Chicago Hope

Jeffrey runs afoul of the trustees when a grieving husband has second thoughts after allowing him to test an artificial heart on the body of the mans newly deceased wife; Alan comes to the rescue when a patients HMO refuses to cover Aarons operating on her very complicated and potentially fatal brain tumor; Jeffrey visits his wife Laurie, a straitjacketed patient in a mental hospital who apologizes for drowning their son Joey; Arthurs refusal to remove his wagging finger from Jeffreys face during an argument leaves him with a bitten digit, and enables Jeffrey to diagnose the curable medical condition thats causing Arthurs resting tremor.

Jeffrey tells Nadine about Lauries schizophrenia and the death of his son; Aaron and Camille grieve about their impending divorce; several members of a family of trapeze artists are brought into the hospital in critical condition after a devastating accident during a circus performance; one of Aarons former patients reveals his bigotry when he refuses to allow Nadine to remove his diseased gall bladder and insists that Aaron or another Jewish surgeon perform the procedure; Jeffrey exhibits signs of a meltdown when, in the space of a few hours, outrageous conduct in a nightclub gets him mistakenly arrested for soliciting a prostitute and he vandalizes the car of a man who stole his parking space; Phillip incorrectly attributes Aarons angry outburst at one patient minutes after losing another young patient in surgery to tensions with Camille, and threatens to fire Camille if theres a recurrence.

Aaron, the staff, and the patients are caught in the crossfire when Antoine Metcalf, a gangbanger and career criminal, follows his latest victim into the E.R. to finish off the job he started, and sprays a room with automatic gunfire before hospital security shoots him down; Karen joins the staff, and successfully teams with Paula to remove hematomas that are preventing Marcus Lavelle from walking, but the trauma of witnessing his mothers being injured in the E.R. shooting leaves the little boy afflicted with hysterical paralysis and still unable to move although the surgery has left him physically fine; reluctantly operating on the shooter, Aaron jokes about how easy and perhaps appropriate it might be to cause Metcalfs death through a surgical hiccup, a remark which comes back to haunt him later when Metcalf dies soon after surgery and his family sues Aaron and the hospital for failure to provide adequate care; Arthur engages in a little ex parte communication to put in a good word

Jeffrey strongly objects when his old nemesis is hired into the plastic surgery department, but they are able to set aside their differences to bring some peace to the mother of a young girl who dies during surgery; a nurse impedes Aarons plan to allow Karen to die peacefully.

Tensions run high as hard truths ring out when Jeffrey, Danny, Camille, Maggie, Aaron, Arthur and Phillip are quarantined in an empty operating room after a possible exposure to Ebola; Jeffrey and Danny perform an emergency bypass after Arthur has a massive heart attack; Aaron and Camille reconcile.

Phillip is unable to save a promising young boxer who succumbs to the fatal effects of steroids his father gave him to enhance his performance in the ring; a pregnant young teenager carrying a baby with a heart defect seeks Alans help when she is unable to find adoptive parents for her infant; Aaron fires Angela after his tax audit reveals that shes been embezzling money from his pension plan.

Laurie asks Jeffrey for a divorce so that she can marry Gilbert Weeks, a lawyer who is also a patient at the Institute; spurred by this news, Jeffrey suggests that Aaron perform an experimental procedure which may cure Lauries schizophrenia; fearful that Laurie will no longer love him if she is cured, Gilbert goes to court to stop the procedure, citing Jeffreys conflict of interest and contesting his guardianship of Laurie; although she is torn between the two men that she loves, Laurie decides that her future is with Gilbert and declines the surgery; Billy becomes a member of the staff, and agrees to do a consultation on Tamara, a teenaged patient of an old friend, Dr. Dennis Hancock; after Tamara is diagnosed with breast cancer and refuses to have a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery despite warnings from Billy and Geri that she will die without the surgery, Dennis uses just the right approach to change her mind and allay her fears of disfigurement.

The staff works to save a young boy who was submerged in a frozen lake for several hours; Jeffrey and Geri have a little digestive mishap on their way to pursuing a relationship; Dennis fights to get an experimental treatment for a patient with AIDS, and finds an unexpected ally in Alan.

Dr. Kronks feelings towards his girlfriend undergo changes when he find out about her past. Geigers heart patient develops an aneurysm which would take him off the heart recipient list unless highly experimental methods are tried. Meanwhile, Dr. Hancocks ejection from his clinic leads to bringing the HMO provider into the courtroom.

When the Board of Health closes the hospital doors after several patients die from a deadly staph infection, the staff scrambles to find the source of the infection; Jeffrey and Geri help each other work through feelings of grief, loss, and guilt.

