stand down against the corporate machinery, even if Jae-Won knows that the hospital is heavily invested in the status quo.
Speaking of, Baek surprisingly breaks the status quo by asking Jae-Won and Cheon to dinner. They meet at a Chinese restaurant, with Baek and Jae-Won dressed to the nines, but with Cheon arriving in her casuals. These moments, few and far between, try to build up the relationships between the characters, as well as shed light on Baek’s eventful and traumatic past, be it the tattoo or the car accident that he is so good at deflecting.
The dinner is interrupted by another trauma case. However, by the time they arrive, the patient dies, turning out to be a sobering reminder that even superheroic-like doctors like Baek and Jae-Won won’t be fast enough to save everyone. But they have to be ready to receive the immediate next, and they jump into the fray. Yes, even Nurse Cheon, who had her day off and had to finish a heavy dinner at that restaurant.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 4 ‘Closer than You Think’ Recap:
Yoo-rim’s anger leads him to conduct some shady deals that are unknowingly witnessed by Nurse Cheon at the restaurant while she is eating. As it turns out, Yu-Rim learns about the shadiness of Baek’s past, especially with his involvement in a mysterious organization called Black Wings. This further incenses Yu-rim.
Meanwhile, Baek is worried about attending the budget meeting, a mandatory one that he is not exactly a fan of because he isn’t really interested in the glad-handling of it all. The absurdity within the board meeting, that of the departments having procured the most revenue being rewarded while the ones having the most losses being reprimanded, further baffles Baek. (The fun bit is the funeral hall getting the most applause). But he retorts back, reminding them of the 10 million won gifted by the Ministry, which would put them in the black, but of course that money had been put elsewhere.
Yoo-Rim’s anger reaches a fever pitch at witnessing Baek’s disrespect, and he almost moves forward to attack him, except both Baek and Yoo-Rim get a call at the same time, leading to decidedly different results. For Baek, it was the excuse to exit that budget meeting, as that meant there had been a patient admitted—a woman having been in the middle of a massive traffic accident and having had to administer CPR, with ultimately shock treatment required to bring back her sinus rhythm.
For Yoo-Rim and Jae-Won, this has personal stakes because the patient is Je-Yeong, Yoo-Rim’s daughter and Jae-Won’s friend. This results in essentially a meltdown by Yoo-Rim, a pretty expected one, whereby he tries to enter the trauma center lobby where she is being administered and later loses his composure upon realizing that Baek is not waiting for a cardiologist and immediately rushes to surgery. Baek suspects that she has a heart rupture, but Yoo-Rim’s ravings are too much for Baek. Finally, Jae-Won is forced to push him outside the surgery room, and Yoo-Rim has to call the head of cardiology for a consultation.
During the surgery, Baek warns Jae-Won to step away if this is too personal, but he refuses. As it turns out, Baek’s suspicions about heart rupture turn out to be right, and he doesn’t have too much time. He immediately uses parts of a surgical glove to resect slightly. It gives him precious minutes to operate and do his job without letting the blood overflow and the blood pressure drop precariously.
As Baek and the trauma team successfully bring Je-yeong back from the brink of death, Yoo-Rim realizes the importance of the trauma center. And Baek gets an ally, albeit reluctantly receiving as such. The conversation post-surgery in Yoo-Rim’s office room began with Baek’s concern about the worries of the budget in the hospital before Baek asked Yoo-Rim about the secret he had uncovered about Baek’s past. This leads the viewers to learn about the existence of the Black Wings, but Baek refuses to elaborate, warning Yoo-Rim that what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
The events of the previous episode leading up to the organ donation ratcheted up a hefty bill, but the minister agrees to foot it in exchange for Dr. Baek giving a press conference, a tactic he is more than happy to accept, surprisingly knowing full well that goodwill towards the trauma center would actually impress upon the hospital to take its trauma center seriously. As it turns out, a phone call about another case interrupts Baek enough to shout at the press, flushing all that goodwill down the toilet.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 5 ‘Code Black’ Recap:
The PR debacle is meme material, but it is decidedly not humorous for the minister as well as the directors of the departments at the hospital. Their happiness at Baek’s reputation being dented is colored by the fact that Baek had expressly threatened to converse with the minister directly to increase the budget immediately.
Meanwhile, Jae-Won, curious about the tattoo, researches and finds out about the military group Black Wings, collating that information with papers on on-ground medic operations that Baek had been a part of. He learns about the Black Wings being a paramilitary operation with expert medics who are also proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Jae-Won is scared out of his wits when his information trawling on his laptop is interrupted by Baek admonishing him about wasting time. When Jae-Won asks him why he had worked on Black Wings and whether it had been due to his interest in working front-line, Baek disappoints him, answering that it had been the money.
