Breathless (2024) is a medical drama on Netflix set in the Joaquin Sorolla public hospital in Valencia.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Biel is a medical resident at the Joaquin Sorolla Public Hospital in Valencia under the exceptional oncologist, Nestor Moa.
He works there with fellow residents Rodri, May, and Quique. Rodri’s older sister Jesica is also an attending at the hospital.
May works under the head gynecologist, Leo, and is in a secret relationship with another doctor named Rocio. They plan to have a baby together and May is carrying the child.
Rodri spends his free time making videos on social media and sharing his medical expertise with the layman, but Jesica always tells him to take things more seriously.
Quique brings in a young man for an overdose after they met at a chemsex party, but he doesn’t want anyone to find out he showed up to the hospital high.
He later discovers that the young man, Oscar, is the son of the chief surgeon, Pilar Amaro. She is worried for her son and wants to find out who is responsible for his condition.
Leo’s ex-husband Lluis is the president of the hospital, and he is dating Jesica. She is also having an affair with Biel but doesn’t want to commit to him.
The hospital is quite swamped because of its limited resources, and a road accident puts more pressure on the facilities as several patients are brought in.
One of them is the Valencian President, Patricia Segura. Biel and her know each other because his father worked with her in the past.
During her examination, Biel discovers lumps in her breast and asks Nestor to check her condition. Patricia discovers that she has breast cancer that needs to be treated soon.
She is a right-wing president whose policies put the hospital in its dire state, so she and Nestor are on two ends of the political spectrum.
A woman brings her daughter in for shortness of breath, but she gets offended when Rodri asks simple questions about her history and takes the girl away.
The girl is brought in the next day with her older brother in need of urgent surgery, but midway through, Jesica leaves Rodri to complete the surgery on his own.
He is unable to save the girl and takes the loss quite hard. When the girl’s mother confronts Rodri, he is pushed past his breaking point and he commits suicide.
Jesica is unable to process this, while the rest of the staff want something to be done because this situation could have been avoided if they had more resources.
Leo examines a victim of sexual assault, and although she doesn’t find any evidence of bruising, she alters her report because the system generally doesn’t support victims.
However, her report condemns her son Hugo to prison after the girl reveals that he was the one who raped her.
Nestor is focused on treating Patricia because he is the best oncologist in Spain, but he also suggests going on strike to make it clear that they need help from the government.
A majority of the doctors and nurses agree with the strike but May and Pilar are against it. Leo tells Lluis about the strike after they agree to work together to save Hugo.
The strike has to be pushed forward so Nestor wants to get Patricia’s operation done before that but Pilar makes it difficult.
They are in the middle of the surgery when the strike officially begins and Nestor leaves with most of the staff.
Biel stays behind with Pilar and another doctor, and they realize that Patricia’s cancer is much more serious so they have to give her a mastectomy.
When she comes out of surgery, she feels betrayed by Nestor who left her alone and let her lose her breast after he promised she wouldn’t.
Many other patients continue to suffer and some doctors have to make difficult decisions because of the strike, but the government is forced to come to the negotiation table.
When Patricia goes public with her case, the public perception switches back and the healthcare workers have little choice but to leave the strike.
Nestor is the last man standing and after some right-wing loyalists beat him up, the union leaders call off the strike for his safety.
An ethical review is held to decide whether Nestor’s actions were harmful but he is absolved of blame and gets to keep his job.
Rocio and May’s relationship hits an impasse and Rocio says she is going to ask for custody of the child once it is born.
May goes into labor and is taken to the hospital where Leo tells her that the baby will take some time because she isn’t dilating.
Leo does her best to prove that Hugo is innocent, but he admits that the girl asked him to stop and he didn’t.
Oscar gets obsessed with Quique and Quique eventually gives in because he likes Oscar too. However, he doesn’t realize till later that Oscar has an addiction.
Pilar is worried about her son and asks for Quique’s help. When she finds out that he’s involved, she makes his life at the hospital much more difficult.
May has to undergo an emergency C-section and the surgery is a success. However, when Rocio asks to hold the child, May sends her away.
Ending explained:
Stormy conditions
There is a serious cyclone that has hit Valencia and the hospital is at risk of losing power. Patricia gets an update on her condition from Nestor, who has good and bad news.
Much of her cancer has reduced, but the cancer of her liver is quite serious and leaves her with two options.
She either has to do a risky surgery or get an experiment, and expensive, chemotherapy with strict regulations that her administration put in place.
Patricia doesn’t qualify for the experimental therapy so she agrees to the surgery. A friend from a private clinic reaches out and says that he can get her the treatment for a favor.
He wants to be considered to run the hospitals that she is privatizing. She rebuffs his offer because she has come to like Nestor.
Chaos ensues
As the power shifts to the generators, more patients flood in. Jesica and Biel get a patient named Manu who tries to commit suicide but doesn’t admit it.
Jesica keeps him for observation, and he is taken to surgery after swallowing two blades. Quique tells Oscar to lay off the drugs but Oscar doesn’t want to listen.
He goes out for another party and Quique tells Pilar. She says that he almost overdosed before and Quique is not to be blamed for his problems.
Patricia is also taken in for her surgery but the generator dies midway through. May leaves her room to help out and Rocio notices that the child is alone.
She takes the baby and May panics when she finds her room empty.
Uncertain times ahead
Pilar is called in to help with Patricia’s surgery and it is ultimately a success. Nestor tells Patricia that they have more time to explore her options now.
Oscar turns up in the hospital after overdosing and Pilar rushes to his side to support him with Quique there as well.
Lluis tells Leo that she shouldn’t be around Hugo because she looks at him with disgust now that she knows the truth.
She still loves him but cannot accept that he would stoop so low. Lluis also confronts Biel and tells him to back off because he has proposed to Jesica.
Jesica is waiting by Manu’s side and tells him that she wants to help but he goes crazy and restrains her.
When Biel shows up in the room later, he finds Jesica on the floor bleeding out from a wound in the stomach.
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