Following Dr. Josephs witnessing of Dr. Geigers actions, the medical board suspends him until his case can be reviewed. However, there is some disagreement among the hospitals staff as to whether or not the suspension is in their best interests.

Diane helps her friend Allison harvest sperm from Allisons comatose husband before his life support is turned off; Aaron realizes that the reconciliation with Camille isnt working, and they agree to go through with their divorce; Billy takes Danny to task over his medical mistreatment of a mentally unstable woman; Jeffrey and Kate manage to put aside their differences over her cost cutting proposal for the hospital long enough to save the life of a young pre-med student; Alicia is christened.

Billy arrives home just in time to save his dog Gordie from the fire thats engulfed his apartment, and ends up rooming with a reluctant Danny until he can find a new place to live; when a teething Alicia keeps her father up at nights, an exhausted Alan is thrilled when Diane offers to help out; when a racist teenager on the transplant list refuses the heart of a murdered black teenager, the hospital offers it to another candidate, but the boys mother sues to have the heart transplanted into her son; Alan decides to get back into the social swing by asking Diane out on a date; Kates inattention to pre-op labs results in the post-op death of the transplant patient; Danny overcomes his dislike of Gordie long enough to notice that hes critically ill, and by acting quickly, saves the dogs life.

A violent storm on Halloween night knocks out the hospitals power immediately following the arrival of several auto-accident victims. Nyland and Atkisson briefly renew their romance. A new doctor shows up for duty, and is immediately put to work delivering a baby.

Geigers bravado is put to the test when hospital counsel Alan Birch is shot by street thugs. Meanwhile, Grad agonizes over not being able to help Alan and Watters regrets his recent harsh words with the lawyer.

Kate is stricken when she realizes that her negligence due to exhaustion caused the death of a young woman during surgery, and considers assuaging her guilt by informing the womans parents of her error; Billy and Danny decide to help a teenager running a unlicensed clinic for indigent patients; Judge Aldrich retires from the bench and comes to work at the hospital as Alans replacement; Camilles drug seeking behaviors continue; Diane has second thoughts about her research project when she realizes that shes become attached to the orangutan that shes successfully infected with AIDS.

Watters steps in and asks Geiger to take on Austins transplant patient as she struggles with her ex husband for custody of their daughter. Sutton brings a brain-dead woman into the hospital to deliver her baby.

Hancocks practice and his freedom are threatened when he saves the life of a hemorrhaging pregnant woman by aborting her fetus, which stirs up strong emotions when the woman denounces his actions. Kronk recoils at first from treating a drag queen with AIDS. Another new lawyer faces a baptism of fire as hospital legal counsel.

A friend of Kronks seeks his advice about a health problem she thinks resulted from her sex-change operation. Austin treats an impressionable teenage boy with a heart condition and a crush on her. Dr. Konstadt, off her medication, acts injudiciously when Shutt seeks permission from a reluctant board to perform surgery on Eric.

Grad and Kronk reluctantly team up to counsel an inexperienced couple on sexual techniques. Dr. Sutton finds himself unnerved by a sexually precocious young woman at Dr. Hancocks clinic. Aaron tries befriending a resident, but finds himself misinterpretted.

Kate loses her control and her compassion when her father is admitted with an operable surgical condition but refuses it on religious grounds. Geiger turns up again at the hospital, this time as part of a clown troop there to entertain the patients. Sutton delivers a baby with ambigous genitalia whose parents are equally ambigious about they feel about their offspring.

Suttons mind rells as wives two and three ask him for a very great personal and professional favor and wife one chacks in for a serious medical problem. Kate anxiously awaits news of who will be appointed as the new head of surgery. Dr. Shutt performs delicate surgery on a wealthy quadriplegic who cannot be anesthetized, and whose beautiful fiance attracts Nylands attention.

Kate returns to Chicago to face possible arrest and her ex-husband, as well as suspension at work. Aaron ponders Philips bitterness over Aarons apparent support of Tommy Wilmette. Dennis struggles to regain his health. Dr. Nyland returns to find a new doctor in charge of the trauma service. Kronk and Grad continue to quarrel as he prepares to leave Africa.

Aaron and Jack join forces in operating on a man who sustained multiple fractures in a parachute jumping accident; Diane rejoins the staff as a teaching attending in internal medicine, and quickly draws a demanding and manipulative patient whos making the staff miserable; Kates grief over her fathers death is compounded when shes carjacked on her way home from his funeral and his ashes are not recovered with the car; Diane unsuccessfully seeks some moral support from Dennis and Philip; after Tommy tells her some hard truths about creating her own misery, Kate decides to take responsibility for the choices shes made, and starts by telling Peggy Harrod the truth about her daughters death; Jack takes one on the chin when he gives the parachutists would-be bride some bad news; Kate returns home to find the carjacker has returned her fathers ashes while burglarizing her home; Philip has it out with Aaron and reaffirms his intention to keep Tommy from closing the hospital.