Their banter is interrupted by the ER being overflowed due to a patient being transported as a result of a massive accident that had occurred at a bridge. The disaster also caused a lot of cars to fall from the said bridge, resulting in further fatalities. But considering that there could still be survivors, which couldn’t be ruled out, both Baek and Jae-Won call the helicopter to their aid.
It’s interesting because the number of patients being sent would mean that the ER for all the hospitals had a chance of being overworked, and truthfully, that is exactly what happens. It is much to the chagrin of the administrators, who are already worried about the cost of treating these patients, and whose shock is compounded upon learning that the two doctors are already en route to the site, afraid that Baek would emphasize bringing the patients to HNUH.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Baek advises Jae-Won to separate the casualties from the rest of the survivors. As they tirelessly work through the wreckage, looking through the survivors and ensuring triage goes smoothly, Baek realizes that there are at least two or three patients who wouldn’t survive the triage and need extensive surgery. He entrusts the patient with the pipe embedded in his body to Jae-Won, much to his amazement. As Jae-Won returns to the hospital Cheon is there to aid him, even as she too is slightly nervous about it.
Meanwhile, Baek makes the decisive decision to transport the rest of the critical patients to the hospital, calling in Yoo-rim to aid him with one of the critical patients having an abdominal rupture. The other younger patient with a fracture he entrusts to Jun-Mi, the crabby orthopedic who shares reluctant respect for Baek. While Yoo-Rim is rusty, and in his panic almost ruins the operation, Baek scrubs up in time and manages to aid in it, before rushing to Jae-Won, who had managed to take the pipe out but hadn’t cauterized the wounds, which had resulted in a lot of bleeding. Baek guides Jae-Woon through this difficult operation and finally sails on through.
Considering that three critical patients had been brought to the hospital, Director Choi braced himself for the worst when he saw the trio walk out of surgery. Believing that Baek would be announcing the deaths, he is shocked and somewhat relieved to learn that the three patients are out of danger. Not only that, Baek shifts the spotlight to Jae-won, Cheon, and even the other department heads, including Yoo-Rim, highlighting them as heroes of the day, before finally shifting the spotlight to the director, finagling a promise to create a new trauma center from the director on live television.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 6 ‘Reasons for Not Giving Up’ Recap:
This is the episode of ramifications, where Baek’s political glad-handling in front of the television allows for a much more positive outlook on the hospital for the social media netizens (as well as himself, bolstered by his own comments from dummy accounts), but it also allows for the new budget of the Trauma Center to be greenlit by the ministry.
However, Director Choi takes this as a personal affront and assigns Director Hong with the task of clipping the wings of Dr. Baek and the Trauma Unit. Hong does this a tad bit literally, by visiting the fire chief who had been admitted to a private unit on the top floor and essentially convincing him to ground the rescue units by removing Officer Ahn, who had accompanied Baek and the trauma team so far on behalf of the rescue team.
The result is the trauma team being grounded, unable to reach an accident site at a mountain ridge, and getting to the patient in time. Baek tries to reason with the “director” at the National Rescue offices but to no avail, as bureaucratic walls ensured that Baek wouldn’t be welcome. Cheon, though, has an option, reminding them of the new ambulance unit that the hospital had requisitioned but had then kept in the garage, utterly new.
Baek, happy that a method has been reached, drive with no care in the world, terrifying both Cheon and Jae-Won, and finally reaches the site. They manage to put the patient in the back and begin working while Cheon drives the ambulance. However, the damage has already been done. Because of valuable time being lost, the brain hemorrhage caused by the fall has done its damage, and the incision on the skull to relieve the pressure doesn’t work. Jae-Won is ready to give up, but not Baek, reminding him that wasting time lamenting would be wasting valuable seconds required to save the patient’s life.
By the time they reach the hospital, the patient is alive but would be left in a vegetative state. Meanwhile, Yoo-Rim informs Baek that having followed Director Hong and seeing him having conversations with the fire chief had led him to infer that the man had been responsible for the grounding of the helicopter. This leads to Baek losing his temper and going to Hong’s office to confront him directly. As Hong categorically denies, asking for evidence, Baek catches him by the throat and pushes him back to his sofa before storming off.
Hong, embarrassed in front of his colleagues and absolutely livid, threatens Yoo-Rim to reveal knowledge about Baek’s past, but Yoo-Rim doesn’t budge and instead refuses, showing his true allegiance. Meanwhile, Jae-Won, livid at his mentor and saddened at the loss, is called by Cheon to the rooftop, where he watches amused and confused at her shouting at the vents as a method of de-stressing herself. When Jae-Won tries it and inevitably fails, Cheon amusedly tries to get through to him, reminding him that he is doing his best.
