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The lives of staff in the womens' health clinic of a fictitious hospital in Philadelphia.
“Hope in every heartbeat.”
2000
Dr. Lu Delgado is running out of money to run her free clinic by herself. When Lu goes to prestigious Rittenhouse Hospital to ask for assistance, famous O.B.G.Y.N./surgeon Dr. Dana Stowe blames Lu for ruining her breast cancer study to find a cure for cancer after Lu tells a woman her opinon about test studies. Dana later is asked by Chief of Staff Dr. Bob Jackson to tour Lu's clinic and see if the clinic should get funded by Rittenhouse . Dana tells one of her patients that she has ovarian cancer and that she will not be able to have any children even though she has the desire to. In the end, Dr. Lydia Emerson comes up with the perfect solution to Lu's problem.
As Dana & begin to work together, Dana has to tell a surrogate couple that their unborn baby has a defect that will cause it to be mentally disable. After the surrogate couple tells Dana they will put the baby up for adoption. Dana tries to get the biological mother, who can barely afford to take care of her other children, to keep her baby. Lu finds out that a woman who claims to have had a hysterectomy has not.
Dana treats an HIV positive patient of Lu's when Lu is out of the clinic and learns that his mother took him off the HIV medication with Lu's permission. She is furious and reports the mother. Although the boy suffers terrible side effects from the medication, Dr. Bob Jackson insists that he be put back on it. Dana falls for her handsome intern.
Dana's former beauty queen patient doesn't think her husband finds her attractive and insists on having extensive plastic surgery. Dana refuses to perform the surgery but when Terri Ann lands in the ER, she begins to doubt her decision. Peter tries to figure out why a transvestal is having side effects of menopause and counsels Marc about one of the stickier issues of adolescence. Lu and Lana try to find an appropriate punishment for two young teenagers who spray graffiti outside the hospital.
Lu coaches a teenage basketball team and is troubled when a player faints at a game. She later finds traces of steroids in her blood and wonders if the entire team is on the drugs. Dana is mystified when a complete stranger shows up in the ER with Dana's name and phone number in her purse. Dana must make a difficult decision for the women and regrets that she can't find her family so they can decide.
Dana has big problem on her hands when Susan Jackson comes to the hospital with bruises. Dana wonders if Robert Jackson gave her the bruises because their marriage problems. Dana gets the feeling Susan may not be telling her all she knows. After Dana learns Robert found his wife at the bottom of the stairs Susan tells that had double vision leading Dana to believe Susan might have Multiple Sclerosis.
After a councilwoman comes to the clinic to see Dr. Dana Stowe, Lu Delgado is trying to get gang members who are angry at the Councilwoman because they are unable to get insurance. The gang members continue arguing with the councilwoman who isn't interested in what they have to say. Seconds later an unknown gunmen began shooting at the clinic and Dana's patient is accidentally shot and is in need of immediate medical attention. The operation helps Dana's patient learn a valuable lesson. Also in this episode, Peter treats a woman who goes berserk at the shooting in the clinic. He later finds that she grew up in Cambodia during the war. But she may be suffering from more than pain from the memories.
When a command pilot learns she has a brain disorder she must learn to cope with not being able to fly a plane anymore. Dr. Stowe tells Jane that it would be wise to quit her job as an airline pilot before her disease progresses to where she will be unable to do her job properly. Dana questions whether or not to put her patient's privacy at risk as well as her own career as a doctor by telling the airline that she can't do her job anymore due to her illness.
Dana goes underground to help the wife of a high-powered real estate developer whose financial grip on his spouse is making her black and blue. Meanwhile, Lu comes between an orphaned boy with attention deficit disorder and his foster guardian when she finds the Ritalin she prescribed has fallen into the wrong hands. Lu finds a bit of romance over a Philly cheesesteak.
It's Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend at the Rittenhouse Hospital Women's Clinic, where Lu (Rosa Blasi), Lana (Jenifer Lewis) and Peter (Josh Coxx) are hosting a dance-a-thon and a free mammogram clinic. When one woman's mammogram reveals a lump, she must choose between losing both her breasts and losing her job. After Dana (Janine Turner) delivers the unexpected results of her breast cancer clinical trial, she learns the very disease that's defined her career has now hit too close to home.
Dana takes a leave from the clinic to help her mother through a double mastectomy. Lu's impromptu safe-sex speech at a prep school's career day puts her in the middle of a legal dispute over a date rape. Peter's ""alternative"" approach to pain management for a patient with Hodgkin's disease gets them both arrested. And Dana and Lu must each decide how much they want to know when they are both tested for the mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that would reveal a predisposition to breast cancer.
