The Good Doctor’s back with a case that some viewers may find disturbing.
You’d never guess it from the lighthearted tone of the first half of the promo, but the main story involves a three-year-old stroke victim.
According to The Good Doctor Season 6 Episode 14 spoilers, Park and Shaun’s young patient can’t move his right hand after hitting his head, and during surgery, the doctors learn the child’s condition is even more severe than they thought. How are they going to save this child’s life?
Stories involving seriously ill children are always upsetting. Theoretically, kids have their whole lives ahead of them, and it’s heartbreaking for them and their parents when they have a disease that puts them at risk of never reaching adulthood.
Things like strokes, often associated with heart disease in older people, are twice as disturbing. The promo clip where Park tells a mother that her three-year-old is having a stroke bothered me; it’ll be even worse for the fictional mom of this young child.
A three-year-old is somewhere between toddlerhood and preschool age. This is not someone who should be having a stroke. And after the mother agrees to brain surgery — a scary prospect for anyone, but especially for the mother of such a young child — the doctors will discover a more extensive problem.
The doctors will also have to answer questions no parent wants to ask, such as how long this little boy’s life expectancy is.
If he’s having strokes at three, will he be able to live a normal lifespan? And even if he does survive to adulthood, what kinds of cognitive, language, and motor skills disabilities will he have?
They might be unable to predict this accurately, and the stats for cases like this could be grim. What a heartbreaking situation!
I also wonder what the root cause is for this.
The boy may have a rare brain or heart disease or genetic defect. But could his issues also come from severe abuse?
Young babies can sustain severe injuries if shaken; I don’t know if older children have similar issues, but Nathan could have suffered head trauma from abuse.
If that’s the case, this mother will have to deal with guilt and shame, along with possibly losing custody of her son. And all that will be on top of learning her son has such severe problems at a very young age!
The spoiler video was smart to begin with lighthearted scenes. We’ll need comic relief after dealing with this heavy medical plot!
This lighter plot involves Glassman taking it upon himself to learn how to babyproof the house, annoying Lea.
The scene between Glassman and Lea in the spoiler video has a sitcom-like feel. This domestic situation where Glassman has become Shaun and Lea’s roommate keeps lending itself to situations like this.
Usually, I prefer medical storylines to this silliness, but if we’re going to have a very ill toddler, we need this nonsense to balance things out!
After dealing with this case at the hospital, Shaun may also be overly invested in babyproofing. He’ll worry that his son could grow into a toddler with a serious disease.
Between Shaun and Glassman, Lea will be lucky if she has a minute’s peace before or after the baby’s birth! She’ll have to set firm boundaries and not let her husband or “Grandpa Glassy” get away with nonsense.
According to spoiler photos, there’s another medical storyline at the hospital. Perez is working with an older woman who he is transporting in a wheelchair.
Jordan walks in from the other direction in at least one photo, so she and Perez will likely have words about this patient.
Jordan is Perez’s semi-girlfriend, and initially, Lim asked her to supervise Perez during his probation. She wanted off that assignment, but that doesn’t mean she won’t put her two cents in.
It’s anyone’s guess why this patient is in the hospital and what Jordan’s issue with Perez’s treatment plan is if any.
But since the patient is Black and so is Jordan, there may be racial issues involved that Perez either doesn’t know about or doesn’t think are relevant.
The patient may distrust doctors because of poor past experiences or prefer a doctor of color. There may also be cultural issues that Perez isn’t aware of.
Of course, the issue may have nothing to do with race. Black characters don’t have to think or talk about race 24/7; that’s an annoying stereotype that needs to go away.
Whatever the problem is, it’ll almost certainly lead to Perez and Jordan butting heads. There’s no telling how this will impact their relationship.
And will Perez be tempted to use again? It’s disappointing that he called his dealer instead of a sponsor once already, though at least he didn’t go through with the drug buy.
What do you think, The Good Doctor fanatics? Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know. And don’t forget you can watch The Good Doctor online while waiting for the new episode to air.
The Good Doctor airs on ABC on Mondays at 10 PM EST / PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
