The pilot for the popular TV series is set during 24 frantic hours in the lives of a group of doctors, nurses, and staff members of a busy emergency room at a Chicago hospital. They deal with the seemingly endless casualties that stumble into their place of employment. The central characters are the chief resident and family man Dr. Mark Greene, who is considering a job in private practice due to pressure from his demanding law student wife Jennifer; outgoing Dr. Doug Ross, who deals with cases in his own personal way; straight-arrow Dr. Susan Lewis, trying to get by another long 36-hour shift; inexperienced third-year med student John Carter; cocky surgical resident Dr. Peter Benton; and troubled chief nurse Carol Hathaway.

Mark's wife arrives in the ER with the news that she has passed her bar exams but several members of the staff interrupt their intimate celebration. Greene treats an elderly woman whose husband isn't ready to let her go. It's been eight weeks since Hathaway's attempted suicide, but Doug Ross has yet to bring himself to visit the woman he went out with for two years. Susan Lewis saves a newborn who is brought into the ER choking. She also argues with the psychiatric attending who refuses to admit a patient suffering from dementia. Carter finds himself having to care for a group of German tourists who are suffering from food poisoning. He also treats a young flirt with a rash. Benton treats a recent surgery patient and finds his correct diagnosis overturned by the man's physician. Susan Lewis treats a family struck by a drunk driver. The husband and daughter will survive but there is little hope for the woman. The drunk driver is also brought in suffering from only a few scratches.

Carol Hathaway returns to work after her suicide attempt. Doug Ross still feels guilty about what happened. An ER patient found walking the streets takes to singing, constantly. Susan Lewis has a run-in with the cardiologist on duty, Dr. Kayson, when he disagrees with her treatment of a heart attack victim. At a case review session, she gets very little support from her colleagues. She also treats a woman who is dying of leukemia and who has good advice for Hathaway. Greene treats a woman who has obviously been beaten by her husband but can't get to agree to get help.

Drs. Benton and Langworthy are unsuccessful in reviving a teen-aged boy involved in a traffic accident and it's left to Carter to determine the boy's identity and notify the parents. Unfortunately, he tells the wrong parents that their son is dead. Doug Ross tells a young patient that he will not be separated from his schizophrenic mother knowing that she will likely be hospitalized for a long time. Susan Lewis tells Mark that she is dating the psychiatric attending physician Div Cvetic. She also treats a salesman whose cell phone is having an odd effect on hospital equipment. Benton forgets that he was supposed to sit with his mother while his sister and brother-in-law were to go out for their tenth anniversary dinner.

Mark Greene's wife Jen gets a position clerking with a Federal judge. Unfortunately, it's in Milwaukee, 2 hours away and she wants Mark to look for a job there. Greene and Susan Lewis treat Samuel Gasner, a man who has been waiting for a heart transplant and who will not survive the night unless a donor can be found. John Carter is worried that his latest paramour may have left him with a souvenir of their sexual encounter. Doug Ross treats a young girl suffering from severe asthma but whose mother can't afford her medication. Benton treats Ivan the liquor store owner who is shot for the third time in as many weeks.

The realities of the ER may be too much for a child, but circumstances force Greene to bring his daughter Rachel with him on a day when the outdoor temperature tops 100 degrees and the air-conditioning doesn't work. Benton and Langworthy try in vain to save a boy shot in self-defense. Meanwhile, Lewis's broke sister, Chloe, steals Lewis's TV and VCR. After Ross crosses the line with Hathaway and Taglieri, Hathaway slugs Ross.

Doug Ross' hopes of renewing his relationship with Carol Hathaway take a positive turn after the two of them kiss following a particularly stressful trauma, but his hopes are dashed when she decides to move in with boyfriend Tag. John Carter has a particularly good day when Dr. Green successfully walks him through a complex procedure. Haleh takes Dr. Benton to task when he refuses to act as a role model for a young gangbanger she has an interest in. Benton is also competing with Dr. Langworthy for a prestigious fellowship. It's Susan Lewis' birthday and her sister Chloe shows up at the ER drunk.

Susan Lewis' boyfriend Div Cvetic, a psychiatric resident at County General, seems to be under a great deal of stress regularly lashing out at everyone. Doug Ross takes over for Mark Greene who takes a day off to be with his wife. He has a hard time keeping up with all the paperwork. John Carter is increasingly frustrated with Peter Benton who never seems to invite him to participate in surgeries. Benton learns the result of the fellowship he applied for and his mother shows up in the ER with a sprained ankle. Carol Hathaway treats a patient who was raped. A new ER aide, Bob, start work.