A woman's advanced Parkinson's disease forces Dana and Robert to decide whether to perform a controversial fetal cell transplant. Peter's stint as a nude model leads to a romantic interlude with an aspiring painter whose muse puts her in the emergency room. When Lu treats one of her son Marc's classmates for a broken wrist, she discovers that alcohol has hit junior high.
Lu (Rosa Blasi) and Dana (Janine Turner) intervene when a woman with a controversial bone and muscle disease is denied her disability claim. And Dana gets in the middle of an immigration dispute when she finds out that the physical damage on a 15-year-old sexual assault victim was actually inflicted by the girl's parents.
A mother- and father-to-be clash over whether or not to allow Dana to perform in utero surgery to correct a birth defect on their unborn son. Lu must decide whether or not to get involved when a woman she was treating for schizophrenia is charged with murder.
It's Christmas at Rittenhouse Hospital. A woman engaged to be married finds out she's pregnant — even though she's a virgin. Robert fires a kitchen employee, assuming her to be drunk on the job. Lu later diagnoses her with Lou Gehrig's disease. Lu's son Marc develops a crush on a runaway teen.
A journalist comes in with an infection on her foot and Dana(Janine Turner)realizes that she is actually a closet heroine addict. Lu (Rosa Blasi) is called to the emergency room when her patients, a deaf family, are brought in following a fire in their apartment building. She worries about their safety and suggests a risky ear surgery for them — but the husband disapproves. Lu brings her boyfriend home to meet Marc(Chris Marquette).
Environmental toxins in a low-income housing unit trigger early menopause in one of its 25-year-old residents. A new mother spirals into depression and runs away from home. Dana meets Nick's mother.
When a 12-year-old girl is diagnosed with oral gonorrhea, she tells Lu (Rosa Blasi) that she got it from her teacher. Lana (Jenifer Lewis) takes on a new role at Rittenhouse: that of patient. Two of Dana's patients deliver babies — and both newborns have the same father.
Dana Stowe must help a family consider if they should take Scarlett off of life support because of the disease she has. Scarlett has expressed to her husband that she does want life support, however her mom says her daughter doesn't want life support. Dr. Lu Delgado tries to help a Mom understand that she didn't prescribe medicine to help her daughter speak after not hearing anything from her daughter in two years. Dana tries to comebat her fear of flying and needs to do deliver a baby from 3,000 feet in the air.
Dana cares for a dying patient who has been disguising herself as a man in order to fulfill her calling to the priesthood. Lu prescribes Demerol for a woman suffering from sickle cell anemia, but the woman's local pharmacy will not carry high-priced drugs for fear of robbery.
It's an all-nighter for Lu at Rittenhouse — and there's not a moment's rest. Robert's wife, Susan, is back in the hospital as her MS progresses. A baby is kidnapped — from a pregnant mother's womb. And Lana's blind date ends in the ER.
A mother goes on a hunger strike in the hopes of saving her son from being executed. And when something goes wrong in the OR, Dana wonders whether it's time for her to leave Rittenhouse.
2001
The second season begins with Dana and Lu at odds over the fate of a dead college student's fertilized eggs. The day is further complicated by the arrival of Peter's mother, who clings to the idea that her heterosexual son is gay. Elsewhere, a dying patient and her husband wait impatiently for a donor heart and Nick's appointment to the ER staff is in doubt.
After denying employment to a candidate who is both overqualified and overweight, Robert faces off against a civil-rights lawyer famous for her plus-size clientele. Elsewhere, Dana comes under fire from the Army when she diagnoses a 14-year veteran with Gulf War Syndrome. Lana cares for the newborn son of a neighborhood streetwalker.
Dana's bedside manner is put to the ultimate test when a former high-school rival comes to her for treatment. A nurse considers suing the hospital after she tests positive for the HIV virus following an incident in the ER.
Lu travels to Puerto Rico, where her beloved grandmother urgently needs a bone-marrow transplant to survive. As the headstrong doctor copes with this life-or-death situation, she flashes back to her days as a resident, recalling her first meeting with Peter and Lana. Mary J. Blige guest stars as a moody blues singer named Simone.
The parents of conjoined twins refuse to have them surgically separated, even though that means they may both die. Lu suspects a leukemia patient may have attempted suicide by starting a fire. Peter is concerned about a patient with a severe rash on her arm and suspects it to be the some kind of virus. Dr. Jackson feels that Rittenhouse needs a good safety & emergency plan and he puts Lana in charge of it.
