A new medical student, Michael Gallant, arrives in the ER. He's supposed to be working under Dr. Carter's supervision but John's grandmother is unwell. Elizabeth Corday is convinced that other doctors are refusing to work with her as a result of the mysterious deaths. Mark Green thinks she's overreacting but she's determined to find out what happened to her patients. Abby and Luka argue over the attention he is paying to a trainee nurse's aide. Dr. Benton finds himself in court to retain custody of his son, Reese. Carter and Susan Lewis treat a young woman who is both a law and a medical student. Green has to collect his daughter at school when she is suspended.

When a torrential rainstorm pounds Chicago, patients deluge the emergency room while Weaver speeds to an accident site. There, she finds a pregnant woman, Vicki, lying injured inside a wrecked ambulance while live power lines spark. Fourth-year student Michael Gallant makes a dangerous decision in order to help.

Peter Benton continues his court fight against Reese's stepfather, Roger, who seems to have the upper hand. When a woman is accidentally shot during a gas station robbery, Dr. Corday tries to convince the husband to let them harvest her organs. A 15 year old boxer is brought in with a head trauma after sparring with his older brother. Newlyweds are having trouble when she constantly breaks out in a rash; Carter thinks he knows the cause. Luka tells Abby that he may marry Nicole, who has told him she is pregnant. Dr. Green lays down the law when the police bring in a high school student and he learns that his daughter is outside sitting in the police car.

Abby helps a distraught boy whose mother died of a stroke; a man with schizophrenia, who once stabbed Carter and killed a doctor, is brought into the ER.

An injured and condemned murderer wants to die in the ER rather than await execution; Abby advises a neighbor to seek shelter from her abusive husband.

An accidental overdose brings Drs. Green and Corday's baby into the ER.

After Dr. Corday moves out, Dr. Green fights loneliness and pain by immersing himself into his work. Dr. Chen discovers that a comatose teen is ready to give birth.

After some staff members are caught going through a dominatrix's bag, Weaver makes them attend a sexual harassment seminar, where they learn about each other.

Drs. Corday and Greene are awkward when working together in the ER. Dr. Weaver treats victims of an intense fire that may take the life of a dear friend.

As Dr. Greene's brain tumor begins affecting his coordination, he becomes concerned that his fate will be similar to the terminally ill patients he treats.

When Dr. Lewis gets a hysterical call from her niece, Susie, she hurries to New York to search for the child and her sister Chloe.

Dr. Carter reads a letter from terminally ill Dr. Green to the ER staff. Dr. Weaver lashes out at a mentally challenged patient. A terminal, homeless man continues asking for Dr. Green.

Dr. Greene's final days are spent in Hawaii with Rachel, teaching her to drive and surf. When he suffers a seizure, Elizabeth is called. Mark refuses to go home. He manages to make amends with his daughter before his eventual death.

Just when the ER is understaffed and swamped, two children who were brought in turn out to have full blown smallpox. The entire ER must be locked down. The staff needs to improvise while they battle not only the disease but also frayed tempers.

Dr. Carter, Abby and other staff of the ER are quarantined as the CDC investigate a mysterious, deadly outbreak.

After another hospital shuts down, the ER is flooded with patients. Dr. Pratt resuscitates a heart-attack victim who had been pronounced dead.

Dr. Carter leads a walk-out of staff protesting lack of security in the ER.

Carter is concerned when he learns that Abby is drinking socially when the girls from work get together. Abby, however, doesn't appreciate his concern. Dr. Weaver embarrasses herself on television. Michael Gallant is frustrated when the resident cardiac specialist, Dr. Kayson, dismisses his diagnosis of a patient who subsequently dies. Dr. Pratt decides to report an Army Ranger who tried to commit suicide even though Gallant had decided to give the soldier the benefit of the doubt. Dr. Corday has to deal with a severely injured woman who is more concerned about her Alzheimer's-afflicted husband. Dr. Kovac's sex-addiction extends to having sex in a supply room with a young patient's mother.

