Lucy has finished her rotation and she will be working with Peter.  Kerry and Carter are going to fix a nice dinner for Peter and Lucy.  Kerry is wanting to speak with Peter about the sternal saw study.  She also wants Lucy to get to know her new instructor, Peter.  Anspaugh tells Mark not to take the NASA offer.  He will offer Mark tenure in three years if he will stay.  Romano finds Lucy assisting Elizabeth in the surgical ward.  He wants Elizabeth to scrub in that afternoon with him and he will try to get her fellowship back.  Doris, the paramedic, comes in with two patients.  One is a heavy set woman who collapsed in her kitchen fire.  The other is a fireman named Fred who has singed his moustache.  Doris is upset about having to ride along on the fire truck.  Carol comes to work and sees that Lynette is there.  She tells her that the clinic is closed, and Lynette tells her that she has received grant money to do a discussion group on cervical cancer prevention.  Carol takes care of a patient with pancreatic cancer.  His name is Mr. Ackerman.  She finds a marijuana joint in his robe pocket, and he tells her that his son gets it for him to help with the nausea.  She tells him that she will not tell anyone.  Lucy and Peter take care of an elderly man who claims to be 140 years old.  His name is Charley Barnes and he tells them that he helps with the older people and the children in the neighborhood.  Kerry and Elizabeth discuss a co-worker that has complained about Romano sexually harassing her.  Kerry wants to know if Elizabeth has experienced any, and she replies that she has not.  Doug takes care of a boy with a broken leg.  He is in a experimental drug study and his father wants more information on the drug.  Doug tells him that it is a double blind study, which means that nobody knows who is getting the experimental drug and who is getting acetaminophen with codeine.  Joi Abbot brings her son Ricky in to the ER.  He is the boy with ALD.  He has not had a  bowel movement in three days and he has a high fever.  It is caused by the morphine and he has gotten so bad from the ALD, that he has not spoken in over a week.  Carol has gotten her some help a few weeks ago and Joi thanks her for it.  Joi tells Doug that she is afraid that if they reduce the morphine dose that Ricky will not be able to tell her that he is in pain.  A woman brings in her husband, Jim Haggerty, who has hit his head four hours ago.  He became unconscious in the car on the way to the hospital.  Mark asks her why the paramedics did not bring him in and she tells him that the paramedics were there, but they were called to a fire.  They told her to bring him to the ER.  Elizabeth scrubs in with Romano and Anspaugh.  She hears Romano bad mouth Maggie Doyle and learns that Maggie is being considered for Chief Resident.  Mark's patient Jim has bleeding in the skull that is putting pressure on his brain.  Mark can not get a neurosurgeon down in time to do a Burr Hole procedure and he knows that his patient  will be brain damaged if it does not get done quickly.  Mark decides to do the procedure himself.  Mark saves the patient.  Doug asks Mark the protocol for a broken vial of medicine in the drug study.  Mark tells Doug just to note it and put the remains in an envelope and tells him they won't use all of the medicine anyway.  Mark goes to a lecture that is being held by NASA.  Doris, the paramedic, comes in to speak with Mark.  She tells him that it was her unit that left Mr. Haggerty to go to a fire.  She has been pulled her off active duty by the deputy chief and she doesn't want her record ruined.  Mark tells her that he will take care of it.   Peter is concerned about a blockage that his elderly patient, Charlie, has in his neck.  They tell him that it could cause a stroke, but there is a surgical option.  Peter is afraid to do the procedure because of his age.  Charley tells Benton that he has been alive since before the Civil War and if he was going to die, he would have already been dead.  Charley tells Benton to do the operation on him and even challenges him to arm wrestle.  Peter books an OR.  Doug pours the broken medicine into an envelope and sends it to a lab to be analyzed.  The lab sends Heather down to see Doug.  She tells him that no codeine was present in the powder.  She seems to know Doug from an earlier date, but he tells her that he is not  interested.  Carol goes to the lounge and sees that Lynette has a discussion group going on.  The group is comprised entirely of African-American women.  Carol speaks a few remarks about  other methods of reducing cervical cancer risks, but the ladies do not seem to respond.  Jeanie has been taking care of  a twelve-year-old girl named Donna, who had the tip of her finger cut off.  Jeanie has called for a plastic surgeon, but he is late.  When he  finally arrives he tells Jeanie that they can't reattach it.  Carol continues to try to contact her pancreatic cancer patient's son, but he can not be located.  Doug gives Joi some of the trial medicine and tells her that it is an experimental drug being tested.  She asks if she has to fill out the paperwork, and Doug tells her she doesn't since Ricky does not qualify for the study.  Lucy gets to scrub in on her first day on her surgical rotation.  A lot of Charley's neighbors have come in to see how he is doing.  Charley crashes before they can operate on him.  He is in a coma and is not expected to live.  Lucy leaves crying when she hears the news.  Mark tells Doug that he has decided against going to Houston to work for NASA.  He tells him that he belongs right where he is at.  Carol sees Lynette after the discussion group is over and speaks with her.  She tells her that she feels like she went behind her back and that she should have included all races of women for the discussion.  She tells her that if she wants to continue working in the clinic, that she would have to start including all types of people in her groups.  Lynette tells her that she will have to think about it.  Mark saves Doris Pickman's paramedic job and she thanks him for it.  Joi comes back to the ER looking for Doug, but he is in a meeting.  She goes to Mark and asks him  about the new drug's interaction with robaxin.  Mark does not understand and she tells him that Doug gave her the experimental medication for her son's pain.  Carol checks on Mr. Ackerman.  He wants her to wheel him outside so he could have the joint, but Carol tells him she can't do that.  His son is unable to pick him up and he will have to stay overnight in the hospital.  He is in a lot of pain, so Carol opens a window in the room and lights the joint for Ackerman. He can't inhale, so Carol blows smoke into his mouth.  Jeanie speaks to Dr. Baker about how he treated her young patient Donna.  He apologizes and tells Donna that they can build a small prosthetic finger for her.  He later asks Jeanie to an opening that night at the Art Institute.  He mentions that his dead wife's name was Jenny and that she reminds him of her.  Jeanie tells him that she will go with him.  Jeanie later makes plans for her and Reggie to go off for the weekend.  Maggie has spoken with Elizabeth about  Romano.  Elizabeth speaks with Kerry and tells her that she wants to meet with her the next morning about Romano.  Mark and Carol discuss what Doug did.  She tells him that he needs to speak with Doug and that he probably has a good reason for what he did.  Mark goes to tell Kerry about it.  Mark tells her that if they found out that they broke protocol on a federally funded study that they would cut off research money and Medicare payments for years.  Kerry and Mark decide to keep the incident quiet.  Doug comes in and asks for the drug cabinet key and Mark tells him that they need to talk.  Peter finds Lucy and sees that she is upset about Charley.  He offers to speak to his neighbors and let them know how he is doing.  Doug goes home to Carol's and starts to complain about Mark going behind his back to Kerry.  Carol agrees with Mark and Kerry and Doug gets upset and walks upstairs.

Reviewed by Tony Conner on 12-27-2000