Philadelphia baseball fans blame Dana when the home team loses a crucial playoff game. Lu cares for a piano prodigy with scleroderma, a potentially fatal disease that hardens the body's organs. Peter helps a retired research chimp find greener pastures.
An Alzheimer's patient attempts to maintain custody of her 15-year-old son with Down syndrome, and a domestic diva puts the health of her unborn child at risk.
A woman hoping to form a maternal bond with her adopted teenage daughter ignores Dana's advice and proceeds with plans to re-create the child's birth. A second patient of Dana's seeks Lu's care after falling on hard times. Outside the hospital, Marc is caught cheating at school.
Robert's wife's battle with MS becomes more difficult, so he asks Dana to try a new experimental drug on her. Lu treats a young Korean woman for anorexia.
A patient of Dana's gives birth to twins — one baby is black, the other is white. And Lu suspects that a woman with chronic back pain is addicted to prescription drugs.
Dana debates whether she should risk her relationship with Nick to comfort a terminally ill flame from her past, while Lu faces off against a Philly police officer who mistook a diabetic for a drunk driver.
Dana waits for Nick to decide when they will get married, and treats a figure skater who's determined to compete in the Olympics despite being diagnosed with osteoporosis. Elsewhere, Lu takes an instant dislike to her son's new girlfriend's father (Don Michael Paul). Lana looks forward to graduating from high school. Peter finds his new romantic relationship to be fleeting.
Dana suspects an Amish woman is infected with mad-cow disease; and Lu treats Lana for a sexual dysfunction stemming from her days as a prostitute.
A pregnant and very ill pro-life politician has her principles put to the ultimate test when the only treatment that will save her life will result in losing her baby. Meanwhile, a patient of Lu's who is trying to pass herself off as a much younger woman is hampered by the inconvenient arrival of menopause.
Dana counsels a woman and her emotionally distant son, who are both being treated for lead poisoning. Also, Lu goes to bat for a stenographer with carpal-tunnel syndrome.
Lu's return to her college alma mater is marred by an outbreak of meningitis. At the clinic, Dana develops symptoms suggesting she is pregnant.
Dana is troubled when a patient requests new breast implants immediately after her first ones rupture. Elsewhere, Lu fears for the life of a wanted criminal's sickly newborn.
Striking nurses send the hospital into chaos, forcing Dana to withhold an experimental treatment for a dying baby. Also, an abused patient of Lu's is turned away.
The Rittenhouse doctors cope with a blood shortage in Philadelphia. Dana helps a patient who unknowingly contracted hepatitis from her husband, and Lu deals with a family of illegal dog fighters who have Lyme disease.
Lu is raped by Rittenhouse's star surgeon — but he insists that the sex was consensual. Meanwhile, Dana attempts to help a critically injured woman whose car crash may or may not have been an accident.
Lu copes with the trauma of being raped by devoting her thoughts to a patient who accidentally overdosed on over-the-counter cough medicine. Dana, meanwhile, grudgingly turns to Dr. Kilner for advice about a pregnant woman with colon cancer.
Lu tries to cope with the aftershocks of her rape, she finds her life spinning out of control. Her rage causes Robert to dismiss her from Rittenhouse, and at home her son Marc barely recognizes her. Meanwhile, one of Dana's patients agonizes over whether to continue with in vitro fertilization, which will likely hasten the progress of her deadly disease, LAM.
Rosa Blasi
Dr. Luisa 'Lu' Delgado
Jenifer Lewis
Lana Hawkins
Josh Coxx
Peter Riggs
Tamera Mowry-Housley
Dr. Kayla Thornton
Rick Schroder
Dr. Dylan West
2003
In a surprise twist following the suspenseful season finale cliffhanger, Mickey jumped in front of Lu and took the bullet for her; saving her life. Lu quickly rushes him to the hospital but little can be done to save his life besides putting him on a respiratory machine. Andy and Bob try to convince Lu to take him off the respirator. While Lu deals with the emotional trauma of Mickey's death, Andy tries to perform an experimental procedure on a baby in a bubble but is interrupted by Bob with news that the FDA has un-approved the procedure. Meanwhile Andy gets herself into a bureaucritical battle when she tries to get a patient who has no health insurance a free heart transplant. Also, Andy must tell Lizzy and Jesse that she and Les are getting a divorce and that he is moving across the country.
Lu faces the doctor that raped her when he needs surgery that can save his life. Peter goes out with a woman who has terminal diabetes.
Andy and Milo treat a woman with an enlarged heart and conflict about what surgery to perform on her. Lu gets angry with Marc after he stays out until after midnight and insists that she babysit him until he is more responsible. Andy tells a sexually active elderly woman that she has HIV. Lu finds out about a terrible hospital error when trying to find a matching bone marrow for a young leukemia patient. Lana and Peter search the inner city for a woman whose aorta could burst at any time and face some frustrating difficulties.