Kate returns to duty and finds that her reinstatement comes with a cut in title, salary, staff, and office; Jack replaces the hip of an older man who has opinions on everything, including how Jack should live his life; Aaron has mixed emotions when Grace comes up with a much-needed improvement for a surgical shunt hes been developing; Kate is humbled when a young couple whose daughter needs a heart transplant chooses another doctor after they discover her change in status; Tommy thinks it would be a good idea for the hospital to advertise, and hires a publicist who manages to get under everyones skin as she creates a commercial that ends up looking strangely familiar.

Aaron faces a huge moral dilemma when hes asked to operate on a death-row inmate scheduled to be executed in two weeks. McNeil treats a feisty old lady whose daughter is an old flame os his. Dr. Watters entertains an amnesiac, believing that hes a distinguished visiting doctor.

Kronk puts himself and Grad into a difficult position when he treats an old hockey pal who turns up after just being released from jail with a bullet in him. Wilkes and his wife face some basic decisions about their lives when they must decide what sort of neighborhood to move to.

Diane is faced with a dilemna when she has an opportunity to examine a 500-year-old Incan mummy temporarily in town for an exhibition. An accident victim loses his memories but gains a much nicer personality, presenting Shutt and McNeil with a dilemmna.

A hit-and-run victim escapes serious injury but her infant twins face a desperate crisis. Hancock faces testifying in court against his brother-in-law. Patient Linda Fortins heart continues to grow weaker as her pregnancy progresses, endangering herself and her baby.

Aarons practical joker college roommate arrives for a visit and announces that he wants Aaron to marry his widow, Aarons former girlfriend, when the malignant and inoperable tumor in his brain finally takes his life in a few weeks; Keith and Danny continue to clash; Aaron runs into an old friend as he stumbles home after a night of drinking with his college roommate; Gina has a miscarriage, but a grieving Keith wonders if it wasnt deliberate; Karen suspects that Jacks gambling again, an accusation which he denies; Maricela puts the moves on Aaron; Karen is wary when Jack finally comes to her for help.

Kate flies to Washington with Tommy to speak to Congress about health care. Back in Chicago, her friend Marina makes a decision about adoption. McNeils patint Harriett Owens is hospitalized again.

Aaron discovers that his late father wasnt his biological parent when he meets the eccentric sculptor who is; Phillip learns something about his estranged son when an emergency arises; Kate treats an 11 year-old genius who hungers for contact with his overwhelmed father.

Grad tries to persuade a hesitant Kronk to perform a double mastectomy on a healthy woman does not have cancer but who does have the gene for breast cancer and a family history of the illness. Austin struggles to get a reluctant Sara into an exclusive girls school. Nyland returns to work following his accident and throws himself into trying to identify a severely beaten and comatose young woman.

Kate finds herself in a no-win situation when a child is injured during one of Saras softball games. Phillips Colonel from Vietnam is admitted with rheumatoid arthritis but refuses treatment. Nyland is suspended again. Shutt get a TV gig.

McNeil doesnt cope well with the demands for attention from Karen, his ""roomate"" and a thereapy patient claiming that McNeils his father. Billy lears that Aaron kissed Diane, and handles it very badly. A depressed Nyland gets one more unwelcome surprise. Phillip receives an offer from Emma.

Gang warfare breaks out in the E.R.; Kate refuses to perform a heart transplant; Billy and Diane get back together.

Dr. Shutt views his life as a musical after he collapses from an aneurism.

Dr. Shutt may have brain damage after his aneurism, so a new neurosurgeon, Dr. Lisa Catera, is brought into the hospital. Dr. Austin gets trapped on an elevator with a sexy electrician.

Hancock and the police search trash bins for a newborn; male rape; Drs. Kronk and Grad wed at the airport. A basketball player has a heart defect.

McNeil offers his cabin to Drs. Austin, Catera, and Grad, whom each want to get away from the city for a while. While at the cabin they receive a visit from an unexpected and deadly visitor.

After a little too much holiday cheer Wilkes is charged with a DUI and must serve a community service in Dr. Hancocks clinic. Watters discovers that his accountant has left the country with Watters money. Shutt turns over a patient to Catera, and the two clash over whether she should perform a dangerous surgery on the patient. Dr. McNeil is elected to play Santa and is a huge hit in the childrens ward. Grad receives her Christmas present a little early.

The hospital loses electricity in the dead of winter. Austin must do emergency surgery on a close friend. Pregnant, Grad feels unattractive.