Later, when Jae-Won and Baek are having their dinner, he tries to apologize to his mentor but is stopped in his tracks. Baek reminds Jae-Won about his father’s accident and how at that moment, no hospital would actually take him in. His reason for not giving up on any patient stemmed from that feeling of abandonment, before reminding Jae-Won that giving up is quite a normal emotion, but Jae-Won needs to search for a reason to not give up. Until then, he needs to hang in there.
Director Hong, realizing that this is going nowhere, instead writes up a long report and presents it to Director Choi, manipulating the grief of the mother of the kid in the vegetative state, and calling for a malpractice suit filed against Dr. Baek Kang-Hyuk. What this results in is Baek not being allowed to enter the trauma center with a patient. Instructing Jae-Won to look after the patient, Baek rushes out.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 7 ‘SOS from South Sudan’ Recap:
We see Baek rushing and trying to convince Doctor Kim, the head of Emergency Medicine and one of the few allies he has in the hospital, to override Hong’s rule. Kim thankfully allows that override for Baek to join in the operation and save the life of the patient. Park Gyeong-Won, anticipating Baek pulling a move out of thin air, had already prepped the room for anesthesia. However, they still find obstacles in their path, as Cheon and Jae-Won have to race downstairs to requisition an artificial blood vessel, but the doctor in charge wouldn’t allow them, citing rules that they had no time to follow. Disobeying, they dodge the doctor and manage to take one of the artificial blood vessels and race back up.
While Cheon arrives with the artificial blood vessel in time, Jae-won is stopped by Yoo-Rim, who informs him about the press conference that Director Hong is holding, whereby he intends to reveal the details of the malpractice suit to the media and force Baek to resign. Baek, though, refuses to budge, instead choosing to save his patient before rushing to the press conference.
As Hong in front of the media tries to put on a brave face, promising an investigation into the malpractice, Baek shows up. Consoling the grieving mother, he accuses Hong of convincing the fire chief to ground the helicopter, before showing proof to the media about how the same procedure he had used in an earlier patient to relieve the intracranial pressure (episode 2) didn’t work out because they had been too late to arrive on the site on account of the helicopters being grounded. Director Hong is blamed, and he tries to insult Baek but unwittingly reveals his lack of knowledge about the patient’s name, which incenses the mother, who slaps him across the face in front of the entire media.
Not taking this lying down, the next morning Hong calls a press conference where he accuses the Prime Minister of cronyism and having Dr. Kang-Hyuk be hired to spy on the hospital’s internal policies. But as it turns out, a bigger issue rears its ugly head. A local militia had attacked the Doctors for International Peace in South Sudan, and the leader of the army medics, Captain Lee, and Dr. Kang-Hyuk, who is familiar with them, are severely wounded and looking bleak.
Baek and the team are instructed to treat Captain Lee and bring him back alive in exchange for Baek’s own demands being met, essentially the creation of a new trauma center or a helicopter specifically for the trauma center, which would also entail a new heliport, rather than the helicopter having trouble landing at an empty basketball court. In his absence, Baek instructs Yoo-Rim to lead the Trauma Center.
Baek, with his trauma team, is flown to South Sudan and finds the place far more destroyed than even they had expected. Having been attacked last night, the hospital is almost in disarray; Captain Lee is worse than they had expected, and they only have two units of blood, and necrosis of tissue had already begun. Baek finally makes the hard choice and cuts through the necrotic tissue so that the hand can be prepared for amputation.
He called the minister and the head of the defense force to request an air ambulance but was informed that it wouldn’t be possible as that would put too much of a strain on hospital resources. Meanwhile, Dr. Gyeong-Won receives a call from Director Kim asking about the condition of the patient. While Geyong-Won informs the director without incriminating Baek, Cheon overhears him and puts two and two together, warning him that he should inform Baek.
But as the BP begins to fall for Captain Lee, Cheon begins to donate blood of her own to ensure that the patient still remains alive. Realizing that there is only one move left to make, Baek decides to load up the patient and drive through South Sudan to where we learn is the headquarters of the Black Wings.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Episode 8 ‘Patient: Baek Kang-Hyuk’ Recap:
The trauma team reaches the Black Wings base, and they are stopped by the soldiers, with no intention of letting them in, until Baek throws caution to the wind and just drives through, even after informing them that Malak has arrived. As it turns out, the Black Wings team realizes that this is Malak’s usual MO and allows him to pass through, allowing them to operate on Lee in the very well-stocked and furnished operation theater.