Andy finds out that a TV chef has leperachy when she develops a rash. Lu must decide between avenging Mickey's death and her own beliefs about the death penalty and honesty when she is asked to testify in the defense of his murderer who clearly is mentally unstable. Lu also is shocked when she discovers her neighbor's body and corruption in the Philadelphia Police Department.
Lu fears that a little girl who keeps getting injured might be being physically abused by her dad. Andy suspects her nanny is stealing valuables from the house. Peter gets through to an insensitive husband of a pregnant woman about the pains of carrying a baby.
Lu faces an ethical dilemma about her doctor/patient confidentiality when an abused, pregnant woman appears to be missing. Andy confronts a doctor whose chauvinism may have cost a patient her life.
A smallpox vaccine for a hospital worker leads to life-threatening complications for her child. Also, Andy helps a premature baby unknowingly save the life of her mother.
As a heat wave hits Philadelphia, Andy & the staff will need to get used to its disaster plan to cope with heat wave. Claire a patient of Dr. Campbell is told she will develop Alzheimer's disease within 10 years, she also wants to have a baby. Andy & tells her kids about Dr. Morton, her kids question why she can't make time for kids. Clare worries that her kids might have the gene PGD (the gene that leads to finding Alzheimer's early.) A young girl with Down's Syndrome tells Lu she shot a girl to get in a gang. The mother later tells Lu that she had her 16 year old (with Downs Syndrome) confess to the crime to protect her sister who actually committed the crime.
Dr. Campbell files for divorce from her husband while battling a cough. Lu tries to stop a boxer from fighting her next match. Lu tries to get Andy to look at her but she thinks it's just allergies. Andy treats Blain who doesn't feel good. Lou looks at Lyla who has SIS (Second Impact Syndrome) and wants Lyla to stop boxing because her next match could kill her. Lu heads to the boxing ring to ask Lyla to stop and doesn't listen. Blain learns she has ATL (Adult T-Cell Leukemia.) Lu tries to track down Andy's chest x-ray thinking she may have Lung Cancer. Dr. Campbell learns she has lung infection.
When Lu's (Rosa Blasi) patient receives a desperately needed transplant, Andy (Patricia Richardson) has designs on the discarded liver. Also, when one of Lu's patient's ex-con husband returns home after more than three years in prison, he may be suffering from more than depression. Meanwhile, Andy considers taking her relationship with Dr. Morton (Richard Biggs) to the next level while Lana's (Jenifer Lewis) life is turned upside down when someone from her past returns. Dr. Biancavilla (Brennan Elliott) faces a moral dilemma when a paramedic friend is pricked by an IV drug user's needle.
When a patient of Andy's takes a turn for the worse under Lu's watchful eye, the two doctors butt heads over whether proper procedure was followed. Meanwhile, Andy questions whether or not she can trust her oldest daughter. Also, when Andy and Morton try an experimental xenotransplant (using the heart of a chimpanzee), Peter questions the rights of the animal.
Andy and Lu put their heads together when each of their patients show signs of being poisoned. It appears their exposure to chemicals may turn out to have more to do with where they shop. Lu tries to mediate between an alcoholic and the daughter offering a piece of her liver for transplant.
After Andy saves the life of a gunshot-wound victim, she and Robert must decide whether to accept a donation to the health center from the patient's less-than-reputable father. Meanwhile, Lu helps a breast cancer survivor to overcome her fears about body image and dating after a mastectomy. Also, while planning Jesse's Sweet Sixteen birthday party, Andy must come to grips with the impending financial limitations that her divorce will place on her family. When one of Andy's patients suffers from a heart attack, she and Lu disagree about the cause.
Lu helps a terminally ill patient's family deal with the complicated issues surrounding assisted suicide. Meanwhile, when Andy helps a young couple figure out why they are unable to conceive a child, she stumbles upon a cause that changes their lives forever. As Andy and Milo's relationship becomes serious, he invites her to dinner with his parents. However, Milo's mother, Eve, is less than thrilled with Andy being the new woman in his life.
When Andy encounters a young woman with amnesia and her fiance, she must decide which secrets should remain untold. Meanwhile, when a pregnant patient refuses to stop using drugs, Lu faces an ethical dilemma and must decide whether to intervene.