On a busy Halloween night, Carter and Abby are the only staffers in costume when victims of an apartment building fire pack the ER. Corday takes on a new med student for a surgical rotation - Paul Nathan, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and decided to pursue medicine after being diagnosed. Despite a difficult first day, both professionally and medically, Nathan makes a difficult diagnosis. Romano's rehab lags behind his expectations, and he begins to think his role in surgery is no longer an option. In a moment of personal weakness, he tries to express his feelings for Corday. Weaver continues to display erratic behavior, raising staff suspicions about her menopause. Luka's burgeoning sex addiction worsens, as an affair with Chuny is revealed, and tensions rise when he treats a patient with a perpetual erection.

Corday clashes with new surgical resident Paul Nathan regarding his intervention into the treatment of a sickly young woman, Alison, who has signed a "do not resuscitate" order. Abby wonders about the erratic behavior of her visiting brother Eric, and feels conflicted over a nurse's official complaint against Kovac, Abby's former lover. Meanwhile, Pratt comforts Chen after a patient threatens her, and Corday suspects that an unconscious 14-year-old female patient has been sexually assaulted.

Abby fears the worst when her brother Eric suddenly disappears. He is actually AWOL and she forges Carter's name to obtain his medical records. Carter and Chen treat a frightened Chinese immigrant nanny, Tong-Yi, whom they suspect was impregnated by her employer. Meanwhile, new surgical resident Paul Nathan, who is struggling to overcome a physical disability (Parkinson's disease), tries to help in the emergency room but his fellow doctors do not appreciate his advice to patients. Unable to quench his sexual appetite, Kovac also gets into trouble in his professional life, despite his admirable resolve to find an eye specialist to treat a young gunshot victim. Gallant and fellow medical student Erin Harkins engage in an escalating competition of medical knowledge. And Weaver gets some much-needed good news.

Abby's family nightmare continues as she searches for her missing brother Eric, who she suspects is suffering from serious mental problems. Gallant accompanies her to his military base where they find Maggie, whom Eric turned to for help. When he's transferred, Abby and Maggie go to a Midwestern air force base, hoping to prevent Eric from being court-martialed for being absent without leave. Carter struggles to get out of Chicago to join Abby. Meanwhile, Corday treats a family of patients who, while building a snowman, were severely injured after being struck by a truck driver. She must help the father, Stuart, make a life-or-death decision. Corday also sympathizes with troubled surgical resident Paul Nathan as he struggles with the increasing symptoms of his physical handicap.

Harkins faces a tough call while treating a troubled teen involved in a car crash with her dad; Abby races to stop Maggie from taking manic-depressive Eric out of treatment; and Kovac hits a new low when an elderly woman tips him for his medical services. Meanwhile, an abandoned baby dredges up painful memories for Chen; and Pratt goes to bat for Leon after he's fired from his job for stealing.

Dr. Kovac's speeding causes a crash on an icy road. The ER staff treats angry elves and a female hockey player with a head injury.

Dr. Pratt brings a gun into the ER; Dr. Weaver tries to conceal her pregnancy; a woman plots against her dying husband; Dr. Chen treats math students who overdosed on an unknown stimulant.

Dr. Weaver is in a difficult situation when an alderman tests positive for syphilis. Dr. Carter is impressed when he meets a man who runs an inner city clinic.

Dr. Pratt's disabled roommate leads him to a wounded thief. Dr Carter decides to practice medicine in Chechnya. A doctor makes a pass at Dr. Corday.

Abby's troubled brother is missing. A car runs into a crowd of teen girls. The alderman with syphilis gives Dr. Weaver a promotion. Dr. Lewis looks forward to a blind date.

Abby comes close to breaking down trying to deal with her mother. Dr. Pratt goes for his required paramedic ride-along. Dr. Weaver confronts the man who stole her purse. Dr. Lewis has a teen admirer.

The police question Drs. Pratt and Gallant about a rampage at the diner across from the ER. Dr. Lewis befriends her teen admirer, a cancer patient.

Dr. Weaver bends the rules and treats the Alderman's lover for syphilis. Dr. Kovac's patient claims she was sexually abused at a boot camp for troubled youth. Dr. Carter treats a women with a nasty personality.

