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Abby lies in bed
while her eyes wander around the room. She hears her alarm go off and looks at
the time. It’s 7am. Sam and Luka are on the EL riding to work, they are
discussing how Luka gave Alex $50 for a concert ticket. Sam is visibly upset
but Luka thinks it’s no big deal. Sam emphasizes that Luka shouldn’t have to
pay for everything, leaving Luka to argue that her paying half the rent and
half the bills was ridiculous. She tells him that she made 10 years supporting
just her and Alex and she feels she can handle it. Luka tells her it must be
about keeping her independence and that she is afraid to lose it. Sam gets
increasingly mad and tells Luka that he always tries to tell her why she is
really mad. She walks over to the door and Luka tells her that is not their
stop. Abby emerges from her bedroom and Neela asks if she slept better then
the night before. Abby lights up a cigarette and Neela questions if she’s
going to eat something before she smokes. Abby replies no and thanks her for
asking. Neela offers to make her some French toast while Abby opens her front
door to get the paper. She questions Neela about her having to leave. Neela
tells her she has time. Abby tells her she just needs some space. Neela agrees
that it’s time for her to find her own place. Abby tells her not to rush, but
Neela adds that she will start looking, then leaves for work.
 Neela,
Pratt, Jane and Ray are standing outside a trauma room looking at Kerry and
the interns having a meeting. They speculate about what it is all about and
Pratt tells them the hospital is running the risk of closing. Morris emerges
asking what is going on and Pratt tells him that they might have to cut a
resident or two. Morris looks at him worried and Pratt notices Kerry looking
at them. Pratt tells the group to get going. Susan asks Kerry what colour they
are painting the conference room and Kerry replies a lime green. Carter asks
why and Kerry tells him it’s her favourite colour. Kerry tells the attendings
that they will need to start writing their own brief histories and notes on
the residents’ patients. Luka asks if they have to do that for every patient.
Carter yawns and Susan does the same saying that ‘yawning is contagious’.
Kerry sneaks in a yawn also. Chuny interrupts saying they need the room for an
incoming trauma. They all get up and Luka tells Susan that in order to get
better scores, the attendings need to teach the residents how to connect
better with the patients. They walk through the trauma rooms into the suture
room and Luka adds that he is sure that if the residents just spent more time
listening and making eye contact that the scores would improve. Susan yawns
again and dismisses herself to get some coffee. Carter also excuses himself to
go home. A man named Herb asks a patient in chairs how long he’s been waiting.
The patient tells him 6 hours and Herb is shocked. He tells him that if he
waits any longer he could be looking at a huge cash settlement. Herb hands him
his card before being told to move by Sam who is wheeling in anther patient.
She rolls passed the men and sees Amy standing in her way with a head
laceration. She tells Amy to have a seat, but Amy declares she would rather
stand. Amy’s foster brother Collum sat playing his video game looks up and
tells her she’s too fat to sit in the chairs. Amy tells her brother to shut
up. Sam wheels in the guy she brought in telling him his injuries and Pratt
tells her he will get to him when he gets to him. Carter overhears and tells
Luka if he wants to teach the residents to communicate better that he should
start with Pratt. Morris begins yelling at his patients and Luka hollers at
him to relax and come talk to him when he is finished. Wendall asks Carter if
he’s leaving and he tells her he is. He adds that he will be back in 12 hours
to pick her up for something to eat. Wendall seems pleased and excited. Neela
asks Luka a question. Sam presents Neela with Amy’s chart and tells her that
the brother hit Amy over the head with a lamp. They reach Amy, who is sitting
on the floor of the waiting room, and Sam introduces Neela. Neela guides her
to an exam room and Sam drags Collum by the scruff of his jacket for making a
remark that his sister was too fat. Susan walks back to County with a coffee
but slips and falls, landing on her back. Herb rushes over to her and helps
her up, and tells her that the hospital should salt the sidewalks. Susan tells
him she’s fine but Herb breaks into med-speak and Susan asks him if he’s a
doctor. He tells her no and introduces himself. Jerry calls out for Susan,
telling her there was an incoming trauma. Herb realizes she’s a doctor and
tries to sell his services even more. Susan tells him if he doesn’t stop
soliciting in her waiting room she would have him forcibly removed. Luka
enters Amy’s room and introduces himself to Amy. He walks by and tells Neela
to present to him once she is finished her exam. Neela asks if she’s in
trouble and Luka tells her no. He walks through the room and overhears Pratt
being rather short with a patient while taking a history. Pratt sees Luka
observing and asks if he needs anything. Luka walks towards a busy Sam and
asks if she can set up for a procedure. She tells him she’s already doing 5
other things and walks back towards Amy’s room. She informs Neela that her
suture tray is there and that Amy’s foster mom is on her way. Amy tells Sam
and Neela that her brother needs his meds adjusted and that was the reason her
brother hit her with the lamp. Neela excuses herself and walks with Sam
discussing Amy’s case. Neela believes they should call social work. Sam agrees
and tells Neela that Wendall is in. Neela interrupts Luka but he holds her
back as he is talking with Pratt about his bedside manner. As Neela is
listening to their conversation, she sees Amy though the window. Luka finishes
with Pratt and asks Neela if she is ready to present. Neela tells him she
thinks she needs to redo the exam. Luka tells her if she makes the connection
with Amy she will feel better and heal faster and walks away. Jane catches up
with Neela telling her that she would never be able to work with someone as
good looking as Luka. Sam overhears the two of them talking and asks who they
are referring to. Before Jane can answer, EMT’s bring in a multiple gun shot
wound victim. She tells Luka that the patient has no BP. After rolling him
into a trauma room, Jane asks why they are trying to revive the patient when
he was clearly asystole. Luka asks Sam to start compressions, while he listens
to the chest. Jane figures it out, saying this was one of those practice runs.