Carol Hathaway faces an ethical dilemma when a patient admits that he, and not his friend, was driving the car that ran a red light and killed a pedestrian. She decides to tell Tag about kissing Doug Ross. It's Thanksgiving and the doctors treat an animal rights activist who was attacked by the turkey he was trying to save. Doug Ross is going to the Bahamas with Linda Farrell and he is very much feeling like a kept man. Carter has to treat a transgender woman who has now reached an age where she can no longer pass as a woman. Carter's indifference is the final straw. Susan Lewis continues to worry about Div Cvetic, whose condition seems to be worsening.

The ER staff's slow snow day becomes chaotically hectic when the casualties of a 40 car traffic accident flood in.

It's Christmas-time and the expected range of emotions is to be found among the ER staffers. Susan Lewis treats a middle-aged woman who is overjoyed at finally getting pregnant. Susan is also shocked to hear that her boyfriend Div Cvetic has quit his job and moved out of his apartment. Mark Greene treats a young drowning victim. Doug Ross takes Greene's advice and decides to tell Carol Hathaway that he loves her; unfortunately he chooses to do so at her engagement party. Peter Benton jumps the gun and arranges for transplant teams to harvest an accident victims organs but the man's wife is now refusing to give consent. Susan's sister Chloe announces that she is pregnant.

Susan Lewis has a run-in with Dr. Jack Kayson, the cardiology attending, when he accuses her of not providing him with all necessary information on a patient who subsequently died. He makes it very clear that Susan will bear all responsibility for his death. Her sister Chloe informs her that she and her boyfriend are moving to Texas. John Carter is still frustrated by Peter Benton's apparent lack of interest in teaching him anything but a new go for it attitude leads to an invitation to assist in a surgical procedure. Benton's sister suggests to him that the time has come for them to put their mother in a care home.

Benton is called out of surgery to find his senile mother.

Dr. Kayson becomes Lewis' patient.

Dr. Greene gets offered a new job by Morgenstern.

Kayson, a married man, tries to start a romance with Susan by asking her to dinner. Deb unknowingly eats LSD-laced chocolates. Carol takes an interest in a Russian girl abandoned in the ER.

It's a day of birthdays. Peter Benton's mother is celebrating a birthday and he tries desperately to find someone to cover his shift. He makes a choice however when Dr. Hicks suggests that he's been absent too often and may wish to consider a leave of absence until his mother's situation is resolved. Carter thinks it's Benton birthday and has a surprise for him. Mark Greene's daughter is also having a birthday but he misses that due to an emergency at the hospital. An elderly, solitary man in the final stages of cancer arrives in the ER on his birthday. Carol Hathaway suggests to her fiancé that they adopt little Tatiana, the AIDS patient abandoned in the ER. Ross has to deal with a young child who was kicked out of a window.

Carol Hathaway goes ahead with her plans to adopt Tatiana, but her past history makes her ineligible. Benton continues to trade shifts so he can spend time with his mother but it all catches up with him and he has a run-in with Dr. Hicks. Doug Ross treats an abused child. Green, Benton and Carter take extraordinary measures to save a man they later learned had signed a DNR. A consultant arrives to study procedures in the ER, but all is not quite what it seems. Mark Green's wife Jen has an important announcement. Benton's mother has a serious accident when he falls asleep on the couch.

Dr. Benton has to deal with the aftermath of his mother's fall and crosses the line with the surgical attending when he insists on scrubbing in for her operation. Dr. Greene deals with Jodi O'Brien who is two weeks away from giving birth. With the obstetrics attending unavailable, he decides to try to deliver her baby in the ER, with tragic results.

Dr. Greene is still haunted by the death of Jodi O'Brien and isn't sure he can function as a doctor. At Susan's urging, he takes the night off but unfortunately for him, the new head of the ER Dr. 'Wild Willy' Swift arrives unannounced. Susan impresses Swift with her handling of many cases on a busy night. She also has to deal with the case of a young man who has had the hiccups for two days but may in fact be suffering from something far more serious. Nurse Hathaway and fiancée Tag are still working out the details of their wedding. Peter Benton's mother is still hospitalized and he will not accept that her age and her injuries mean that she will need permanent nursing care. Dr. Ross is now dating Diane Leeds. John Carter and Deb Chen's attempts at oneupmanship is starting to take on ridiculous proportions.

