It’s late at night, and Dr. Mina Okafor is driving home by herself. After parking her car and walking down the street to her home alone, a teen boy jumps out from an alley, pointing a gun at her. “Give me the bag, doc,” he says, as Okafor analyzes the situation. She then lunges and knocks him out cold. Once she realizes that he’s unconscious, she piles him into her car and takes him to the hospital, where she tells her fellow physicians that he’s an 18-year-old named Atiba. “What happened to him,” a colleague asks her. “I did,” she responds honestly.
Conrad and his dad sit together in a diner, much to the resident’s dismay. He points out that they haven’t spoken in a decade, and his father says he thought the time would help them mature and be able to put their past behind them. Conrad doesn’t believe it, though, and starts to leave breakfast early. Before he goes, his dad mentions he does research on the healthcare industry and thinks it’s weird that his son works in a corrupt industry when he’s always fought against “questionable ethics.” Conrad says, “I don’t capitalize on people’s misfortune. That’s the difference between us.”
Lily Continues Cancer Treatment
Dr. Lane Hunter and Dr. Devon Pravesh are explaining to their cancer patient Lily Kendall that she’s been cleared to have a bone marrow transplant. While they’re speaking to her, Nic pages Devon, and the surgeon tells him she’ll finish up with Lily without him. Nic then pulls Devon aside into an empty room to tell him she wants him to keep an eye on the patient for her since she was taken off her team. She explains that she believes Lane is committing insurance fraud based on her chemo protocols being more intense than even the most aggressive programs. Devon, however, is skeptical and asks her if she’s letting her personal feelings cloud her judgement.
Later on, Devon is taking the patient to conditioning when he asks her to tell him how she’s feeling. She admits that she’s scared of the transplant, especially since there’s a 38% chance that she could die. There’s also a real threat of it damaging her organs or rendering her infertile. She then comes to the conclusion that since she’s been told she needs the transplant, she’ll go through with it, but Devon looks concerned. He finds a nurse and orders her to do a new panel on Lily since the original was done by Dr. Hunter’s clinic, and they don’t have access to it. Once they get it, they find out that her kidneys are failing and the bone marrow transplant would kill her. Devon steps in and stops the procedure, and Dr. Hunter coldly praises him for saving Lily’s life.
Devon finds Nic and admits she was right about Lane, but he can’t understand why she’d send her patient into a surgery she knew would kill her. Nic points out that bone marrow transplants are the most expensive form of cancer treatment, so it would have provided Lane with a major payout.
Conrad’s Stumped By A Chronic Pain Patient
A new patient named Nigel checks into the hospital. He explains to Conrad that he’s a dancer with chronic digestive pain. Due to his condition, he has trouble eating and is malnourished as a result. He’s seen every doctor under the sun for treatment, but no one can figure out what’s wrong with him. Conrad, however, thinks he can learn what’s ailing him if he stays in the hospital for 24 hours. Nigel agrees to remain in the ER so that the senior resident can find out what’s causing the pain.
Nigel gets set up in a room of his own, and a crowd of physicians circle around him arguing about what tests they should run on him. The patient is clearly fed up. Conrad shows up and pulls Dr. Welmot aside to explain that Nigel is sick of doctors and shouldn’t be tested heavily on. The physician claps back saying that he’s Conrad’s superior and that this is no longer his patient.
After Nigel suffers a seizure and Conrad hears they want to remove the dancer’s gallbladder without confirmation that it’s the source of the pain, he tells Nigel to get dressed. He then wheels him out to where “no doctor will show his face,” a.k.a. the waiting room. Conrad wants to talk to Nigel, as he believes patients’ words over tests give the answers 90 percent of the time. They bond over their issues with their own fathers, and Nigel opens up about a time in high school where his father made him train rigorously for football. After hearing the story, Conrad realizes he may have median arcuate ligament syndrome (MALS), which is a condition characterized by abdominal pain attributed to compression of the celiac artery.
Conrad has a doctor inject Nigel with a solution, and he feels an instant release. “Pain free for the first time in over a decade,” the patient says, tearing up. Conrad is later confronted by Wilmot who says that one day, his god complex is going to kill a patient, and Wilmot will be there to make sure his career is over.
Dr. Okafor Tries To Save Her Neighbors
The teen boy who mugged Okafor wakes up in a hospital bed and violently lashes out. Doctors get him restrained and inject him with something that calms him down. Nic attempts to call his parents to come get him, but they hang up on her. The nurse, however, doesn’t want to let the boy go off on his own, since he was found on drugs and if he were to go find more, he could overdose with what’s already been put into his system. Nic offers to drive him home, and with Okafor’s assistance, they all head off to find his parents. Atiba, however, isn’t welcomed by his mom, but his dad brings him inside anyway.
Okafor then needs to be rushed home, and once Nic drops her off, she runs into her building. A child is in serious pain, and she tries to help her. Nic comes in thinking she could help and finds out that Okafor has been taking medical samples from the hospital and using them to heal members of her community who can’t afford proper healthcare.
Dr. Bell Tries To Save Himself
Dr. Bell explains to his doctor friend that his “client” (which is just himself, of course) went off his tremor medication. His colleague comments that he might need to consider brain surgery if the tremor hinders his quality of life.
Conrad’s dad, Marshall, won’t be investing in Chastain, even though he made it seem like he would. He explains to Dr. Bell and the CEO that it isn’t the right fit for him, before he asks where Conrad is. They’re naturally shocked to find out he’s their resident’s father and think that will give them a leg up in future negotiations. But Marshall explains to Conrad that he’s actually only interested in doing some recon because he’s opening a small private hospital and wants Conrad to run it after he finishes his last year of residency. Will Conrad take the offer!?