Chicago Med – Things Meant to Be Bent Not Broken - Review

In this episode, we get an opportunity to find some closure with some past storylines, and see some significant movement forward with other current storylines. We also have some new stories begin that I am sure we will see develop into some excitement in the weeks to come.

Goodwin, Dr. Halstead, Dr. Archer and Gretchen

We open with the Chicago Med legal team briefing Will on the settlement with Vascom. They are each entitled to a portion of the settlement and it is 1.2 million dollars each. Goodwin has decided to donate hers to the hospital charitable foundation and Dr. Shentu pressures Will to do the same.

Will hears a patient crying and goes to check on her. Her name is Gretchen Cameron and Dr. Archer says that she has diverticulitis and needs surgery. She is getting married in a week and thinks her fiancé and mother in law will be upset that she will be walking down the aisle with an ostomy bag, but Dr. Archer said it was the only option she had.

Will approaches Dr. Archer to see if he would consider doing an NG tube and more antibiotics, and Dr. Archer is very upset at being second guessed. Goodwin steps in to mediate and tells Dr. Halstead to keep out of Dr. Archer’s case, but he feels strongly that he wants to spare her the surgery.

Will speaks to Miss Cameron anyway and she asks Dr. Archer for an NG tube, so he tells Will that he can waste his time doing the pointless procedure.

Dr. Halstead gets a basket delivered to the ED as a thank you for his donation, and Dr. Archer teases him, calling him “Mother Teresa”. He says imagine what he would get for a two million dollar donation.

Gretchen’s blood pressure drops and her heart rate goes up, and it appears she is septic now and needs urgent surgery. She says she wanted to try to treat it without surgery but Will tells her it is too late and it is an emergency now. Dr. Archer rushes her to the OR. In the OR waiting room he meets her fiancé and future mother in law, who are not very kind or supportive, and seem more concerned about the look of the ostomy bag.

Dr. Halstead goes in to see how she is doing and Goodwin is there and says he should not have interfered. Will then tells Sharon he feels she “screwed him” with her donation, because how would it look if he did not do the same, but he is drowning in debt. Sharon says if donating is not the right choice for him then don’t, but he cannot let personal matters affect him at work.

Will goes to check on Gretchen after surgery and she tells him that she has called everything off because her fiancé did not have her back with his mother. She says she is going to live her own life now, and not according to someone elses expectations and this hits home with Will.

We end with the press conference where they are celebrating Goodwin’s donation, and Will is watching when Dean walks up and asks if he missed Will’s turn in the spotlight. Will says no and that he decided to keep most of the money and only donated some, and Dean says “Finally, a smart decision out of you”.

While there seems to be a true love/hate relationship between Will and Dean, it was nice to see Will do something to help himself and allow him more stability, and not allow Dr. Shentu to pressure him into a decision that he did not want to do, and it was great to see Dr. Archer acknowledge that.

Vanessa, Dr. Charles, Dr. Richardson and Abby

Abby comes in and says that she is infested with mites. Vanessa does not see any infestation, but she begs for her to give her something to help get rid of the mites.

Dr. Charles is talking to Goodwin about her donation, and he goes to touch base to Vanessa as she feels the patient may have delusional paracytosis. Daniel says they will need to tread carefully as she likely will be opposed to the idea of psychiatry. They work together and she gets very upset when she thinks Dr. Taylor is calling her crazy.

Dr. Charles gets her to agree to him supervising her case and they find out that Abby used to see a psychiatrist at the Fisher Group which is where Lonnie works.

Dr. Richardson arrives and Dr. Charles introduces her Vanessa, and they ask for her to come bet them when Abby wakes up. They discuss that the best course of action would be to get her to take an antipsychotic, but they know she will refuse. They review the 4 criteria in which they are able to provide the medication without informing her what it is.

Abby wakes up from her nap and has on soft restraints and asks Dr. Charles if that was Dr. Taylor’s idea and he says no it was his because she was scratching in her sleep, and he did not want her to aggravate her condition. She asks to have her linens swapped out.

Dr. Charles says that he thinks he has a medication that will help her, and asks for her to trust him and take the medication, and she does.

Abby’s delusion begins breaking and Vanessa thanks him for helping, and he and Lonnie discuss that he will have to tell her the truth and he asks her to wait. He goes in to talk to Abby and she is upset that he lied to her and says he must think she is crazy and he says he does not. She says he was lying to her from the start and was afraid she would flip out. Daniel says that actually he was afraid she would walk out no better than she came in and that the next time she came in she would be way past the point that any medication could help her, so he did what he thought was in her best interests.

She says he tricked her but he says she is already enough outside her delusion to talk about it, and he encourages her to keep taking the medication. He goes to leave and she gets upset as she has not had anyone to talk to in a long time. He said that he did not think that she wanted to talk anymore and they discuss the importance having someone to talk to. He then introduces her to Dr. Richardson, and she finds out that she worked with Dr. Levine, who was her old doctor.