Dr. Romano seizes control of the ER and manages to offend everyone. Dr. Kovac asks Dr. Corday's help in the quest to bring a sickly Croatian boy to the U.S. for medical treatment.

A psychotic patient threatens Abby. Dr. Weaver suspects a woman poisoned her own baby. Dr. Romano continues to make rash judgments.

Dr. Carter tries to prevent a grieving gang member from going after vengeance. Dr. Kovac races against time to save a Croatian boy's life. A baseball player gets treatment for a heart problem.

It's Greg Pratt's last shift at County General and he treats a number of cases that were started by John Carter on the day shift. They treat a 12 year-old near drowning victim who has little chance of recovery; a Buddhist nun who has a special gift of seeing another's inner self; a woman who is convinced that the day's solar eclipse signals the end of the world; a drug addict who scams both of them for pain medication; and a pregnant woman who had her baby torn out of her womb. Dr. Romano has his re-attached arm amputated. Carter receives a call from Luka Kovac asking if he can come to the Congo and help out. Abby is none too pleased. Meanwhile, Doc Magoo's burns to the ground.

John Carter arrives in the Congo to find that Luka Kovac is away at a distant clinic administering vaccinations to the local population. He also finds appalling medical conditions. Too few nurses and doctors, limited equipment and few medical supplies are par for the course. That aside, he gets s great deal of satisfaction from the work he does. He meets Gillian, a Canadian nurse, and learns that she and Luka have become close. He tries desperately to save the life of a severely wounded man which pays later dividends when their camp is invaded by rebel troops and their lives are threatened.

On his return to Chicago, Carter gets a downright chilly reaction from Abby who asks him to return her apartment key. At work, they tip toe around one another, neither really willing to discuss their feelings. A new med student, Neela Rasgotra arrives for her ER rotation. Dr. Pratt is paying too much attention to her for Dr. Chen's taste. A woman passes out at the wheel of her car severely injuring herself and the three children in the car with her. Neela makes a good call in the case. Carter treats a man whose HIV has become full-blown AIDS. The ER itself is a bit chaotic due to major reconstruction. The ER desk receives a call from Africa saying that Luka Kovac has been killed. Carter decides to return to the Congo to retrieve his body.

John Carter returns to the Congo to retrieve Luka Kovac's body. He finds however that the area where was killed is still too dangerous to enter. He and Gillian finally manage to hitch a ride with a Red Cross worker, Debbie, who is going to the area. In flashbacks, we learn how Kovac and his fellow aid workers were taken prisoner by rebel troops. They are shot, one at a time, until only Luka is left. Amid the destruction of the eastern Congo, we learn his fate. Carter also makes a fateful decision.

Luka Kovac arrives safely at County General and is hospitalized for treatment. His friend Gillian delivers John Carter's letter to Abby. Pretty much everyone gets to read it when Frank retrieves it from the garbage and passes it around. Greg Pratt has dinner with Chen and her parents. The dinner goes well but they have a serious argument afterward. Dr. Romano is unhappy with his prosthetic arm which makes him even more difficult to deal with. Some of the more senior nurses find their hours being reduced as a cost-saving measure and stage a walkout. Romano's response is to fire them all. Dr. Lewis treats a teenager with a serious heart problem but her parents insist that she not be told immediately. A new group of second year residents arrive.

Confident second-year resident Pratt wants to prove his abilities when he works the graveyard shift (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.), but his heroics sometimes backfire. Pratt shows contempt for a man, Ed Gamble, who presents no symptoms of disease but temporarily loses his speech. Chen continues to get in the way of Neela's progress as her jealousy regarding Chief Playa Pratt's flirtations with everyone who wears a skirt reaches new levels of ridiculousness.

Emmy nominee Bob Newhart guests as Ben Hollander, a distraught architect whose degenerating eyesight causes him to be despondent while a spirited new nurse, Samantha Taggart, joins the staff. Elsewhere, disaster strikes when the doctors suspect a mother is abusing her child while Dr. Corday learns something shocking about the charismatic Dr. Dorset, and Dr. Archie Morris is overwhelmed by the chaos and grisly conditions of life in the E.R.

