Can't Unring That Bell is the fourteenth episode of Season 4 of Chicago Med.
Summary[]
Will's personal issues continue to interfere with his relationship with Natalie and his life at the hospital. Dr. Bekker tries to mend things with Dr. Rhodes. Goodwin questions Maggie's life-threatening decision and Dr. Charles tries to lend a hand to the daughter of a new friend.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Nick Gehlfuss as Dr. Will Halstead
- Yaya DaCosta as April Sexton
- Torrey DeVitto as Dr. Natalie Manning
- Colin Donnell as Dr. Connor Rhodes
- Brian Tee as Dr. Ethan Choi
- Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood
- Norma Kuhling as Dr. Ava Bekker
- S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin
- Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles
Crossover Cast[]
Recurring Cast[]
- Heather Headley as Gwen Garrett
- Edwina Findley as Sydney Hawkins
- Brennan Brown as Dr. Sam Abrams
- Molly Bernard as Elsa Curry
- Ian Harding as Phillip Davis
- Nate Santana as Dr. James Lanik
- Colby Lewis as Terry McNeal
- Ato Essandoh as Dr. Isidore Latham
- Courtney Rioux as Paramedic Courtney
- Cesar Jaime as Paramedic Cesar
- Casey Tutton as Monique Lawson
- Carlos Rogelio Diaz as Nurse Hank
- Echaka Agba as Officer Hughes
- Kayla Forde as Nurse Amy
- Michael Vaughn Shaw as X-ray Tech Mike
Guest Cast[]
- Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Jackie Mills
- Siena Goines as Alice Novak
- Elizabeth Scopel as Britt Mills
- Ron Ware as Patrick Novak
- Reilly Oh as Gabriel Park
- Christian Castro as Andrew Park
- Marissa Lichwick as Vivian Park
- Jin Kim as Dialysis Nurse Theo Woo
Plot[]
Dr. Charles is on a first date with Jackie Mills, a woman he met through an online dating service. Upon returning to the lobby of her apartment building, they find her daughter Britt Mills huddled on the floor. Her mother reveals Britt has recently gotten clean but is still in withdrawal from taking drugs. She complains of chest pain and Dr. Charles arranges to have her taken to Med immediately.
Paramedics rush a patient named Gabriel Parks into the ED with a gunshot wound. He complains that he is not able to feel his left leg, while paramedics and his parents clarify that he was shot in an armed robbery at their family store. An X-ray reveals that the bullet is lodged in his abdomen, for which he needs immediate surgery. Dr. Rhodes rushes him to the hybrid OR. Will's brother Jay reveals to him that the gun that was used in the shooting was the gun recently stolen from Will.
While watching the operation through the window of the OR, Will becomes irate when Natalie says she heard the gun that was used in the shooting was Will's. While she is adamant that she is not there to lecture him and that she hopes he is "talking to someone" (a psychologist), he doesn't let up and walks away angrily after asking her why she even cares.
Dr. Charles asks Dr. Choi about any updates on Britt. Ethan reveals that her echo shows endocarditis, a possible side-effect from intravenous drug use. Cardiologists have advised against surgery and recommend a course of antibiotics instead. Dr. Charles is skeptical about putting an IV into her arm as the visual may put her at risk of a heroin relapse.
Will asks Connor how Gabriel is doing. Connor reveals that he is doing fine except for the loss of feeling in his left leg, for which he is about to be sent up to CT to get a clearer picture.
Paramedics bring Sidney Hawkins into the ED with signs of acute kidney failure. Maggie worriedly follows her into the treatment room. Dr. Lanik and Elsa Curry order multiple tests and scans. Upon leaving the treatment room, Ms. Goodwin asks Maggie whether she is acquainted with the patient. Maggie tells her that she feels guilty about not seeing her immediately when she came into the ED waiting room with signs of sepsis a few weeks ago.
