Choices is the ninth episode of Season 1 and the ninth overall of Chicago Med. It aired on February 9, 2016.
Summary[]
Dr. Halstead jeopardizes his career when he goes against a family's order regarding a terminally ill cancer patient. Meanwhile, April and Dr. Reese treat a homeless man, and Choi's personal issues emerge while caring for a bipolar patient.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Nick Gehlfuss as Dr. Will Halstead
- Yaya DaCosta as April Sexton
- Torrey DeVitto as Dr. Natalie Manning
- Rachel DiPillo as Dr. Sarah Reese
- Colin Donnell as Dr. Connor Rhodes
- Brian Tee as Dr. Ethan Choi
- S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin
- Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles
- Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood
Crossover Cast[]
Recurring Cast[]
- Gregg Henry as Dr. David Downey
- Julie Berman as Dr. Samantha Zanetti
- Susie Abromeit as Zoe Roth
- Eva Kaminsky as Jennifer Baker
- Ross Kimball as Sal Baker
- Lorena Diaz as Nurse Doris
- Gordon Chow as Nurse Anthony
- Cesar Jaime as Paramedic Cesar
- Courtney Rioux as Paramedic Courtney
Guest Cast[]
- William Stanford Davis as Edward Brennan
- Angel Desai as Olivia Gray
- Moira Hughes as Bailey
- Erin Elizabeth as Orderly
Plot[]
The episode begins with Dr. Choi working on the punching bag, as he was unable to sleep. At the hospital, Lieutenant Goodwin tells Maggie about the new patient satisfaction forms. She informs Maggie that every patient should be asked if they want to fill one out.
A woman was at a coffee shop and fainted. She enters the hospital unresponsive. Dr. Halstead is given the case, Dr. Manning helps and nurse April assists. The patient has cancer. Her husband arrives minutes later with their daughter. He tells Manning that his wife has a terminal cancer diagnosed four years prior and has a DNR request. They have her records and give them to Dr. Will and Natalie. The patient wishes to go home, but she still needs care so she demands to stay at the trauma room and to not be admitted. Dr. Manning is looking at the patient's history and tells Will that she has been through a lot. Will doesn't agree with the DNR, as he says she's not thinking about her family.
Pharmaceutical representative Zoe walks in, and it states clear that both spent a few nights together. She asks him if he wants some samples of a new asthma drug. However, Will doesn't seem interested. He asks her about a clinical trial her company was doing, but she tells Will that the trial is over. She tells Will she will make some calls and see what she can do. Zoe manages to get the patient into the trial.
Will informs the patient about the possibility of the medical trial being a success, but she is not interested in it. She wants to go home and die in peace with her family. Natalie doesn't support Will in front of the patient, so he confronts her about it. Natalie tells him that the patient has made her wishes very clear. Will tells her that his mother died of cancer and if she had had access to a drug like that, she could still be alive.
Dr. Halstead finds the husband at the vending machine and asks him to talk to his wife as the clinical trial is being a success. After a while, Halstead goes to his patient, who is in code blue. She has a DNR sign put in place, but Halstead unwittingly ignores it and decides to revive her. He puts his career on the line for this woman as he can't let go of his mother's memory. Dr. Manning doesn't agree with him and tries to stop him, as what he is doing is illegal. The woman is intubated and upset at Will for going against her wishes. Maggie tells Halstead that Sharon has called him up to the office. Since the husband didn't tell him to resuscitate the wife, he went against her DNR wishes. Sharon tells him that the situation is not about him, but about the patient and her wants. Lieutenant Goodwin calls Halstead to her office, reprimands him for violating the DNR policy, and orders him to stay away from the patient and her family. Halstead asks Natalie if she is still stable. Natalie is clearly infuriated at him and tells him she is no longer his patient. Furthermore, she tells him that he says he respects her, but keeps dismissing her.
Meanwhile, a 14-year-old boy with three penetrating wounds arrives. He jumped a fence at a construction site and impaled himself. Dr. Rhodes, Reese and April attend to the teenager. Reese shows improvement with center lines. The boy has a hole in his right ventricle so Rhodes opens his chest in the trauma room and staples the hole. It's a temporary fix so he sends the boy to the OR with an open chest. The surgeon is Dr. Zanetti. They are both working on the boy when Dr. Downey enters the OR. He asks Rhodes to change gloves and help him with the heart. He says no as Dr. Zanetti is the heart surgeon. However, Dr. Downey teases him about not being up to the part and with eye contact Sam allows Rhodes to assist Dr. Downey.
