It’s Nurse Tiffany’s first day at the hospital, and she’s having trouble identifying different types of pain. A doctor scolds her for labeling ear pain as “acute” when it should have been identified as “basic.” All of a sudden, the ER is flooded with injured patients from a bus accident, and she’s rushing to identify who should go where. When a man approaches her complaining of a headache from a skateboarding injury, she says his injury is “basic” and asks him to wait in the waiting room. He sits down on a gurney, where people ignore him as he visibly gets worse. Someone throws a backpack to him that was dropped on the floor, despite it not being his. He gets a text from his mom, but drops his phone on the floor as he passes out on the gurney. The phone gets kicked aside before Devon Pravesh runs into him and realizes he needs help STAT. Conrad comes over to help, and they try to save the unidentified patient. Tiffany opens the backpack that was with him, and pulls out an ID, and says his name is Ian Robinson. The man dies in the emergency room, and Tiffany starts crying as Conrad yells at her to be overly cautious, pointing out that a head injury should always be designated as urgent.
Nic is with cancer patient Lily talking about antibiotics and how she shouldn’t have been released. Lily scratches a rash that developed that morning. Nic asks her whether or not she’s allergic to any medications, but Lily can’t remember. The nurse then tells her she’ll try to get her medical history, which is currently being held separately at Dr. Hunt’s clinic. Dr. Hunt eventually agrees to send the files over, after Nic appeals to her about Lily’s rash.
Conrad tells Devon that it’s time “to learn how to do one of the hardest things” that doctors have to do — tell a patient’s family their loved one has died. They find Ian Robinson’s father and tell him that his son is dead. When they bring him to the man who passed away, he says, “That’s not my boy.” Now they don’t know where the real Ian Robinson is, how his backpack got to the hospital, or the identity of the man who is dead. A police officer conducts a fingerprinting test on the deceased, and Conrad has a nurse make fliers with the unidentified man’s face on them.
Devon is attending to an older woman, Shirley Harris, he believes has gallstones. He wants to run a few more tests to be sure. After leaving the room, her boyfriend follows and asks that if it’s something worse he’d like to know as he plans to propose. “I don’t want to be morbid, but we’re old. So please take care of her,” he says.
While in surgery, Mina attempts to do a dissection, but Dr. Kays stops her. She reminds her that Okafor is still a resident and only half-finished with her training, before taking the instrument away from her and finishing the surgery herself.
Another patient is admitted from the bus accident, and they think it is Ian Robinson for real this time. He needs surgery ASAP in order to survive, but doing it in the emergency room is against protocol. “I’m not telling that father his son is dead for a second time today,” Conrad says before giving Okafor the go-ahead to do the incision — saving the man’s life. Dr. Kays then comes in, and although Okafor had “flawless technique,” the surgeon believes she needs to be benched for the day. Meanwhile, Conrad finds Ian’s dad and tells him his son is in surgery. When the dad warns that the patient has low calcium, the resident rushes to the operating room where the patient is convulsing on the table. He tells the doctors that the blood transfusion made his calcium levels worse, and they need to inject calcium into his veins. Conrad is able to get his arm steady enough to inject the substance, and the patient’s body relaxes. Later after surgery, the patient is reunited with his father while in recovery.
The doctors find out that Shirley has early stage gallbladder cancer. There’s a surgery that they can do, but it’ll be high-risk due to her old age and anemia. When they tell the patient, she asks her boyfriend to marry her, and they both happily agree to wed. “How do we make sure this life-saving surgery doesn’t kill me?” Shirley asks Dr. Hunter, who tells her that Dr. Bell will be performing the surgery. Conrad, obviously disapproving of the choice, attempts to get Okafor to be unbenched, but when she talks to Dr. Bell about assisting with the surgery, he refuses.
Nic heads over to Dr. Hunt’s clinic to pick up a copy of Lily’s records, and she’s asked to wait in the lobby. Nic runs into someone she went to nursing school with, and they have a brief reunion. Nic then photographs a treatment room as the receptionist comes back with Lily’s file, insisting everything’s all there.
Devon agrees to try and persuade Medicare to sign off on Shirley’s surgery. He gets the OK after four hours, but Shirley and her fiancé are trying to leave the hospital to get married. Devon tries to convince them to stay by throwing an impromptu wedding ceremony at the hospital. “A hospital story with a happy ending,” Devon says, before Conrad adds that it’s only a happy ending if Dr. Bell doesn’t mess up the surgery.
Shirley heads in for surgery, and Dr. Bell assures her husband she’s in good hands. The monitor is beeping steadily as the surgeon gears up to perform the surgery. He grips his palm, and his hands seem steady. The monitor starts beeping rapidly, as Shirley’s blood pressure drops. He tells a nurse to run fluids, and finishes the surgery flawlessly. “I’m certainly happy we had you today, Dr. Bell,” Dr. Hunter tells him.
A rehired nurse tells Conrad that a janitor found a cellphone on the floor and that it might belong to his John Doe. He looks at the screen and sees many messages from his mom. He calls the number, and tells her over the phone what happened to her son.
Nic gets together with her old friend who works at the clinic. She asks what it’s like to work for Dr. Hunter. The friend says, “The patients love it… as much as they can. Cancer’s brutal.” She adds that Dr. Hunter treats all of her patients individually with an approach that’s unique to them. She mentions that Dr. Hunter prefers her employees to be discrete, and then abruptly remembers she needs to get home to her kid. Is there something about Dr. Hunter that she’s not telling Nic? You’ll have to tune in to the next episode!
HollywoodLifers, what did you think of tonight’s episode of The Resident? Let us know!