In another treatment room, a patient named Patrick Novak and his wife Alice complain about him having chest and back pain. While Will is ordering labs and scans, Patrick briefly loses consciousness and goes into pulmonary arrest. Even though he quickly regains consciousness, his heart doesn't restart and Will continues to apply chest compressions.
Britt learns she has endocarditis, which she has been mistaking for signs of heroin withdrawal. Dr. Choi and Dr. Charles discuss with her the possibility of administering naltrexone, a drug that prevents a person from getting high, in order to counteract the possible temptations of going back on heroin due to the IV antibiotics. They stress that a person needs to be clean for at least 14 days before starting the naltrexone, to which Britt and her mother insist she is. Dr. Charles orders a urine screening to confirm her sobriety.
In the on-call room, Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Bekker discuss the recent incident where Ava cut her finger on a scalpel with blood from an HIV-positive patient, while Dr. Lanik secretly listens in. While Connor tells Ava he is sorry that he hasn't been able to check in on her, Gwen Garrett walks in. She tells them she has received a complaint concerning a patient () who was brought up to the OR while his abdomen was still open, who was then woken from sedation too early, and passed away shortly thereafter. She implies that if the complaint is deemed valid, Dr. Rhodes will be brought in front of a peer review board. When asked who brought the complaint, Gwen replies that it was an anonymous source, to which, behind their backs, Dr. Lanik raises his eyebrows.
In another treatment room. Dr. Manning attends to Phillip Davis, who is back with his daughter Sophie who is not feeling well. Despite no obvious external cause, Natalie suspects she is not receiving all her nutrition due to a blocked gastrostomy tube.
Elsa and Maggie inform Sydney that her dialysis hasn't been working because her catheter is clotted. Sydney replies that she was not able to come to the hospital to get it cleaned because she felt too sick. Elsa orders emergency dialysis, while Maggie promises to help get her moved up on the kidney transplant list, for which Sydney thanks her profusely.
A sweat-drenched Will is still performing chest compressions on Patrick and asks Terry to take over. He steps out and notices Dr. Abrams talking to Gabriel's family. He calls him over and asks for an update, even though Gabriel is not his patient. Dr. Abrams humors him and tells him his left leg is paralyzed by the bullet, which he is going to leave in because removing it has a significant risk of paralyzing both of his legs, even though a successful operation would give him his left leg back. Dr. Abrams rebuffs Will's protests about not removing the bullet.
Britt receives her first dose of naltrexone. Meanwhile, Maggie argues on the phone about Sydney's position on the kidney transplant list. She has been put at the bottom of the list because she is a sex worker. She reiterates to April her guilt about not seeing her sooner on her first visit and recounts how they grew up only a couple of blocks from each other, and what a difference this has made in their lives. She asks an incredulous April to do a blood draw on her to see if she is a match to donate her own kidney.
Dr. Manning has to intubate Sophie because she is not breathing, after which her oxygenation improves. She still doesn't know what is causing her condition.
While nurse Hank takes over chest compressions on Patrick, Connor takes Will outside the room to confront him about Will telling Gabriel's parents behind his back that removing the bullet is an option. Connor understands that Will feels guilty because Gabriel was shot with his gun, but Will continues to insist that there is a reasonable chance that he can regain control of both his legs.
Britt has a seizure, possibly from having drugs in her system while starting the naltrexone. Ms. Goodwin takes Maggie into the on-call room to confront her about her plan to donate her kidney to Sydney. She insists that undergoing an irreversibly surgery for a patient is a gross violation of professional boundaries, but Maggie insists on going through with it despite the risks to her own health and Goodwin's furious objections. Goodwin intends to stop her by threatening to fire her if she takes any more paid sick leave days, which she has already used up.
Dr. Charles confronts Britt's mother about how she could have passed the urine test, and she confesses she substituted her own urine to cover for her daughter and that she did it out of desperation.
Dr. Bekker is called to testify before Connor's peer review panel. Meanwhile, Natalie informs Phillip that Sophie's MRI shows an abscess in her brain, possibly caused by her congenital heart defect. Phillip is hesitant to have Sophie undergo a procedure to drain the abscess, because the condition that killed his wife which was also deemed "small enough" to not be life-threatening, but Natalie convinces him to be hopeful and to go through with it.