Dr. Greene is still having trouble dealing with cases in the ER and the new Chief of the ER is growing increasingly concerned. Greene also faces a difficult peer review to examine his handling of the Jodi O'Brien case. Dr. Benton takes on the difficult task of telling his mother that she must be placed in a home with full-time care. Susan's very pregnant sister Chloe returns to live with her. Dr. Ross deals with the case of a young girl with a heart condition while Ross and Carter encounter a patient who refuses treatment for tuberculosis. When Benton asks Deb Chen and Carter to submit their procedures book in a few days, Deb feels she has to get a few more procedures under her belt if she's to best her fellow student. Unfortunately, her eagerness leads to near tragedy for a patient.

Greene finds his marriage falling apart and is concerned at how little time he's spending with his daughter. He also treats an eight week old child with a heart murmur who requires surgery. Susan tries to get her pregnant sister Chloe to take her pregnancy seriously, but her head isn't quite into it. Benton tries desperately to find a surgeon who will operate on a 16 year-old with a severe brain aneurysm that could burst at any time. He's also concerned at his mother's care and is growing ever more attracted to Jeanie Boulet. Doug Ross' commitment to Diane Leeds gets more serious when he agrees to be an assistant coach for her son's little league baseball team.

Doug Ross and Nurse Hathaway treat a girls' basketball team from a local catholic school for meningitis. Their teachers also need to be tested but one of them confides in Hathaway that she may have a particular problem. Green and the Chief of Staff have a disagreement in the middle of a procedure. With the wedding only two weeks away, Tag and Carol Hathaway have to deal with all of the final preparations, not the least of which is writing their own marriage vows. Susan deals with a suicide victim who is using emotional blackmail to keep his girlfriend from leaving him. Susan reaches the breaking point with her sister Chloe and tells her she has to move out.

On a fateful Mother's Day, several staffers in the ER face possible life-changing events. Susan Lewis' sister Chloe gives birth to a beautiful - and healthy - baby girl. Things start to go wrong however when their mother Cookie - who had agreed to take in Chloe and the baby - suddenly decides she's done enough and Susan will have to take care of it. Carter turns down an offer for an ER sub-internship in the hopes that he'll get an offer in surgery. Dr. Hicks has news for him however. Benton's mother takes a turn for the worse. Carol Hathaway is overwhelmed with the final preparations as her wedding day approaches.

It's Carter's last day in the ER and finally fed up with Dr. Benton's apparent indifference, rejoices when he learns that he gets to write an appraisal on him. He subsequently regrets his negative input when he gets offered the surgical sub-internship he'd hoped for and learns that Benton gave him a glowing appraisal. He also spends a good part of the day with young leukemia victim who is fed up with life. Benton and Jeanie Boulet's relationship reaches a crossroads. Mark Greene is offered an attending position at the hospital but also learns that he is being sued for malpractice over his handling of the Jodi O'Brien case. The big day for Carol Hathaway and Tag is here but doubts creep in and one of them gets left standing at the altar.

While victims of a gang shootout are being brought in, Carter is late and a new group of third year medical students arrives.

It's Weaver's first day and she doesn't exactly make a lot of friends. Carol rides along with the paramedics.

Carter gets his first official patient while Doug treats a four-year-old Asian boy who has AIDS.

The feud between Susan and Weaver gets to the point where Mark has to step in.

Doug treats dying Chia-Chia. Mark however feels he's not doing the right thing for Chia-Chia.

Doug and Harper had sex. Mark finds out about this. So does Carter.

Doug saves a kid who's stuck in a flooded culvert and becomes a local hero when a TV helicopter films part of the rescue operation.

Doug gets the opportunity to stay at the ER thanks to the publicity surrounding his rescue of a drowning boy the week before.

Jennifer and Rachel have been involved in a car accident and Mark rushes to Milwaukee where they're in the hospital.

Mark has to deal with the fact he can't see Rachel during the holidays and takes care of a Holocaust survivor whose grandchild is missing.

Shep and Raul enter a house with about a dozen abandoned and ill-fed children and bring them to the ER.

Benton has to attend a banquet at Vucelich's home and asks Jeanie to go with him. Mark hesitates to tell Rachel about the divorce.

It's his day off, but Mark shows up for work anyway. After a patient dies and Morgenstern wants to speak to him, Mark soon regrets coming in after all.

Rumour has it there's something going on between Mark and Susan while Benton questions Vucelich's study and confronts him.

Benton tries to save someone who, according to the other surgeons, can't be saved while the ER gets crammed with pregnant women.

Shep and Raul go in a burning house without the proper equipment to save three children.

Carter is very nervous because he's about to get his residency match. Mark changes his look.

Mark has to work for the fourth night in a row while a lot of the staff are absent and the number of patients is towering.

Benton dismisses a patient he hasn't seen who should have been admitted. Carter competes with Dale, a new surgical resident-in-training who once slept with Harper.