Catera must operate on a 5-year-old who is suddenly stricken with seizures. An HIV-postive friend of Dr. Grads talks to Diane about getting pregnant (she wants advice) and Diane (who discovered a lump in her breast) is afraid that neither of them will see their children grow up. A mother and daughter come into the ER handcuffed together.

A family eats poisonous mushrooms and the mother and two sons must receive a liver transplant. A donor is found for the mother and the father is a match for the two sons. The father decides to have a live donor transplant, but is told by Kronk that only one of his children can receive the organ. Austin and Cacaci have to attend a sensitivity seminar, which only makes Austin worse. With Shutts help a patient remembers a sexual abuse that happened during childhood, but the parent vehemently deny it ever happening. Drs. Grad and Kronk get kicked out of lamaze class.

After the mysterious death of a seemingly healthy 15 year-old Dr. Wilkes decides to investigate. A lesbian wants her lover to die with dignity and fights her family to get her wishes.

Dr. Watters son is found dead in his apartment and Phillip must except the fact that he committed suicide. Dr. Austin brings her daughter to the hospital and she becomes fascinated with the blood and guts aspects of her mothers work. Dr. Catera becomes uncomfortable with Dr. McNeils romantic pursuits, until she watches one of her patients (who is in much the same situation.)

Dr. Kronks mother visits. Aaron spends time with Samara in California. A woman offers Dr. Hancock money to sterilize some of his patients.

A poisonous gas is released in a bank and the doctors try to contain the gas, that is threatening many lives including Dr. Hancock.

Hancock accuses Watters and Austin of racism when they refuse to operate on a black patient. One of Shutts patients commits suicide when the medicine needed isnt covered by insurance.

The hospital prepares for the Doctor of the Year party, and several old friends drop by. Watters goes into a virus-induced coma and gets some words of wisdom from Alan Birch. Camille Shutt returns for the party and Aaron discovers he still has feeling for her. Dr. Nyland returns to the hospital and reveals that he has really changed his life. Geiger also visits the hospital.

Gordan teaches Kate how to fly. Hancock accuses a police officer of shooting a homeless African-American.

Billys mother shows up at the hospital and announces she is about to give birth. The star of the road company version on ""Jesus Christ Superstar"" comes to the hospital when the star is ill. Yeats former teacher comes to the hospital with chest pains.

A member of Jacks basketball team sustains a near-fatal injury during a game; Bobby disagrees about the need for his patient to have heart surgery.

Kate discovers that she has developed an ovarian cyst which could destroy her plans with NASA. After Kate hears this news she agrees to go to a retreat... that Yeats is leading.

McNeil performs a hand transplant on the patient, and uses the patients dead mothers hand. Kate is accepted by NASA. An old childhood friends visits Watters and asks for one of his kidneys.

Billy ponders euthanasia when Gordy is diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis; Lisa tries to help a woman with metastatic breast cancer get into an experimental group even though the woman doesnt fit the study parameters; Aarons patient confesses to murder.

Diane tries to help grieving parents when their three year old child dies; Aaron is institutionalized after an experiment backfires.

Dr. Hancocks patient, who was using fertility drugs, gives birth to 8 babies.

The E.R. is flooded with teenagers poisoned by an unknown rave drug; Kate and Sara are hit by a drunk driver; Phillips fate is decided.

A priest is genitally mutilated during a mugging; a patient dies after a routine liposuction; Jeffrey refuses to perform surgery on a child.

A doctor with Tourettes Syndrome is brought to Chicago Hope to operate on an infant with a severe heart defect. A patient comes into the ER with, what he claims to be, Albert Einsteins brain and gives it to Dr. Wilkes. A woman is using plastic surgery to make herself look like a Barbie Doll.

The doctors fight to save Cacacis life after he jumps from a six story building in a suicide attempt, although Cacacis fiancee says that someone pushed him off the building.

The hospital is quarantined after a deadly virus is discovered; a child is missing in the hospital.

On the way to a football game, Aaron and Jack get sidetracked... after they find themselves in a hostage situation with 3 wounded patients, a loose gunman, and the police about ready to enter the building.

Gina operates on a surgeon whos been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease.

A teenager is forced to live his life as a girl after the slip of a knife, and McNeil goes to court to try to help.

Keith discovers a heart murmer while giving Alicia a physical. Jeremy performs an appendectomy on Siamese twins.

Shutt and Simon invent a procedure and use it to save the life of a girl. McNeil treat a wrestler whos been using steroids.

The hospital is purchased by an HMO, and immediately suffers budget cuts. During an operation that Miller is filming for a documentary, the heart stops beating on both the patient and her unborn child.

Shutts patient wakes up after being in a coma after 15 years. A man is denied health coverage, after saving Millers life.