Terry convinces Will to stop chest compressions on Patrick, whose distraught wife blames herself for doing this to him.
Just as Sydney is about to start her first emergency dialysis, she goes into V-fib but is revived, to Maggie's great relief. Goodwin looks on while Maggie comforts her.
As Dr. Abrams is scrubbing in to perform the surgery on Gabriel to remove the bullet, Will storms in and begs him not to do it, admitting that he made the decision to talk the parents into it out of emotion. Dr. Abrams bites back that it is too late to change the parents' minds because Will made such a strong case for the removal.
In her office, Maggie informs Goodwin that she is going to apply for the Family Medical Leave Act in order to get the time off to recover after her kidney donation surgery. Goodwin wants to understand what makes Sydney so different from any other patient such that Maggie is willing to do this for her. Maggie replies that there is not necessarily anything different about her, but that she sees so much suffering around her that she is determined to take this chance to make things right while she has the opportunity.
While talking to Britt's mother, Monique informs Dr. Charles that Britt has taken off. Her mother is certain she took off to go get high. Ethan hopes she doesn't OD.
In the cafeteria, Will apologizes to Connor for going behind his back to Gabriel's family, and expresses his sympathy for Connor being brought before the peer review board. Connor reacts nonchalantly that it is not a big deal.
While Britt's mother frantically tries to reach her daughter by phone, Dr. Charles attempts to make her reflect on how many times she has gone through this already, and whether this time she should let it go, to which she storms out in anger.
Dr. Rhodes is called into the peer review room. Before even sitting down he claims full responsibility, but Dr. Latham informs him that he is not there to testify, but to receive their apology. Apparently Dr. Bekker has convinced them that all of his decisions were medically and ethically sound, to which Connor tries to argue that Ava may not be aware of all the details, but he is quickly shut down and dismissed from the room. Outside, he confronts Ava about her statement, but she dismisses him and emphatically tells him "I did it for you... I'd do anything for you", leaving him behind in confusion.
Gabriel has woken up from his surgery, and Dr. Abrams informs Will that the surgery was a success, to Will's great relief. Dr. Abrams admonishes him about his recent behavior and tells him to "get his head out of his ass."
Dr. Manning convinces Phillip to go home and get some sleep, as there is nothing he can do for Sophie while they wait for the antibiotics to do their work.
In her office, Connor tells Goodwin that he is not comfortable with the way things turned out with the peer review panel, but Goodwin dismisses him saying she understands the decisions he made, considering that they led to the saving of Will's life, and that what is right and what is wrong is not always clear.
In the on-call room, Will and Connor express their relief at how Gabriel's case turned out. As Will leaves to go find Natalie, Dr. Lanik walks in and congratulates Connor on being cleared by the peer review board. He tells Connor he probably thought he was the snitch, but reveals that it could not have been him because he was not in the ICU at the time and wasn't there to witness the events. He speculates on who could have been there, and why they chose this moment to come forward and make the complaint, months after the fact, and that Connor "has an enemy out there."
While leaving the hospital for the night, Phillip thanks Dr. Manning again for helping him get through the situation with Sophie. She tells him he can call her Natalie, and just as Will looks out the window from the story above them, they hug. He confronts her about the hug and accuses her of using the issue of his gun to hide the fact that she is in love with someone else, to which she incredulously replies that Phillip just needed the support. Will angrily replies that so does he, and walks away.
Outside, Connor confronts Ava about his suspicion that she made the anonymous complaint, which she denies. He tells her that she is like a pyromaniac who sets fires just to be able to put them out, citing that she also slept with his father and cut her hand on the scalpel on purpose. He tells her she should get some help, but she counters that she has supported him all the way, and that he is the one who needs help, before walking away angrily.
In the OR, Sydney and Maggie are prepared for their kidney transplant surgery, with Goodwin accompanying Maggie in loving support.