In order to avoid having to deal with her personal problems regarding little Susie, Susan wholly absorbs herself in her work.

Susan has therapy to get over losing little Susie and Jeanie's ex-husband is brought in.

Mark Greene strikes a deal with Kerry Weaver - he will support her application for an ER attending position if she in turn will support Susan Lewis for Chief Resident. When Susan doesn't get the job, Mark is told to go ask her why. Carter is finally going to graduate and wants Benton to attend the party his family is throwing for him. Unfortunately, Carter decides to sit with a young patient awaiting a liver transplant and misses his own graduation ceremony. With the news she has received about her former husband Al's health, Jeanie Boulet decides to have herself tested. Doug Ross' girlfriend Karen forges his prescription for percodan. Hathaway's boyfriend, Shep, is refusing to undergo his anger management treatment. Mark's ex-wife Jen tells him that she is going to re-marry. Loretta Sweet asks Greene if he would become guardian to her kids.

It's the first day of Carter's internship. He has a 36 hour shift and overnight he has to cover the ER, the ICU as well as the surgical patients.

While the whole staff is worried the ER might close, Jeanie has her own problems in dealing with being HIV-positive.

Donald Anspaugh has a new method to increase the staff's efficiency, new intern Maggie Doyle joins the ER and Susan asks Mark to come along to Hawaii.

Doug's one-night-stand has a seizure and he brings her to the ER.

While Mark is anxious about Susan's return from her holiday, Doug and Carol ride along with the health mobile.

While on their helicopter flight rotation, Mark and Susan find an injured family of four who they bring to the ER.

Encouraged by Carol, Mark finally asks Susan out. Benton tries to save a boy, despite the fact Doug thinks he's brain dead.

It's Susan's last day. Carol stands up for her nurses when one of them is being rotated to another department.

Dr. Susan Lewis arrives, looking for work in the Chicago area again. Greene hires her, over Weaver's objection. Chen nervously attends a risk management review, accompanied by the unforgiving Weaver, to discuss a patient who recently died under Chen's supervision.

Lewis faces a hectic first day back at County General. Benton and Roger become frantic when they can't locate Reese. Carter's grandmother is brought to the emergency room. Carter and Abby deal with inept medical students.

Corday's ordeal, caused by the recent infection-related deaths of several of her patients, worsens when she is closely observed by a stern taskmaster. Corday is outraged when a county investigator accuses her of deliberately euthanizing the patients, who all happened to be elderly.

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.

Dr. Benton is awarded full custody and Roger receives visitation every other weekend.

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.

Greene confronts Corday when she orders Rachel out of their home; Abby tries to protect a battered neighbor who refuses to press charges against her husband.

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.

Pratt struggles to diagnose a woman who suffers mysterious chronic seizures. An attractive woman, Campbell, informally accuses flirtatious Pratt of sexual harassment. Abby ponders how to get her contentious patients' attention during her psychiatric department rotation.

Carter greets the returning Kem, but their meeting with his father, Jack, gets tense after Carter announces plans for his grandmother's estate.

Carter takes Kem to the hospital to check on their baby since it's not kicking anymore.

Kovacs stops to help a woman and her son whose car broke down. Steve is getting close to Alex, and Sam panics. Abby is looking for her letter whether to see she passed her boards. Pratt shows off his new Chrysler. Elgin tries to build a connection between him and Pratt. Jing-Mei might be battered by her senile father.

After being shot at, Pratt, Jing-Mei and Elgin are trying to get out of their sinking car. Sam took Alex with her while fleeing from Steve. Kovac is considering going after them. Abby wants to go to bed since tomorrow is her first day as a doctor, but is thwarted by Weaver, whose custody battle might take a dramatic turn. A young drug dealer is brought in with "a foreign object" in her tunnel of life.

Neela is still struggling with her decision not to continue becoming a doctor. We discover that Ray is in a band. Kovac and Sam are in love, but where does that leave them?

It's a busy Fourth of July and Carter is the only attending working.

Carter, Pratt, Kovac and Abby are dealing with a woman and her three children who've jumped from the third floor of an apartment building to escape from the violent husband/father. Meanwhile Dr. Lewis becomes Chief of Emergency Medicine, Howard quits his internship and Dr. Corday is facing dismissal.

Neela starts a new job in the emergency room after working at the convenience store near the hospital. On Neela's first day, Pratt expects the interns, Abby, Ray and Neela, to take on a large patient load during their shifts. Pratt turns processing the patients into a competition, in which Ray is clearly going to be the winner.

