Tonight, Luka learns the legal decision regarding him and the man who had a stroke after going in for a cough.
I think Luka will get off but the fellow who brought the lawsuit won’t let it go. I thought that’s what the previews indicated, anyway.
Just a bump.
Anyone else think Ames was gonna jump off the bridge after Luka left? And it’s good to see Kerry actually interacting with her coworkers. And since when to ERs do pre-employment check-ups? And was what Kovac did to cancer guy at all ethical? He lied to a patient about his medical condition!
So, Gates is dyslexsic…
Do I get to say “you heard it hear first…”
Well, actually I predicted illiterate, although I did agree that LD was more likely.
I never get these things right!
For the first time since the pilot epi I missed a show tonight!
Please someone give me just a little summary.
I fell asleep about 10 minutes in (but I did tape it) so I missed this part, but back when ER had some funny bits mixed in, when they hired Randi the desk clerk, Susan Lewis was asked to do a pre-employment physical on her. Lewis was really swamped and said, “Breathe in. Breathe out. You’re fine.”
The show opens with Neela having a sex dream about John Stamos. She later gets drunk and calls him, but his sister answers so she hangs up. Ray is also shown getting a little territorial toward Neela in the ER. He has been going out with the party-girl-intern but just casually.
A man comes in who was in a car accident and the surgery team can’t save him. Neela bluffs her way into the surgery and the obnoxious surgery guy who is her boss there is pissed. Her mentor (glasses surgeon) calls her out and gives her a warning to never pull that again, and to do what the obnoxious guy says.
When Neela tells the guy’s wife about him dying, the wife collapses with broken heart syndrome (I didn’t think that happened so fast, but anyway) and they can’t save her either. The young adult daughter is left an orphan.
The jury finds in favor of Luka but Forest Whitaker comes back to confront him in the ER about how he wants his life back. Luka follows him to the park where Forest asks him to tell the truth without the legal issues. Luka still says he did the best he could. Forest says how his wife and kids moved out because of his obsession with the case, and how winning the case was going to change everything. The previews for next week show Forest Whitaker stalked Luka and family, and be friendly to Abby in the park. Convenient that she couldn’t go to court and thus doesn’t know what he looked like.
Another guy comes in with a head laceration and they do a CT which shows that a cancer he had (pancreatic) had spread to his brain. His wife begs Luka not to tell him, so they can live out his days happily. Luka is about to tell him and doesn’t, I guess since he is trying to avoid ruining someone else’s life the way Forest Whitaker thinks he ruined his.
Oh, and smarmy red-headed doc volunteered to do a TV medical spot but the camera team and reporter ended up doing a clip of Kerry treating a guy and commenting on health care in general.
Mekhi Phifer was entertaining a date at home when his brother shows up to move in.
Wait, when did we find out she was his sister? I thought that we’d seen them having sex, or kissing or at least nekkid in bad together, no? I assumed that what we saw with the picture indicated a “Watch after my girl for me” soldier’s dying wish that turned into a love story.
I thought the mom got normal heart rate back right after Neela stopped CPR?
Also, Ray and the intern chick had sex, and they make reference to it.
Whoa, whoa- his sister? Weren’t they bumping uglies a few episodes ago?
I kinda got the impression that John Stamos was the dead husband’s brother.
She did. The mom lived.
It’s something like this … I’m not clear on the specifics, and I’m not sure the writers have spelled it all out yet.
Were Gates and the blonde woman engaging in “relations”? I got a toddler and a 2-month old at home … I miss a lot of detail on these dramas 
Gates and the blond were definitely doing something a few eps ago, although nothing as hot as what Neela dreamed, that was blisteringly delicious. 
:smack: Oh pardon me, I must have jumped to that conclusion since he is so much like family with her daughter and everything. My apologies.
No. Completely unethical.
You cannot simply not tell a capacitated adult patient about their medical condition simply because a family member asks you not to do it. You can ask a patient how much they want to know about their condition. If they say that they do not want to hear about their condition, but they want you to tell their family member and have the family make all the decisions, then it is ethically permissable.
Of course, this is not the first time ER has violated the rights of patients in this way. I remember a case they had a few years back where a patient, an elderly Asian woman who did not speak English, was diagnosed with cancer. The staff once again did not tell the patient because the family did not want her to know.
I absolutely believe you that it would be considered unethical by any hospital comittee in the US, but I can’t agree, really.
The guy didn’t come to the ER for oncology diagnosis or treatment, but for a specific trauma. He got THAT diagnosed and treated properly. Should Luka have said, “Oh, and by the way, you might want to go see your oncologist pretty soon, you’re following up with him, right?”? Yeah, probably. And when I’m working as a nurse, I’ll follow the policies, even the ones I don’t agree with.
But I still think he did exactly the right thing, given the circumstances.
My understanding (from a doctor who spent some time studying there) is that it’s not at all uncommon in China for the patient to know nothing at all about a fatal diagnosis. The family will know, and will unofficially appoint someone to decide how much and when to tell them, but most times they will be spared such information. I get that, I really do, no matter how much I value informed consent.
But that’s just postponing the inevitable- the guy would see his oncologist, who would tell him about the cancer in his brain. At least if I did it myself I’d feel comfortable that I wouldn’t be passing the problem on to someone else.
However, I wouldn’t have told him either. The guy finally emerged from his depression and was spending his final months doing adventorous things with his wife- I think I’d just let him and his wife enjoy the rest of their lives together.
I, too, thought Ames might do himself in. In fact, I am sure he’ll wind up dead in some way, after next week’s stalking activities.