24 Hours (ER)

"24 Hours (ER)"

"24 Hours" is the first episode of the American Medical drama ER In the pilot episode of 'ER' (a two hour movie) overworked residents are the heroes of County General Hospital as they make life-and-death decisions on a daily basis. They include Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), a married chief resident who's being wooed by a lucrative practice; Dr. Douglas Ross (George Clooney), a charming, womanizing pediatrician who suspects a mother of abusing her young son; the down-to-earth Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) who must console a fragile cancer patient (guest star Miguel Ferrer); Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle), an intense surgeon who is forced into performing a delicate surgery he's not prepared for; and John Carter (Noah Wyle), an inexperienced medical student who bumbles his way through the cauldron of the emergency room. Julianna Margulies stars as Nurse Carol Hathaway, whose personal crisis takes the ER staff by surprise.

Plot

The show’s two hour long pilot episode begins on St. Patrick’s Day with nurse Lydia Wright waking Dr. Mark Greene and telling him that he has a patient. This patient turns out to be Dr. Doug Ross, a good friend and co-worker of Mark’s. Doug is drunk and sleeps it off in exam three. This irresponsible behavior of showing up to work drunk shows exactly what Doug’s personality is and how he acts in future episodes. After having gone back to sleep after this disturbance, Mark is again waken up two times until he finally wakes for his shift at 6:30A.M. At 6:15 A.M. a building had collapsed during construction, leaving two dead and twelve injured. Dr. Peter Benton walks into his shift this morning to find out that Cook County General will be receiving these patients, seven of them being critical. At this time there is a small staff available and they gather everybody available to help with the mass trauma. The first patient is a Mr. Wilson who the E.R. frantically brings to the trauma room. The man’s right hand is horribly injured; orthopedics is notified of the patient and an O.R. is booked to save his hand. Other patients include Mr. Jackson, who is gasping for air and an elderly women who coughs up blood as the recently awaken Doug works to help her. Meanwhile, Benton, a surgical resident, wishes to perform the orthopedic surgery, however is told he is too inexperienced for this case. Instead Benton comes to help the elderly women who’s condition continues to worsen; in the end she lives. Mark now must inform Mr. Pinelli, who’s father had a heart attack, that he died. This man is extremely distraught and even pushes Mark against a vending machine as he begins to cry. At this time, the mass trauma has ended and the E.R. slows down. Mark, Benton, and Dr. Susan Lewis are in the doctor’s lounge as Benton gets upset that the nurses have been drinking their coffee. He complains to the charge nurse, Carol Hathaway as she enters the room. She is not sympathetic. Mark is paged to the cafeteria where is wife Jen and daughter Rachel are waiting for him. His wife is upset that between both of their demanding careers (she is working to become a lawyer) they don’t see each other enough. John Carter, a surgical med student, arrives to begin his rotation with his intern, Benton. He is given a quick tour of the E.R. and meets staff members including the chief of the E.R, Dr. Morgenstern. Carter must finish a suturing job as Benton is called to a GSW. Carter is very excited after successfully starting an IV on this GSW victim, who is Frank, a cop. Frank will in a later episode become a desk clerk in the E.R. We now learn that Doug and Carol had once dated. Carol tells Doug he had his chance, he however is not over her. A man runs into the E.R. shouting that a pregnant women is in his cab giving birth. Mark grabs Carter and they go to perform the birth, with the help of Doug, a pediatrician. Carter is overwhelmed by the event. Carter has finished the suturing jobs assigned by Benton who tells him to go to lunch. After Carter says he’s fine and can keep working, Benton tells him, “Don’t be a hero,” and to jump at a chance to eat because he’ll never know when he will be able to take a break next. Susan yells for help on a thirteen year old GSW suffering from five shots as Mark leaves for an appointment at a private practice of Dr. Harris. He is going just to make his wife happy, as it would be a less demanding job. Back at County the GSW has just died.