Sam answers ‘apparently’. Pratt walks outside and gets bombarded by a man who
thinks he’s having an aneurysm. He tells the man that he will be seen shortly.
Morris comes running over to Pratt asking about the attendings meeting and if
they are cutting a resident. The man complaining still rambled on and then
told Pratt that if he wasn’t seen he would get his lawyer involved and points
to a motor home across the street with Herb’s name and face all over it. Sam
continues with the compressions on the gun shot victim, while Luka teaches
Neela and Jane new procedures. Sam stops and asks Luka how much longer and he
tells her to keep going until the 3rd litre of blood is in. Sam carries on.
Luka asks Neela to find the femoral pulse and Neela tells him she can’t find
it. Luka calls time of death and Sam gets down. Sam tells Luka he should’ve
called it a long time ago. He tells her he was hyper bulimic and that he may
have responded to fluids. Sam argues that she doesn’t have time to waste on
teaching cases. Luka is quick to respond that is what they do and County is a
teaching hospital. Sam adds that County is also a real hospital with real
patients. Luka tries to tell her why she’s really mad and Sam drops him an
angry stare. She tells him angrily that was the second time he told her why
she was mad. He leans over telling her he didn’t understand what she had just
said. Sam storms off still angry.
 Neela
is looking for apartments in the paper. Pratt asks her if Abby kicked her out
and at first says no, but then says yes. Morris asks Neela when Abby is coming
in and she tells him her shift starts at 2. Morris tells them he’s missed Abby
and Pratt and Neela look at him blankly. Ray tells Neela that he has a
2bedroom he’s subletting for $500/month. She tells him she will think about
it. Morris spots Herb in the waiting room and tells Pratt he will handle it. A
lady comes in looking for Neela, introducing herself as Mrs. Pizer, Amy’s
foster mother. Mrs. Pizer asks how Neela is and she tells her she is fine, but
tells her that they had to call social work. Mrs. Pizer asks why, and Neela
tells her its standard procedure when foster kids come in with injuries.
Pratt, Ray and Jane take a 16-year-old gun shot victim to the trauma room.
Susan steps in asking what they got and tells Pratt to run it. Susan watches
on as chaos unfolds and Pratt becomes criticizing. Morris joins the team and
talks about Herb. Ray intubates but the tube doesn’t go in, thus leaving Pratt
to take over and complete the procedure. Neela sutures Amy up. Mrs. Pizer
tells her she is going to check on Collum and a nurse leads her to the family
room. Neela asks Amy what is wrong and she tells Neela that she is scared they
will take her away. Amy tells her that she takes care of Collum and gives him
his meds in the mornings. Neela tells her that is a lot of responsibility for
a girl her age. Amy tells Neela that her foster parents need her and she
doesn’t want to get taken away from the only home where she’s been happy.
Neela approaches Sam, who is at the coffee vending machine. Neela asks her if
she’s called social work and Sam tells her she has and asks why. Neela
explains that she was too quick and should’ve waited to talk to the family.