A drug company is offering cash to participants testing a new anti-smoking drug and one of Lu's patients has a very favorable response. An advice columnist Andy is treating loses her ability to read after surgery. One of Bob's daughters needs to be taught swimming for gym class. Lana watches over an elderly senile woman who was left at the clinic with a note. Peter is giving flu shots and a patient has a bad reaction. Andy and Milo Morton have trouble reconciling their busy schedules.
Lu deals with the schizophrenic mother who takes her five year old girl who suffers from epilepsy off of her medications in favor of a ""ketogenic diet"" which has stopped all the seizures. Additionally, Andy and Lu have a friendly competition when each one of their patients is studying for a spelling bee. Andy also has to adjust to spending her first Christmas holiday without the kids.
An Indian heiress with a deformity turns to Andy for treatment so that her parents can arrange a marriage for her. Things get complicated when the woman realizes that she will lose the freedoms she has been afforded because of her imperfection. Also, Lu helps an older woman with Alzheimer's use her past for her own benefit. Meanwhile, Andy counsels a young woman who is seeking ""revirginization"" surgery.
A friend of Marc's may be being abused by her boyfriend. Lu treats an HIV-infected woman who looks sicker than she is. An obese couple persues gastric bypass surgery. Dr. Jackson sends Nurse Riggs on an unusual assignment that may turn into another career.
Lu treats a young girl for E. Coli who may have contracted E. Coli from eating undercooked food. Lu meets Ben Sanderson, a man who works for the company that owns Rittenhouse and wants to film the doctors as they work in order to get more donations for the RWHC. Meanwhile, Andy treats a woman who has been trying to have a baby and learns a shocking secret about her Southern past. Also, Lana gives Lu and Andy's patients advice, leading to amazing results.
Ben Sanderson wants to cut screening tests for newborns. A patient of Lu's thinks a patient of Andy's is a fugitive but doesn't believe it. Everyone worries if they will have jobs if Octavian Systems takes over Rittenhouse. Andy is asked to stay on a Rittenhouse, and fights for Dr. Jackson's job.
Lu treats a patient who may SARS the doctors tell patents about SRS as they wait for the lab tests. Ben comforts a patient. Andy worries that she will lose Jesse if she moves to California.
2005
Lu meets Andy 's replacement, Dr. Dylan West, an obnoxious man she worked with when she was an intern as they struggle to save the lives of the many people involved in a train accident. Later, she discovers something shocking while talking to a bipolar patient. The president is in town and the Secret Service makes sure the hospital keeps plenty of B- blood (the president's rare blood type) on hand. Dylan tries to help a pregnant patient make the right decision about a potentially hazardous surgery. Meanwhile, Lu contemplates marrying Jonas while dealing with the obnoxious woman who caused Dr. Jackson to lose his job. Later, the unthinkable happens to Lu and she and those close to her struggle to save her life.
Lu tries to find out why a young patient has mysterious bruises on her body. Lu suspects the mother of child abuse while Dylan suspects the girl's nanny. Meanwhile, Dylan helps a patient try to combat her ####### addiction and when she has strange symptoms, he goes undercover to find out why. Kayla moves in with Lana when she has trouble finding an apartment.
After a policewoman uses a stun gun to discipline an 11-year-old boy with behavioral problems, Lu takes a special interest in him and the new technique. Dylan is asked to perform a risky procedure by a multiple sclerosis patient who is willing to risk her life to beat the disease. Kayla finds that a patient has come into contact with the deadly poison ricin and is forced to report it to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
2002
As Dana's upcoming birthday makes her decide to seek a volunteer sperm donor so that she can have a child, she is confronted with a newborn who is HIV-positive. Lu is accused by an enraged mother of being responsible for her teenage daughter's sexually-transmitted disease because Lu provided the girl with birth control.
2004
Nick is transferred to Manhatten General. Ben's HIV test has a positive result. Also, Ben hires his ex-wife to make up for the damage he caused to her career. Andy learns that her daughter Jesse's friend is addicted to cough syrup. Kayla Thorton, a new intern, is pushed into the hustle and bustle of the ER. She gets into trouble when she asks a girl if she is sexually active in front of her mother and things go terribly wrong. Jesse gives her friend CPR to save her life after she loses consciousness due to consuming too much syrup. Andy feels responsible for the incident because Jesse's friend was in her care.
When Dana's attorneys make Peter's being a sperm donor difficult, Dana considers getting pregnant the old-fashioned way. Lu suspects that a baby's mother is the one responsible for the child's mysterious sickness.
Although it is now several months since she was raped, Lu is still reluctant when a cute paramedic asks her out on a date.
A teenage cancer patient refuses to continue chemotherapy, Dana makes preparations for what she assumes will be her forthcoming pregnancy, and Lu finds herself in the middle when she suspects abuse in a family.