Dr. Lewis is now with Mr. Parker. An x-ray has shown that he has something abnormal within the structure of his lung. Susan explains that will have to do further work to find out what it is, but he believes that it is cancer and that she is hiding the truth from him. He is convinced he is dying of cancer even after Susan continues to explain that they shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Finally she tells him he has six months to a year to live. As he breaks down and cries she tells him that, “If there’s one thing you learn in my job, it’s that nothing is certain. Nothing that seems very bad and nothing that seems very good. Nothing is certain. Nothing.”

Carol is now leaving as her shift ends. She takes something from a locked up cabinet and goes home. Carter is helping a very upset girl, Suzanne who has just crashed her father’s brand new Cadillac that she wasn’t supposed to be driving. She is sure he’ll kill her when he finds out. He is very angry, but tells her it doesn’t matter. Doug is treating a little boy, Jimmy who has swallowed a key. His mother doesn’t know what to do because that is the only key to get into her house. Doug laughs and apologizes as he and Jimmy laugh about it. Carter must deal with a thirteen year old girl who tells her she isn’t pregnant because she isn’t having sex. Carter is afraid she has an actopic pregnancy. Benton then talks to her and to Carter’s surprise she admits to Benton that she is having sex. Carter was right; Benton tells Carter she has an actopic pregnancy. Mark and Susan are eating and discussing his visit to Harris’ when they are paged to the E.R. To every one’s complete shock, especially ex-boyfriend Doug, Carol has attempted suicide. She has overdosed on the pills she had taken from the E.R. earlier. Many staff members look on as her condition gets worse. When Morgenstern arrives he questions if they should continue working on her. He tells Greene, “The unit’s looking to you, Mark. You set the tone…You set the tone Mark. You get the unit through this.” After a GSW arrives to the E.R. Carter feels sick and goes outside. Mark oversees what happens and follows Carter. Carter apologizes and Mark tells him to never say he’s sorry. “See there’s two kinds of doctors. There’s the kind that gets rid of their feelings and the kind that keeps them. If you’re gonna keep your feelings your gonna get sick from time to time,” Mark says to him. He tells Carter that helping the patients is more important then how they feel. He also jokes that he was in med school with Benton and that Benton used to get sick all the time. Doug, still upset and feeling guilty about Carol’s condition, treats a baby with numerous injuries, brought in by the babysitter. The baby has been beaten so he calls child and family services. Once the mother arrives Doug yells at her after she blames the babysitter. The lady wants to take the baby home and acts shocked at the idea she hurt her child. She can’t explain the injuries. “How dare you speak to me this way,” she begins to say as Ross interrupts her. “How dare you treat you’re child like this,” he yells back. “He’s a little kid. I try to be understanding in my job, but lady this just stinks.” Afterwards, while still upset, he yells at his new med student ,Tracy Young, about a lost chart. Benton looks over a patient with a ruptured aneurysm and decides he needs to be operated on right away. However there is no one around to perform the surgery so he starts it by himself even though it is a surgery a resident should not be performing alone. After performing the riskiest part of the surgery, Morgenstern and others finally arrive to help. Even after saving the man’s life, Morgenstern criticizes Benton’s incisions and takes over. He tells him he was lucky but right to start the surgery and that he did good work. Meanwhile, Carol still remains in critical condition, not getting any better. Benton visits with Mrs. Harvey, the wife of the man he operated on earlier. The man is doing fine post-op. The wife says she is grateful for Dr. Morgenstern saving his life and that Morgenstern had said Benton did a lot too. For some reason Benton replies that he just helped out a little bit. Doug apologizes to his med student about yelling at her. They then go to get coffee together. Benton and Carter both rest after a long day. Mark tells Lydia to wake him at 6:30A.M. again and goes to sleep. The episode ends with Lydia waking him just like she had at the very beginning of the episode. Mark is surprised because it feels like he just went to sleep. This will be the start of a brand new day in the E.R. for him.