Pratt and Kovac clash over a miscarriage-prone young woman who arrives to deliver a premature baby. Pratt wants to make heroic efforts to save the unborn child, while Kovac is adamantly against spending vast amounts of money to keep the forever sickly baby alive.

To everyone's amazement, Lewis makes a date to share a home-cooked dinner with the elderly Ben Hollander, her depressed patient who is going blind.

On Thanksgiving Day, a helicopter crash outside the ER leaves several injured. Alex tries to bring Sam and Luka together.

Neela helps treat two Amish teens who were in a car crash. Sam argues with Dr. Kovac when he pays too much attention to her son.

Dr. Carter celebrates Christmas at a clinic in the Congo dealing with low supplies and anti-Americanism, but in the meantime, falling for an AIDS worker named Makemba.

Carter returns from Africa full of surprises including a new love, Makemba ("Kem"). Pratt accidentally breaks a patient's neck while doing an unsupervised intubation. A whole nursing shift cannot go home until they find one missing Valium.

Abby and Neela are assigned to a month-long rotation in the neonatal intensive care unit where they experience emotional roller coasters while caring for the sick infants.

Dr. Carter's girlfriend makes an impression as she observes ER operations. Dr. Gallant is almost shot during a domestic incident. Dr. Weaver dedicates a center to the memory of Dr. Romano.

Sam treats an abused, pregnant teen. Dr. Carter introduces African girlfriend Makemba to wintertime. ER chaos shocks a risk-assessment expert. Dr. Pratt and Abby restrain a man who has tuberculosis.

Carter misses his pregnant girlfriend who has returned to Africa. A family of four is rushed to the emergency room after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from their faulty furnace--forcing the claustrophobic Neela to accompany a newborn baby into an extremely uncomfortable hyperbaric chamber.

Dr Morris agitates a patient who then leaves, steals a tank, and rampages through Chicago on his way to County General. He makes it all the way to the ambulance bay before the CPD finally stops him. Sam tries to figure out her relationship with Kovac while Gillian shows up at the ER to cement plans for dinner with Carter, Kem and Kovac - making things that much more difficult. Neela confronts Frank about his arrogant bigotry, bluntly telling him she wants nothing from him but silence from this point forward. During the initial onrush of patients due to the tank rampage, Frank has a heart attack which is, thankfully, caught. Frank's wife and daughter show up and are rushed up to the cath lab where Dr. Pratt is helping Dr. Kayson keep Frank alive. In the end, Neela winds up in the family room with Frank's family listening to them describe a side of Frank that no one has ever seen. Meanwhile Kovac treats a 13 year old with chlamydia and counsels him to contact his sexual partner - which turns out to be quite a few teenage girls.

Carter defends his protégé Neela when Weaver and other doctors rate the residents. Carter urges his student to be more proactive in the emergency room, but Neela goes too far in treating a patient with a brain injury--and sympathetic Gallant errs further by falsifying a medical report. Meanwhile, Chuck protects pregnant Lewis from a pervert who is harassing her. Kovac treats a disoriented young boy whose dad fears that tests will reveal he is not the boy's biological father. Chen is unable to find a caretaker for her combative father. And Corday is uneasy about dating two men at once.

Weaver rushes to the aid of her wife, Sandy Lopez, when the firefighter is severely injured while working and must now battle for her life. Frightened Weaver whispers hope to Sandy by reminding the victim of their newborn child.

Neela (who's in Chicago) and Gallant (who's in Iraq) miss each other and write letters. Gallant also tries to save the life of a little girl.

Sam's ex-husband shows up and wants to take Alex on a trip. Gallant is back and Neela hopes to see him before he goes back to Iraq.

The ER prepares to take in victims from a plane crash while Neela and Pratt head out to the crash site where Neela makes heroic efforts. At the end of the day Neela gets a surprising visit.

Gallant impulsively asks Neela to marry him that exact day; she says I do but soon gets cold feet. Morris stands up to Weaver on a patient's course of treatment. Luka, Sam and Clemente treat a boy who contracted HIV from his mother. Also, Abby and Luka redefine their relationship and Luka is named the new Chief of Emergency Medicine.