Hospital executives approach Dana to perform a risky procedure to save an unborn child's life; Lu treats a prison inmate for cervical cancer and decides to take on the prison system in regard to women's health care. Also Dana becomes emotionally distraught after her pregnancy ends. Lu tries to stop a patient from utilizing an expensive screening test not covered by the clinic to save the patient's money. And Lu fears an elderly patient may be stashing enough medication for a suicide attempt.
Dana tries to win custody of an HIV-infected baby, even though becoming its full-time caregiver will end her career; a transsexual patient tries to win custody of a child, and Lu treats a homeless woman who has epilepsy.
Lu has plenty of opinions when it comes to deciding on Dana's replacement, but she soon learns that Dr. Robert Jackson, the chief of staff, has already hired someone for the position. Enter Dr. Andy Campbell, a former Army colonel who has returned to civilian life for the sole purpose of co-directing the Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic. It's not long before tempers flare and Andy and Lu butt heads over a case involving a wealthy patient who needs a kidney transplant and a poor woman who sells her healthy organ for the money.
It's Andy Campbell's official first day as co-head of the Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic. But before she can go in and save lives, she needs to help her two young daughters adapt to their new lives. Once she arrives at the hospital, Andy is left scratching her head, wondering what could be causing a woman's repeated miscarriages. Later, Lu and Andy face off when a drug-addicted patient almost dies from an overdose.
Andy goes beyond the call of duty to expedite the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a drug that could help Robert's wife, who has multiple sclerosis. Also, Andy intervenes when a family is accused of endangering the life of their young daughter. Meanwhile, a woman with terminal lung cancer claims to be Lu's half-sister.
When an old colleague with a breast lump calls for Andy's help—from space, of all places—the former Army colonel is at full attention. At the speed of light, she mobilizes both her hospital and NASA troops to perform a biopsy and, eventually, the removal of a growth. Back on Earth, Lu tries to help a pregnant woman with breast cancer make the delivery of her child—and the removal of the tumor—the happiest day of her life.
Strange things are brewing at Rittenhouse. A patient seeks Lu's treatment for what appears to be a simple rash; but upon closer examination, the condition turns out to be a dangerous flesh-eating bacteria. Meanwhile, Andy is caught in the middle of a sensitive case when a mother wants to have her schizophrenic daughter's tubes tied. And Peter tries to piece together clues to close the book on a doc who's up to something sneaky.
A local politician hot on the campaign trail needs Andy's help to remain cool under pressure. Her issue? She wants to stop blushing. Meanwhile, Lu tries to ease her patient Melissa, a former drug addict, into taking pain medication for a muscular disorder. But after she starts the meds, Melissa is soon rushed into the ER—and Lu must help fight for her patient's life.
Trouble hits home when Andy suspects that her daughter has an eating disorder. On the job, the doctor doubts herself when confronted with the mysterious deaths of three of her patients. Meanwhile, Lu acts quickly to stop a possible outbreak of varicella, aka chicken pox.
Lu faces the horrifying memory of her rape when a patient turns to her for help in dealing with her brother, a convicted sex offender. When Andy's patient displays baffling, life-threatening symptoms, Andy suspects foul play.
Lu goes up against the government when one of her patients turns out to be a suspected terrorist. Meanwhile, Andy treats a deaf woman for rheumatoid arthritis, which has the potential to cripple the hands—silencing her ability to speak.
Andy returns to the Army for reserve duty and helps a woman with post polio syndrome (PPS). Sparks fly for Lu when she is reunited with an old friend whose mother is one of her patients. And when Lana asks if the guy was the ""first"" one Lu answers saying he was the only one.
Andy is forced to confront her father after discovering that he has a degenerative nerve condition that could threaten his independence; Lu treats a pregnant woman whom she subsequently discovers is under investigation in connection with several unexplained infant deaths.
Dr. Campbell's diagnosis of the first local case of West Nile Virus causes a near panic in the community; Lu tries to help a hard-working mother remain close to her hospital-bound son.
Dr. Campbell's husband hits her and she kicks him out of their house.
Andy Campbell's kids miss their dad and want to know when he is coming home. Dr. Campbell has a hard time telling the kids why there dad moved out. Les Campbell has a hard time watching his temper. Andy isn't sure Jesse & Lizzy should know.