After the surgery, Downey compliments Rhodes by telling him he has no tremors and that even for a young guy that's pretty good. Zanetti is clearly jealous about what happened. After a while, a woman who's a math professor was found unconscious at her desk at work. Dr. Choi is assigned to the case. Dr. Charles is paged to his case as the woman is having some kind of psychotic episode. The professor says the numbers are trying to escape and she's trying to take the catheter away so the numbers don't leave. Since she is hurting herself she is put to sleep. Apparently the woman was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder when she was 18 years old. Her kidneys were failing so when she was put through dialysis her kidneys improved but it washed the medication away, thus the episode.
Dr. Choi tells Dr. Charles that the effects of her medication can kill her so she needs to go to the kidney's transplant list. Dr. Charles and the professor share a conversation. Dr. Choi stops by and impressed by her recovery asks Dr. Charles what he had replaced the medication with. He reveals he hasn't changed the medication. The patient is doing the exact same treatment that could kill her. After talking to her, Dr. Charles says the patient realized she couldn't be who she wanted to be or live the life she wanted to live without the medication. Dr. Choi then asks Dr. Charles why can't the patient cope with her condition and learn how to live with it. The two exchange words about the case.
Elsewhere, Maggie informs everyone about the new patient satisfaction forms and tells them that every patient that has been treated has to fill one out. She also tells them that a P&P isolation case, Reese is assigned the case with April assisting. April tells Reese what P&P stands for: pediculosis and pthiriasis AKA Lice Infestation.
The homeless man is sorry to be bothering them but he found it hard to keep clean. The man reveals he hadn't showered since the previous summer. After the treatment, the man is given a hospital gown and is sent to another room. Later on, Reese gives the man some clothes, but he asks her to lay down for a few minutes. Reese agrees and asks the patient if he wants to fill the patient satisfaction form. When Reese checks on him after a while, and she realizes that the man has passed away after giving her the perfect score on the form. Maggie tells Sarah he came in to die, as he was homeless; he just wanted to die somewhere clean.
Later on, Dr. Downey calls Dr. Rhodes to assist a AV replacement on a 65 year old lady. Dr. Rhodes doesn't understand why him. Dr. Downey tells him it's to work on the suturing technique as he can be faster. Rhodes later finds Sharon and asks why she approved him assisting Dr. Downey. Sharon tells him that it is Dr. Downey, if that's what he wants she approves. Rhodes reveals he has a problem with the situation. Rhodes goes up to Dr. Downey for some answers. He is a trauma fellow and doesn't understand why Downey wants him to assist him. Downey tells him a story about a couple who were in a car crash. The wife survived but the husband didn't. So his heart was transplanted to another person. When that person finds the donor's wife he told her he was sorry for his last words as they were so angry and wants her to know he loves her. Downey says it wasn't the man talking but the heart. Rhodes says it's a beautiful story he remember from when he was in 8th grade. He tells Downey he is more comfortable in trauma. So Downey tells him he will leave him alone.
Rhodes finds Zanetti at the doctors' common room and tells her Downey got Goodwin to assign Rhodes to him on a on-going basis. Sam is shocked he didn't accept Downey's proposition and calls him a coward.
Meanwhile, a 58 year old male is admitted after a car crash. Rhodes is exiting but attends to the case. He realizes the man is actually Dr. Downey. He asks Maggie to inform Lieutenant Goodwin who upon arrival asks Maggie to call oncology and reveals Downey has liver cancer, diagnosed 6 months prior. Rhodes finally understands why Downey wanted him so hard under his wing. After realizing the seriousness of his condition, he decided to find someone he could teach and had the ability to do what he did. Rhodes wonders what he saw in him and didn't on the other surgeons.
Lieutenant Goodwin is paged and informs Dr. Halstead the hospital is being sued and so is Halstead. She doesn't suspend Halstead, but depending on how the case goes, he might be on his way out.
Roth stops by to tell Will he did the right thing and that when she's feeling better after being on the new drug she will thank him. Zoe invites him for a drink.
Dr. Choi tells Dr. Charles a story about a woman who walked from a village ten miles away with her 3 year old daughter in her arms that looked like she was sleeping. However, a blast wave from a mortal round burst her lungs. He reveals he can't sleep, he has nightmares because he can't stop seeing her. He tried to cope but can't do it any longer. Dr. Charles just tells him he is glad he stopped by, he will help Choi deal.
The episode ends with Downey waking up to Rhodes at his side agreeing to being under his wing.
Names in other languages[]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | 蘇生させないでください | Do Not Resuscitate |
| Spanish | Decisiones Difíciles | Tough Decisions |
| Italian | Prendere le Decisioni | Making the Decisions |
| French | De Nombreuses Décisions | Many Decisions |
| German | Eine Entscheidende Entscheidung | A crucian decision |
| Korean | 부활할까 말까 | To resurrect or not |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 不进行复苏 | Do Not Resuscitate |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 不要復甦 | Do Not Resuscitate |