An ex con and alcoholic patient, Charlie Metcalf (Ray Liotta) passes out in the waiting room and is brought to the emergency room by the doctors. It shows the real time of 45 minutes with an patient of his life story and his final days in the ER, which touches the doctors treating him.

A rape victim, barely able to speak, does all she can to help police find her attacker.

A wounded police officer's teenage son must make a life or death decision. Abby tries to convince a girl needing appendicitis surgery's parents not to transfer her and do the operation at County, but her father wants her transferred to another hospital due to his own trauma with surgery complications from years before.

Abby has a dialysis patient in critical condition, but she cannot find his physician, who does not want to be bothered during the holidays.

Gang members kidnap Abby hoping she can save one of their members with a gunshot wound. Ray starts treating a patient, but when she requests a new doctor, he gets offended.

Two teens enter the ER with gunshot wounds. When one dies, Neela botches telling the next of kin, making the woman hysterical.

When a 16-year-old girl who had received a kidney transplant from her father arrives at the emergency room feeling dizzy, Carter traces the problem to a new drug that the girl was taking to control seizures related to her kidney dysfunction.

While examining a young boy, Pratt finds a suspicious gash across his chest and calls Wendall for a consult. Kovac and Pratt examine a man who was shot when he confronted his boss with a gun. Jake tries to convince Abby to date him despite his being her student.

Dr. Weaver meets her birth mother, but their relationship changes when Kerry reveals she is gay. Dr. Carter causes a commotion when he confronts a couple hoping to scam some painkillers.

A soccer mom finds herself completely aware of everything going on around her, but is unable to move or speak after suffering a stroke.

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.

A woman on a hunger strike refuses treatment until the INS give her son another deportation hearing. Abby searches for proof when she suspects a patient is the victim of elder abuse.

Jules 'Ruby' Rubadoux is back in the ER. He's still angry with Carter about the death of his wife.

Morris is named the new chief resident, which makes nobody really happy, except Morris. Meanwhile Luka and Sam are having communication problems, Carter gets a promotion Susan really wanted and Ray finds out a 14-year old who always comes in for free drugs has been raped.

After Carter finds out Kem's mother is hospitalized in Paris he decides to go there to tell Kem how he feels about her. Meanwhile, Ray makes a fatal error.

Casualties of a disaster flood the ER, which is short-handed because everyone is at Dr. Carter's going-away party because he's leaving the ER after 11 years. Dr. Pratt looks for the courage to confront his father, Charlie.

Sam and Luka go on the search for her runaway son, Alex. Meanwhile, Pratt and Lewis guide Abby, Neela and Ray, who have become R2's, on how to teach the new interns.

As Carter prepares to open a new facility for the underprivileged, some old friends/colleagues gather. Rachel Greene, Mark Greene's daughter, applies for an internship at County.

In order to avoid having to deal with her personal problems regarding little Susie, Susan wholly absorbs herself in her work.

Susan has therapy to get over losing little Susie and Jeanie's ex-husband is brought in.

While on their helicopter flight rotation, Mark and Susan find an injured family of four who they bring to the ER.

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.

Doug treats dying Chia-Chia. Mark however feels he's not doing the right thing for Chia-Chia.

Dr. Greene is still haunted by the death of Jodi O'Brien and isn't sure he can function as a doctor. At Susan's urging, he takes the night off but unfortunately for him, the new head of the ER Dr. 'Wild Willy' Swift arrives unannounced. Susan impresses Swift with her handling of many cases on a busy night. She also has to deal with the case of a young man who has had the hiccups for two days but may in fact be suffering from something far more serious. Nurse Hathaway and fiancée Tag are still working out the details of their wedding. Peter Benton's mother is still hospitalized and he will not accept that her age and her injuries mean that she will need permanent nursing care. Dr. Ross is now dating Diane Leeds. John Carter and Deb Chen's attempts at oneupmanship is starting to take on ridiculous proportions.

A woman on a hunger strike refuses treatment until the INS give her son another deportation hearing. Abby searches for proof when she suspects a patient is the victim of elder abuse.

Benton is called out of surgery to find his senile mother.

It's Susan's last day. Carol stands up for her nurses when one of them is being rotated to another department.

Doug Ross' hopes of renewing his relationship with Carol Hathaway take a positive turn after the two of them kiss following a particularly stressful trauma, but his hopes are dashed when she decides to move in with boyfriend Tag. John Carter has a particularly good day when Dr. Green successfully walks him through a complex procedure. Haleh takes Dr. Benton to task when he refuses to act as a role model for a young gangbanger she has an interest in. Benton is also competing with Dr. Langworthy for a prestigious fellowship. It's Susan Lewis' birthday and her sister Chloe shows up at the ER drunk.