Academy Award-winning actress Rita Moreno guest stars in this episode of ""Strong Medicine,"" airing March 9, 2003 on LIFETIME Television. Moreno plays a street doctor treating patients who don't have the financial means to obtain medical treatment. Dr. Delgado makes a point of checking on her when she suspects the doctor may be growing senile. Later, Lu becomes frantic when she learns that a building has collapsed and her fire fighting boyfriend is unaccounted for while Andy counsels parents who are forced to make an extremely difficult medical decision about which of their two children should have lifesaving surgery
Andy helps Jesse cope having back surgery and trying to set things right between her husband. Lu tries to figure out how to spend time with Mickey and Marc. Lu wonders if Mickey would like to live with her. Andy is worried about whether she should help in her daughter's surgery. Dr. Jackson deals with death of a young girl 6 years ago.
Andy tells a famous rock star and a patient to rest and cancel some of her concerts because of fatigue. The rock star invites Lu's young patient who has a terminal disease to spend the day with her. Lu's patient's mother directs a terrible accusation at the rock star. Ben starts a concierge service to keep the clinic open after it faces financial difficulties.
Dr. Campbell treats a patient for what she believes is alcoholism but she won't admit to her drinking problem. The patient's daughter goes to desperate measure to get her mom to stop drinking. Another of Andy's patients needs to get a kidney transplant but nobody in her family is a match. Tammy's mom then reveals a horrible secret that could save her daughter's life. Meanwhile, Lu, Lana, Peter, and Ben go out on the streets to find out what is threatening the lives of young infants.
Andy and Milo are invited to stay in a beachside cabin owned by a patient of Andy's in a beachside vacation community. The vacation gets interrupted when a young boy suddenly becomes very ill with similar symptoms to Andy's patient who has cancer. Andy is furthur shocked to learn that 9 other residents of the town have died from cancer.
Andy is surprised when ex-husband Les shows up unexpectedly after Lizzy has her knee operated on after a soccer accident. Les learns that his wife is dating Milo. Andy invites Milo to dinner to meet Les and is shocked by the tragedy that ensues. Andy meanwhile treats a prominent judge for hearing loss and has trouble figuring out the cause of it.
Andy worries about a patient who continues to ask for surgery to make her breasts perfect even after she has had many surgeries. Andy warns her patient that if she continues to have more surgery she could make it harder for machines to detect a possible sign for breast cancer due to the fact that she has a lot of scar tissue. Andy believes her patient may have a body-image disorder and is worried that her patient could go to extreme measures to improve her body image. Lana's computer breaks down with Marc's thesis on it and Lana, Peter, Ben, Lu, and him must pull an all-nighter to get it done and get the thesis done and turned in in time. Lu must say good-bye when Ben is transferred to Miami and Marc goes away to college.
Kayla is frustrated when a patient refuses to let her treat her due to her race and her intern status. Andy refuses to treat her and insists that Kayla handles the patient. A complaint is filed against Andy because she refused to treat the patient. A new doctor at Rittenhouse must take over Milo's patients and replace him in the hospital.
Dr. Campbell is asked to write an endorsement for a new book about female heart health written by a friend and patient. After the author dies of a heart attack, her husband refuses to publically announce her cause of death because he fears it would hurt sales of the book even though her diet had nothing to do with her death (she had heart disease). Lu is shocked when three high school girls come into the ER with similar and shocking symptoms that point towards poisoning.
Lu is asked to perform physicals for actors and actresses who are shooting ########### videos. She accidentally tells an actress that she has contracted gonorrhea while she is in the middle of shooting a scene and everybody there hears because the studio has microphones everywhere. Andy loses control of herself in the ER when she is unable to save the life of a woman. She decides she has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder because of her guilt over not saving Milo's life even though there was no way she possibly could have.
An estranged sister must work up the courage to ask her Olympic gymnast sibling to donate her liver to save her life. Andy and Kayla help a clinically depressed and struggling resident get back on track after a suicide attempt. Lu tries to convince Jonas not to build a large discount multi-purpose store in her neighborhood as it would close down many of the mom and pop stores that had been there for years.
A victim of a mysterious accident suffers severe brain damage. Kayla, Andy, and the head neurologist at Rittenhouse, along with his wife, must help him decide whether or not he should have an experimental and potentially life-threatening surgery that would place a chip in his brain. When he concentrated, the chip would put his thoughts on a computer screen. His wife worries that he will agree to do the surgery in the hope that he won't survive it. Peter treats a woman with allergies in a surprising way and has devastating results. After giving a patient of Lu's with a less than reputable job a ride home, Bob is in the doghouse and Lana teachs him a lesson he doesn't need to learn.
Andy diagnoses a patient with uterine cancer. The patient had gone to nine other doctors and all of them had declared her perfectly healthy as they didn't give her the test needed to diagnose the cancer. She is furious and sues her insurance company. In the end, she does something that will shock you. Meanwhile, an adoptive mother of a 5 year old daughter may be forced to return her to her former-drug addict mother who abandoned her at Rittenhouse 5 years before.