Sam tells her Amy is a foster child and they always call social work. Neela
turns off as Sam discovers a med student poking numerous needles into her
patient. The med student tells her that Luka asked her to help Sam because she
was really busy. The chaos continues in trauma as Pratt keeps delegating his
team jobs but completes them himself. Susan tells Pratt that all he does is
criticize his team and he replies that it’s all he ever gets. Pratt crichs the
patient and Susan pays notice that his stats are rising. The residents wheel
the patient out of trauma and Pratt seems pretty pleased that he completed an
intubation, chest tube and central line in less then 15 minutes. Susan
responds saying he didn’t have to do it himself and he’s an intern and he has
people under him who he has to teach. Pratt tells Susan that if he has to
choose between building self-esteem and saving his patient he chose saving the
patient. Wendall tells Neela that they will most likely pull Amy from the
home. Neela tells her that Amy is happy where she is. Luka overhears and asks
them if they are talking about Amy. Wendall nods and Luka repeats what Neela
was just saying. Wendall tells Neela that if the mother agreed to take
parenting classes she would consider re-evaluating the case. Neela tells
Wendall that the mother will do what it takes and leaves to take a call for an
apartment. Herb asks Sam if she’s overworked and under paid. Luka approaches
telling Herb he can’t be back there, but Herb tells him he’s a patient now and
coughs. He dawdles off to find a lozenge, while Morris tries to convince Luka
to treat Herb as a psych patient. Luka notices Abby walk in and Morris and him
go to find out how she is. Abby tells them both she is fine. Neela is on the
phone with a landlord about an apartment as Ray listens on. Neela hangs up and
turns to see Ray there. She talks about Ray pulling the early shifts and
having band shows in the evening. Ray tells her if she sticks with the
nightshifts and weekends that they would probably never see each other. They
both decide it might work and shake hands. Neela turns back and tells herself
she’s going to regret it. A lady walks in asking Frank where her grandson is.
She tells him the name and description of her grandson. Neela overhears the
grandmother’s description and asks if the shoes he was wearing were blue. The
grandmother confirms and asks where he is. Neela tells her she will get an
attending to come talk to her but she pushes Neela until she says that they
can’t confirm anything until the body has been identified. The grandmother
cries uncontrollably as Neela tries to comfort her and realizes she could’ve
chosen her words a bit better.
Luka asks Susan where the grandmother is
and Susan tells him she is crying it out in the family room. Luka voices that
maybe Neela needs to work on her death notification and Susan agrees. Ray
offers Susan and Luka a croissant from a box that has Herb’s name and face all
over it. She tells him that she is just encouraging Herb, and throws the box
in the garbage. Abby walks with Susan, asking her who was the General Surgeon
call. She goes through some charts and Susan asks her how she is. Abby tells
her she’s fine. Neela gets off the phone with Wendall and tells Amy that the
social worker is just getting some more information from her foster mother and
they could leave. Amy thanks her and gives Neela a big hug. Luka watches on as
Neela sees Amy off and waves. He asks Neela if she talked social work into it
and she replies that it ‘seems so’. Neela tells Luka that she took his advice
and tried to connect with Amy. In the same breath she tells Luka that she
didn’t do so well connecting with the grandmother. Luka pulls her to the side
and tells her how the death notification is supposed to be done. He tells her
to use words like ‘dead’ and ‘died’ instead of euphemisms, to look them in the
eyes and to offer the family member a Kleenex. Neela becomes emotional and
tells him that she sucks and Luka is quick to tell her that she is still
learning and offers her a Kleenex. Abby treats a lady who was trying to pluck
her eyebrows in a moving vehicle. Haleh hands a chart to Sam and tells her she
owes her one. Sam is confused and Haleh tells her that Luka told her that Sam
was running behind. Sam excuses herself telling Abby that she needs to go yell
at someone. Abby tells Jane to prep the eyebrow ladies wound for sutures and
leaves the room. On her way out, a psych patient almost bulldozes Abby.
Dubenko catches up with Abby and tells her he printed her some papers on
Traumatic Stress Syndrome. While he is explaining it to her, Abby zones out
and focuses on a man and wife looking for their son. She comes to and Dubenko
slides a binder towards her. She thanks him and he leaves. As she walks
through curtains she zones in and out until Jane notifies her that the eyebrow
lady is ready. The return to the exam room and as Abby prepares to suture her
patient she realizes she can’t and excuses herself. Susan runs out to try and
take care of Herb’s motor home that is blocking the ambulances from coming in.
She spots Abby leaving and Abby tells her she thinks she came back too soon.
Susan tells her to go ahead and take as much time as she needs. Abby bolts up
the steps to the EL platform and tries to squeeze through people to get to the
train. Her binder gets knocked out of her hand and papers go flying. A
familiar face, Dr. Jake Scanlon helps her pick up her papers as the EL leaves.
Susan bangs on Herb’s door and then lets herself in when no one answers. She
sees Jerry and Morris filing out with coffee and doughnuts. Herb comes out of
the bathroom and asks her if she’s ready to talk about her fall that morning.
Sam asks Luka if he sent one of her patients up for a CT and he says yes. She
tells him thanks; she had to go all the way upstairs to administer some
morphine. She argues that she’s used to running her own life when Wendall and
a lady interrupt asking Sam if she’s seen Neela. Sam tells her no and leaves
to go look for her. Wendall asks Luka if he is the attending on Amy’s case and
he tells her yes. She introduces the lady as a worker from DCFS. Abby sits on
a bench on the platform playing with her phone, which appears to be broken.