While Captain Lee isn’t entirely out of danger, this operation ensures that Lee remains stable. While the rest of the team took a rest, Malak had a conversation with the leader of the Black Wings, with Malak reminding his boss that he needed to repay his debt. He managed to secure an air ambulance back to South Sudan as a result of said repayment.
The next morning, as the team has breakfast and begins to set up for their return journey, Cheon confronts Gyeong-Won, where he reveals that he had been a spy for Director Choi, but he had never been interested in the spying. Rather he had always been interested in joining the trauma center. Once the university ended, he would have applied for the trauma center anyway. He is even okay with Cheon’s threat of Gyeong-Won having to take the emergency surgeries.
As the plane, which is a fully furnished jet, finally lands in South Korea, Baek finds a massive sea of reporters waiting to welcome them. While Baek is an object of curiosity, their target is Captain Lee’s recuperation, and Baek finally manages to distract the reporters enough to let Jae-Won, Cheon, and Gyeong-won get on the ambulance and drive to the nursing home.
Meanwhile, Baek learns something strange. It’s not simply that a fire had broken out at an apartment complex, resulting in a lot of accidents, but that Yoo-Rim, who had been handling the trauma center by pretending to be Baek, had actually driven to the site. Realizing that Yoo-Rim is way over his head, Baek drives to the accident site quickly.
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Jung-jeung-eui-sang-sen-teo, Season 1) Ending Explained:
How does Dr. Baek Kang-Hyuk get hurt?
As Baek arrives at the location, he barely manages to pull Yoo-Rim away in time before reminding him to wear a hard hat, before working with the rescue team to triage the survivors, before pulling them back and loading them on ambulances, and transporting them to the hospital. The hurry is also because, on the second floor, there are several oxygen canisters, which could cause the explosion radius to increase rapidly. As the patients are pulled back, Kang-Hyuk tries to rescue the last patient before an explosion rocks him back. While he manages to walk away, as he climbs up the helicopter, he reveals to Yoo-Rim that debris has lodged near his stomach, and the heat from the debris is slowly killing him due to internal organ burning.
Who operates on Dr. Baek Kang-Hyuk?
Jae-Won is already having a stressful night when the three of them finally manage to push the patient inside the trauma center while literally shoving through the gaggle of reporters in front of the hospital. But his stress skyrockets when he learns of the accident that Kang-Hyuk had suffered. As Kang-Hyuk disembarked from the helicopter, he entrusted the responsibility of the operation to Jae-Won, trusting in his decision process. Making an important decision to not do a CT, he proceeds to begin the surgery, even as he finds dissension amongst the ranks. Jae-Won, though, has gone through a character arc and decides to stick with his decision and begins the surgery.
We don’t see the entire operation, but we do learn by Baek waking up, alive, that the operation had been successful. However, when Jae-Won comes to visit him, Baek grills him almost cruelly, leading Jae-Won to finally reveal his decision and Baek to admonish him heavily by revealing that he almost had to cut out a quarter of his liver to stop the organ damage. But Baek also finally acknowledges his pleasure by calling him by his full name, rather than “anus” or “number one.” Honestly, this is the best validation he could have ever gotten.
What is the connection between Director Choi and Dr. Baek Kang-Hyuk?
The show’s final major scene takes place at Choi’s house, where Kang-Hyuk tries to convince him to come to his side, while Choi remains stubborn. That is until Baek reveals a further addition to his backstory. It is revealed that his father would finally be admitted to the Bankuk National University and Hospital, and he would witness the doctor trying to save his father until the final moments. It’s then that Baek decides to become a doctor, inspired by the herculean efforts of that young doctor, Choi. He then asks a shocked Doctor Choi whether that same doctor exists now, before walking away from Choi’s house, leaving Choi deep in thought.
The show’s final scene unfolds with two major sequences. On the one hand, Baek is conducting a major recruitment drive for trauma surgery, and while the number of smart-aleck questions would be commented upon by the students, Jae-Won essentially does reverse psychology to ensure the students try to join him simply out of ego at having their credentials as doctors being insulted. But their newest recruit was the same doctor who had been to South Sudan and who had impressed Baek enough that he had invited him to join their department.
The show ends with Baek and Jae-Won arriving at the roof of the hospital to inaugurate the new heliport and the helicopter, with the minister, Director Choi, and Doctor Yoo-Rim as special guests. But Baek is rescued from having to give a major speech while receiving a call about a major accident on site. The helicopter, and thus the resurgent new Trauma Team, readies themselves for a new case.