Lana bets her pink feather pen that she'll sign up more people than a friend will for the Rittenhouse Breast Cancer Walk. She faces some difficulties, however, and goes to extreme measures to get people to sign up. Lu tells a teenaged patient that she is pregnant and she in turn tells Lu that Lu's son Marc is the father. In a shocking ending, the girl reveals a horrifying secret. Andy, meanwhile, takes action when Lizzy's friends receive ""fat letters"" and instead makes the school food healthier when Lizzy starts to severely diet.
Lu treats a young patient with Bi-Polar disease which causes her to act hazardously violent. Her mother must decide whether to keep her or give her up to a mental institution. Meanwhile, Andy helps a woman have an invitro fertilization. She uses new technology to help the couple have a boy because of a genetic female-only disease in the family but later a web of lies and deceivements is revealed. Peter gets jealous when Kayla dates a man he volunteers for at a zoo.
Lu and Andy treat 3 patients that have similar symptoms but seem to have nothing in common. Meanwhile, Andy must meet face-to-face with the drunk driver who killed Milo. Andy is horrified when Jesse befriends him after he gives a speech about the dangers of drunk driving at her school. Meanwhile, Jonas is investigated for insider trading. Later, in a shocking climax, Jesse is in a drunk driving accident.
On a stormy Halloween night, a 7 year old girl suffers a serious burn while trick or treating and the only person who could possibly save her life by giving her a skin transplant is her twin sister. Lu must decide if it is ethical to ask the young girl to proceed with such a risky and painful procedure. Meanwhile, Lizzy and her friends witness a crime in the hospital morque while Peter and Lana get the hospital into the Halloween spirit.
Andy is considered for the prominent Chief of Surgery position (after the current Chief retires) and discovers a competitor bribing members of the board which is going to decide on a replacement. In the midst of this, she must decide whether or not to perform a potentially career-hurting dangerous surgery on a pregnant woman run over by an SUV driver talking on their cell phone. Meanwhile, Lu battles a company that wants to take her financially-deprived patient's cells to find a cure for leukemia without paying her. Also, Lana finds romance over dog residue.
With Christmas only a few days away, Lana goes on a frenzy decorating the clinic and organizing a Secret Santa gift exchange. However, when a plan to set up Peter and Kayla backfires, she has a lot of explaining to do. Meanwhile, Lu delivers a virgin surrogate mother's baby but when the parents find out something about the baby, they do the unthinkable. Also, Andy must find a young girl who may die if she doesn't get treated for a deadly disease she may have.
Lana finds a crafty way to help one of Lu's patients, a construction worker with a brain tumor, raise enough money for a necessary surgery. Andy treats a woman who needs to have surgery to save her life. However, the woman refuses to have the surgery performed until she meets her first grandchild, who is about to be born in Paris. Peter tries to find the father of a patient's child.
In a special episode of Strong Medicine, the Rittenhouse Hospital Emergency Medical Services team is introduced. EMTs Kate and Zach are attacked while trying to save a young girl's life, figure out the motive behind it, and reach a dubious resolution. Then, a multiple vehicle accident keeps them and Dr. Vanessa Burke, an African American trauma surgeon and Katie's adoptive sister, busy. A chemical spill threatens the lives of those in the accident and a guilty driver makes an impulsive decision. Meanwhile, a pre-teen in the accident needs a transplant and Katie and Lu search homeless shelters for a match. Even after they find one, they still face some difficulties. Vanessa amputates the legs of a man who begged her to let him die and must convince him that life without legs is still worth living.
Andy treats a beauty pageant finalist and finds that she has a shocking disease caused in part by her breast implants that requires surgery. Also, Andy tries to find time to talk to her friend, a presidential aide who is visiting from Washington D.C. Meanwhile, Lu deals with the pain and struggling of immigrants when a truckload of them show up on her block and is shocked to learn that all twenty of them are pregnant. Jonas invites Lu to dinner with his extended family and Lu gets a toxic surprise. Later, Lu has difficulty finding a fuel-efficient car and a lost box could ruin her relationship with Jonas' family. Finally, Peter and Kayla try to work through the red tape of workplace romance and start a relationship.
Andy must face the questions of people opposed to her becoming Surgeon General while she struggles to get Senate confirmation. Lu's unique way of practicing medicine and their relationship challenge her chances. Kayla and Peter prepare for the next step in their relationship but struggle to find privacy. Lu reads something in a newspaper about Jonas that could change their relationship forever.
