The success of Ben's experimental treatment for kidney cancer leads to mixed feelings for both doctor and patient; Sid uncovers the simple diagnosis to a young man's perplexing symptoms, and Bruce provides the cure; Aaron faces resistance and resentment from the overwhelmed mother of sick boy; Bruce is forced to go above and beyond the call of duty to treat a hospital benefactor's loved one, when it's really the benefactor who critically needs care.
Ben's friend and patient, a career politician, is diagnosed with cancer.
The staff have to tell a woman enquiring about her husband that he has died.
A woman with breast cancer is strangely opposed to the treatment which Ben prescribes. Bruce is infatuated with the girlfriend of a patient, and Ben witnesses a serious accident outside his daughter's school.
Excited when their antibody finally shows promise, Ben and Mike mount a clinical trial and clash over the lottery system that excludes one of Ben's patients, forcing him to pursue an alternative, less-effective therapy; fearing for his job and the financial future of the hospital, Max releases the news about the antibody to the press prematurely and incurs Ben's anger; Ollie counsels Sid after he goes on the date from hell, and provides an inspired and extremely pleasurable way to make his date regret dumping him; the post mortem after an indiscretion with a patient's wife provides Sid with just the thing to effect a cure for the man; in a series of events that Ben is at a loss to explain, the clinical trial fails and the alternative treatment his patient received instead miraculously cures his cancer.
Ben has problems with a difficult patient who happens to be one of the hospital's major benefactors. A young woman who is terminally ill wants to be mummified.
Ben and his students race to find the cause of a mysterious infection which is sweeping the hospital.
Bruce falls under suspicion when one of his patients commits suicide.
A deaf girl seeks Ben's help. Sid faces a life or death dilemma, and the Porter case is finally resolved.
Ollie tries to help an impoverished man suffering from leukemia. Bruce meets a patient with an ailment that defies conventional medical treatment.
Boies' father suddenly comes back into his life. Ben looks for a new way to help a hemophiliac boy.
Cabranes faces a dangerous situation with one of his psychiatric patients. Boies' father fights cancer.
Helen prosecutes an accused rapist, while doing her best to keep the 11-year-old victim off the witness stand. Meanwhile, Ellenor has complications with her pregnancy and is treated by Dr. Ben Gideon.
Ellenor is diagnosed with a disease that complicates pregnancy. She appoints Jimmy as her baby's guardian and makes Dr. Gideon promise that he will put the baby's life ahead of her own. Legally, this is unethical, and poses problems in the surgery to also remove her rupturing appendix. Her health declines (several seizures), and it doesn't seem that she or the baby will survive. Worse still, due to Ellenor's condition, she will die if they deliver the baby. Pulling at straws, Dr. Gideon prescribes heparin (an act of hope rather than medical evidence). After a long night, Ellenor recovers, and Gideon attibutes it to ""dumb luck"", but is glad never the less. Throughout the episode we learn that Ellenor and Gideon's wife were best friends, and he offers advice on how to be a single "mom."
Cherry treats a girl who, due to a terrible accident becomes brain dead. He confronts the parents about taking her off life support, and when they agree, he presents the choice to donate her organs. Although the mother is willing, the father is greatly opposed. Gideon and other doctors routinely work on the priority list for a liver transplant. Whom will be the number one candidate comes down to Gideon's patient (Black male in 40's, Asian wife, three kids, on list for several years, terminal) and another doctor's patient (Gay white 30-something male, HIV positive, with 2 adoptive kids and partner, terminal). The black man's tumor sizes disqualify him. The gay man is decided to be most elligible. After pressure from the gay man's doctor, Cherry secretly lets the mother know that only one parent is needed to sign the consent form. She agrees. He is immediately plagued by guilt, and when his girlfriend, Money (Hedy Burress), tries to pragmatize the situation to him, he remarks, ""Yo
In the opening scene, Gideon is trying to get his son, Eli, off to school. Neither of them is in a good mood, and Eli is being extremely difficult. It's a battle every step of the way. Gideon asks Boise to perform his routine physical for insurance purposes. He eats his first of dozens of antacids eaten through the show. The questions on the lifestyle portion of the exam seem to accuse Gideon of being burnout, impatient and at risk for stress related illness. He dodges the question on alcohol consumption as ""the bear."" Frustrated with Boise's thoroughness and candidness, Gideon ends the session early with this statement ""Sometimes you eat the bear; sometimes the bear eats you."" Gideon is treating a patient with Parkinson's disease. The patient's gradual deterioration has motivated his wife to opt for the highly risky, but sometimes miraculous fetal stem-cell implant therapy. Gideon is apprehensive; the surgery is irreversible and without protocol at this hospital. She insists.
We start where we left off, with Gideon getting off the floor. He takes his own blood pressure, collects himself, and goes out as if nothing occurred. The Coopers come in. Wyatt whispers to Cherry that his wife hasn't felt the twins in over 12 hours. Cherry takes her off calmly for a ""checkup."" Gideon's heartburn and mood are getting worse by the second. He resists Boise's pleas for a check-up for a diagnosis. Boise leaves, but is soon called back by the sound of crashing. He and several others see Gideon passed out, and they work to resuscitate him. To Wyatt's dismay, the OBGYN discovers that one twin is getting too much blood, one not enough. They have three options: to do an amniocentesis, laser surgery to direct blood flow, or...terminate the pregnancy. They decide to go with surgery. Gideon, now very awake, resists all treatment, even a simple heparin drip (a blood thinner). Cabranes and Pirandello insist; Gideon confides he had a bleeding ulcer two years ago and a blood t
A classmate of Ben's asks him to treat her father, who is dying from cancer. But the man, a believer in old-school medicine, doesn't want Ben's help.