This storyline was a nice development in the Daniel/Lonnie relationship, and it would be wonderful to see some romance for our dear friend, Dr. Charles.

Dr. Scott, Maggie and Lelana

The paramedics bring in a young woman who was hit on her motorcycle and briefly lost consciousness. She refuses to let go of her bag for x-rays. Doris promises they will take good care of it, and Dylan asks her to see if Maggie can get any ID. Dr. Scott pops her shoulder back in and sends her for a CT scan.

Maggie is looking and finds her ID, but Dylan wants to look in her bag as he feels she may be a drug dealer and he finds a brick of something in the bag. He thinks it is likely heroine. Lelana has no medical records at all, and Dylan wants to call his sister, but Maggie says that by law, once they found the ID they should not have looked any further, and so he says he will stand down.

After her scans, they find she has a small pneumothorax, and he speaks to her and she says she wants her bag back and she knows her rights. They give her back her bag and she looks inside, and he says he will check in on her in a bit. A man comes in stating he is her cousin, but he has a tattoo on his neck that Dylan recognizes as Serbian Mafia.

Doris comes to tell Dr. Scott that Lelana is signing out against medical advice, and he recommends to her that she not leave yet and wants to get another x-ray. Suddenly she collapses and is having trouble breathing and intense pain. They get her back onto the stretcher and get her on oxygen and another portable xray.

The small pneumothorax from earlier has grown and her lung is collapsed by 60%. She says she is not staying and so Dylan says he will give her more time. She says her cousin left, and he notices the bag is gone and so he asks Maggie if she saw him leave and says he is going to call it in.

Dylan is called out to the ambulance bay, and meets Lieutenant Regina Jefferies, who works out of narcotics. He says he feels this visit is related to the call he made to his sister. She asks if there is any way that he could discharge her today, if she was needed on the street today.

Dr. Scott puts in a small valve chest tube for some temporary relief, and tells her she will need to come back and have it changed out, and tells her this is not what he wants to do, but he understands that this is important. He tells her her instincts were right and he was a cop. She then asks for privacy to get dressed, and he tells her to be safe out there.

Dylan is at home when Lelana shows up at his door. She says she was supposed to come get the valve replaced and he says he cannot do it there and that he will take her to the hospital. She comments on his graduation photo from the Police Academy at Navy Pier and he asks how she knew. Then he says “I guess it takes one to know one”, meaning she is an undercover cop. One can only get the sense that there is a possible storyline or even romance in the future for these two. We will have to wait and see.

Dr. Blake, Dr. Marcel, Andre and the Transplant team

Dr. Blake and Dr. Marcel go in to talk to Andre, who is getting a liver transplant and a heart transplant due to a condition called Familial Hypercholesteremia. Dr. Blake has already completed one transplant on him, and she gives him a toy because that is what she did the first time and all went well. Dr. Morris arrives and he is responsible for the cardiac portion. Andre says he is ready and they exit the room and begin to discuss how to proceed with their approach due to his previous transplant.

Dr. Morris is there listening and laughs and says that it is cute that Dr. Blake has “a pet General Surgeon”, and Dr. Blake says he is an integral part of the team. He says it is good to know he is still an important part of the team and she has his back, and she tells him that at long as he can keep his personal feelings in check, he will always have a spot in her OR.

Andre is bleeding a great deal during the liver transplant and Dr. Marcel and Dr. Blake try a number of different approaches to try to figure out why he continues to bleed so badly while anesthesia tries to keep up with blood transfusions. Dr. Morris tells them to figure it out as he doesn’t want a bad outcome because they cannot find a bleeder, and leaves the OR and says to call him when they are ready to close. Dr. Marcel realizes that the cardiac anastomosis is to tight and is causing the backflow pressure and bleeding. The CVT resident says not to touch it, so Dr. Marcel tells him that he needs to get Dr. Morris back in there then, and Dr. Blake tells him to do the cardiac repair.

Andre’s mom meets them in recovery and asks how Andre is, and Dr. Marcel tells her his vital signs are stable. Dr. Morris says the surgery took a little longer than expected but his team did an excellent job and he expects Andre to make a full recovery. He then tells Crockett to never touch his repairs and when Crockett tells him he had no choice, Dr. Morris says he is making a disciplinary complaint against him and calls him arrogant. Dr. Marcel says he will not apologize for stepping in because the patients life was on the line and Dr. Morris says he just wanted to play hero. When Dr. Marcel says that he was just fixing Dr. Morris’s mistake, he head butt’s Crockett, causing a cut over his eyebrow. Dr. Blake breaks it up and asks Dr. Morris what is wrong with him.

Pamela fixes up Crockett’s cut and tells him she has no idea how he kept his cool. They kiss as the episode comes to a close, so clearly our Marcel/Blake love affair is still going to be a running theme during the season to come.

What did you think of this episode of Chicago Med? Share your thoughts in the comments below.