Ray helps an old friend escape from her abusive father. Dubenko volunteers in the ER but can't seem to handle a slow day. Abby and Kovac go baby shopping, while Neela gets unexpected and upsetting news from Gallant.

Pratt struggles to get a straight story when two abused boys come into the ER with their father. Two U.S. Army officers enter the ER.

On Neela's last day at County, she has doubts as to whether she is making the right decision.

Sam's ex-husband shows up and wants to take Alex on a trip. Gallant is back and Neela hopes to see him before he goes back to Iraq.

Carter defends his protégé Neela when Weaver and other doctors rate the residents. Carter urges his student to be more proactive in the emergency room, but Neela goes too far in treating a patient with a brain injury--and sympathetic Gallant errs further by falsifying a medical report. Meanwhile, Chuck protects pregnant Lewis from a pervert who is harassing her. Kovac treats a disoriented young boy whose dad fears that tests will reveal he is not the boy's biological father. Chen is unable to find a caretaker for her combative father. And Corday is uneasy about dating two men at once.

Carter is concerned when he learns that Abby is drinking socially when the girls from work get together. Abby, however, doesn't appreciate his concern. Dr. Weaver embarrasses herself on television. Michael Gallant is frustrated when the resident cardiac specialist, Dr. Kayson, dismisses his diagnosis of a patient who subsequently dies. Dr. Pratt decides to report an Army Ranger who tried to commit suicide even though Gallant had decided to give the soldier the benefit of the doubt. Dr. Corday has to deal with a severely injured woman who is more concerned about her Alzheimer's-afflicted husband. Dr. Kovac's sex-addiction extends to having sex in a supply room with a young patient's mother.

Neela (who's in Chicago) and Gallant (who's in Iraq) miss each other and write letters. Gallant also tries to save the life of a little girl.

Dr Morris agitates a patient who then leaves, steals a tank, and rampages through Chicago on his way to County General. He makes it all the way to the ambulance bay before the CPD finally stops him. Sam tries to figure out her relationship with Kovac while Gillian shows up at the ER to cement plans for dinner with Carter, Kem and Kovac - making things that much more difficult. Neela confronts Frank about his arrogant bigotry, bluntly telling him she wants nothing from him but silence from this point forward. During the initial onrush of patients due to the tank rampage, Frank has a heart attack which is, thankfully, caught. Frank's wife and daughter show up and are rushed up to the cath lab where Dr. Pratt is helping Dr. Kayson keep Frank alive. In the end, Neela winds up in the family room with Frank's family listening to them describe a side of Frank that no one has ever seen. Meanwhile Kovac treats a 13 year old with chlamydia and counsels him to contact his sexual partner - which turns out to be quite a few teenage girls.

Pratt struggles to get a straight story when two abused boys come into the ER with their father. Two U.S. Army officers enter the ER.

Dr. Carter's girlfriend makes an impression as she observes ER operations. Dr. Gallant is almost shot during a domestic incident. Dr. Weaver dedicates a center to the memory of Dr. Romano.

Gallant impulsively asks Neela to marry him that exact day; she says I do but soon gets cold feet. Morris stands up to Weaver on a patient's course of treatment. Luka, Sam and Clemente treat a boy who contracted HIV from his mother. Also, Abby and Luka redefine their relationship and Luka is named the new Chief of Emergency Medicine.

A new medical student, Michael Gallant, arrives in the ER. He's supposed to be working under Dr. Carter's supervision but John's grandmother is unwell. Elizabeth Corday is convinced that other doctors are refusing to work with her as a result of the mysterious deaths. Mark Green thinks she's overreacting but she's determined to find out what happened to her patients. Abby and Luka argue over the attention he is paying to a trainee nurse's aide. Dr. Benton finds himself in court to retain custody of his son, Reese. Carter and Susan Lewis treat a young woman who is both a law and a medical student. Green has to collect his daughter at school when she is suspended.

The police question Drs. Pratt and Gallant about a rampage at the diner across from the ER. Dr. Lewis befriends her teen admirer, a cancer patient.