Jake brings her the rest of her papers and sits beside her. He tells her that
he must have made quite the impression on her if she didn’t even know Jake was
gone. She tells him she remembered him and asks him where he went. He tells
her Yellowstone Park and goes on talking theological about his experience. He
goes on about life and how precious it is and Abby asks him if he’s high. He
looks at her with a grin and points out her train is coming. He gets up to
leave and when the train stops, Abby doesn’t get on. Neela walks the
grandmother downstairs to ID her grandson. Pratt walks the parents of the 2nd
gunshot victim that was brought in upstairs to recovery. Neela tells the
grandmother to take all the time she needs to say goodbye, but when the staff
unveils the body she tells Neela that wasn’t her grandson. Pratt pulls the
curtain and the mother says that isn’t her son.
Haleh calls Abby about a patient and
Abby tells her she’s coming back to the hospital. Kerry asks about the mix up
of the teenagers. Susan tells her it was a huge misunderstanding, that there
were 2 John Does, both 16 years old and both of them suffered from gun shot
wounds. As Kerry tries to get to the bottom of the matter, Jane tells her she
was there for both traumas and put a name alert on the message board. Susan
asked Jane why she didn’t say anything and Jane tells her that no one listens
to her anyways. Herb tells Ray and Jake who are looking over a film that they
looked like they could use a vacation. He goes on to tell them he has a
timeshare in Boca Grande. Susan catches him and chases him down outside. Jake
pays notice that Abby has come back. Pratt talks with Luka about the parents
of the John Doe that died. He tells Pratt that he will tell them that there
son has died. Luka also tells him that he needs to make the connection. Pratt
asks him if Susan told Luka to keep him away from the parents and Luka nods.
Pratt asks him if he can go in with him and Luka agrees. Ray stands beside her
as she draws an imaginary line with her foot and tells Herb if he crosses it
that she will press charges. Ray points out that Herb’s motor home was getting
towed and Herb races out to try and stop it. Susan and Ray go to head back
into the hospital when they hear a loud crash. The DCFS worker leads Amy past
Neela. Neela tries to stop them to understand why she is not going home with
her foster mother, but the worker tells her to let her do her job. Wendall
talks with a patient regarding detox and Neela interrupts. Neela asks her why
they pulled Amy from the home and they argue. Neela states that she should’ve
been notified. Wendall tells her Luka signed off on it. Neela goes to hunt
down Luka. Carter picks up Wendall who complains about the stresses of her
day. They leave to get something to eat. Neela finds Luka and asks him about
what happened with Amy. He tells her that her past injuries weren’t consistent
with her charts. Neela asks him why he couldn’t just tell her and he tells her
she had built some strong confidence working with Amy and he didn’t want to
destroy that confidence. Herb is sitting in a trauma room, while Ray is
examining Herb. Susan brings in a stack of papers telling Herb he needs to
sign them before she can start treatment. Abby meets up with Neela in the
lounge and tells her she’s heard she’s moving in with Ray. Abby asks her if
she’s nuts and Neela tells her ‘apparently’. As they walk out together, Neela
asks Abby if she’s ever had a crush on someone she’s worked with. Abby asks
what she means while Luka and Sam stop to chat and say their goodnights. Sam
and Luka are waiting for their train on the platform. Sam tells Luka he is
really good at teaching people to communicate. He nods and agrees. Sam
suggests they try it sometime. Luka breaks a smile and tells her it’s his
English and she smiles and laughs. They embrace and Luka tells her he knows
one thing. He adds that $50 dollars was too much for a concert ticket. They
share a kiss as the EL rolls in.
Reviewed by Kristyna on January 24,
2005
NBC Review
THE INTERNS MUST LEARN COMPASSION AND FOCUS BEFORE MORE
MISTAKES ARE MADE -
Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) assigns Kovac (Goran Visjnic) to teach the residents
how to communicate more effectively with their patients in hopes of raising
their patient satisfaction scores, which have plummeted. They are put to the
test when two teenagers are brought to the ER with gun shot wounds. Kovac, Neela
(Parminder Nagra) and Sam (Linda Cardellini) handle one patient while Lewis,
Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) and Ray (Shane West) deal with another. When a patient
dies, Neela does a poor job of informing the deceased's grandmother, who becomes
hysterical in the middle of the ER. A personal injury lawyer sets up a mobile
office outside the ER, infuriating Lewis as he tries to turn dissatisfied
patients into clients. Abby (Maura Tierney) returns to the ER, still dealing
with the trauma of her abduction. Also starring Noah Wyle and Laura Innes.
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