I was just going to comment on how mad Romono got in Viable Options. I thought it was almost out of character, but then again how well do we really know Romono? Anyway can you acutually be suspended for doing a simple, uncomplicated procedure if you have the legal conent? (It was legal for Kerry to do it when Mark signed it, right?) Especially if it would make the patient more comfortable. Another thing, while Kerry was doing the central line, as soon as Carol walked in and the binds were shut on the door, did anyone thinh Kerry was a hypocrite? Because this was sorta like what Doug did with baby Josh. And is it possible to be revoked from handing out presrcriptions, just for one mistake? I really don't think Benton needed to have his revoked. And I loved Carter's little Brrr when Romono lift the room. Abby's Can I go? and then leaving was good to.

One more comment, looks like all that stuff with bipolar, may just happen, especially if you saw the preview for next weeks epi. The one up here in Canada said something like "and Carter begins to loose contol" and then you see him throw a tray, push Deb out of the way while doing an intubation and then he throws his gloves. What did the one in NBC look like? Also does anyone know the title of next weeks epi?

Comments?

Amy

-- Amy (areinders@hotmail.com), April 06, 2000

Answers

as soon as i saw kerry going against what romano said, i really did think right away that she was a hypocrite. she said that it was perfectly okay for her to do it, since she had mark's signature, but then she told carol not to get involved...hrm, kind of contradicting herself

-- Marcia (mlg244@is9.nyu.edu), April 06, 2000.

I was thinking the EXACT same thing. I could tell what Kerry was going to do as soon as Ramano wouldn't do the central line. All I could think of was Doug and that whole thing with the kid with CF, or whatever that disease was. Kerry's becoming a softy isn't she?

-- Kimmy (swiss_cheesed1953@yahoo.com), April 06, 2000.

Just when I thought Romano would be okay, he orders Kerry ignore a "useless" patient. How insensitive is that! That was pretty amazing that even he could be that rude. I'm glad Kerry did it, but yes, she is a hypocrit. I hope Carol brings this to her attention. (nicely, of course, just before she leaves to go to Doug!)

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), April 06, 2000.

Amy, the epi on April 13th is titled "A Match Made in Heaven." There's more spoiler information under the spoiler category for that epi so I won't repeat it here. The 20th is a rerun of "Humpty Dumpty." My bet would be there would be four new episodes after that OR one more rerun and then three or four new episodes.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 06, 2000.

Amy--can you say more about the Canada preview? I heard they said nothing about Doug's offer to Carol, but what else did it say about Carter and stuff?

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), April 07, 2000.

Hey, just had to throw my two cents in about Kerry being hypocritical. I did notice the definite irony of her disobeying orders exactly as Doug used to do, but the Doug/Kerry conflict was long enough ago that I feel she may have had time to develop her character in between. If this had happened one or two episodes after her fight with Doug, I would put it more into the "hypocrite" category. I also got the impression that what she was doing was "getting around the rules" whereas Doug tended to outright break them. Also, my nominee for Look of the Week - that little smile Romano gave the girl's mother as he prepared to go on the warpath for Kerry. There was so much conveyed in that look! Any other thoughts? Becky

-- Becky (pattonrd@muohio.edu), April 07, 2000.

What I thought was a bit weard was when Romano told Kerry that, to her foster mother, the girl was "a pet". I just wanted to tell him : then you should understand because we know what you did for your own pet!

-- Manon (brault@saglac.qc.ca), April 07, 2000.

I was also thinking Kerry seemed like a bit of a hypocrit. Perhaps that's part of the reason she refused to let Carol help? Anybody else notice how very similar that whole scenario was to the Baby Josh incident? I doubt that was a coincidence. I actually thought to myself, "Doug let Carol help." Anybody find Carol's presence in the Pedes ER bordering on depressing? Last year they used that empty room to show us Carol's lonliness, and there seemed to be a dramatic pause tonight -- almost like when Carol saw the blinds closed she half-expected to walk in and find Doug breaking the rules.

If anybody remembers, last year, Kerry did something for a patient (the one she first thought was her mother) which basically went against the DNR order. Carol did approach her when she found out, telling Kerry it was a bit hypocritical because "Doug did what he thought was best for his patient." Kerry grew a bit angry and asked Carol if she was under the impression that she (Kerry) drove Doug out of County. Carol responded by saying something along the lines of "You didn't help," because Kerry wanted him out of there. Kerry then tells Carol she refuses to have that argument. Carol begins to pursue the confrontation further when Kerry tells her that the patient is her mother. Immediately Carol lets the disagreement drop. I've often wondered if it would come up again.

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 07, 2000.

Having a special needs daughter myself that loves the muppets,doesn't walk or talk and has had breathing problems and seizures,I sure would hope for a doctor like Kerry,hypocrite or not,rather than one like Romano,who thinks my daughter is a drain on society.I'm sure glad there weren't any doctors like him around when my baby was on a ventalator in icu.

-- Erin (Bittyone12@aol.com), April 07, 2000.

No, I don't think that Kerry is a hypocrite for doing the central line procedure. Her actions were, in her judgment, ethical, moral and medically necessary. She got the consent of another doctor, and specifically pointed out that the DFCS social worker was on board as well. Her actions were legal. What she told Carol was, This doesn't involve you. I heard that very clearly to mean, Romano is going to lose his mind over this; I don't want you in the line of fire. Unlike Mark (remember his "let me take the heat" line from last week [bwah-ha-ha]?), Kerry knew she was going to get nailed by Romano.

-- dana (shelbeydavid@netscape.net), April 07, 2000.

I'm siding with those who don't think that Kerry was a hypocrite. She was doing what the patient needed, not some unproven therapy (Baby Josh) or ethics-compromising pain relief (ALD boy). I loved the tone she took with Romano after he found her out ("I took your opinion into consideration" or whatever she said)...very restrained, trying not to explode in his face. Loved the acting job.

Also, to answer those who felt Kerry was being hypocritical... remember her soft spot for those born "imperfect" or "damaged" in some way...the girl really needed an advocate, and Kerry seems to relish those roles...not quite "motherly" but sort of uniquely, Kerry-esque "protecting".

-- nancy (ntc72@mailcity.com), April 07, 2000.

I agree that Kerry always works hard for the disabled (or people that others see as "useless" like Romano would say) because she sees a lot of herself in them. I think she feels like she was "thrown away" by her birth mother and so she has a personal relation to some of these situations.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), April 07, 2000.

I agree that Kerry took the actions she did because of her feelings about being "abandoned" or "useless." However, we need to realize that, from what we know of Doug's childhood, he grew up rather fast. His actions, to me, signify his need to give other children that something he never had. I believe they were both emotionally driven. The ultra- rapid detox saved Baby Josh from the agony of withdrawal and gave him a chance to be "normal." Doug's actions with the PCA machine allowed the child's mother to end her son's horrible suffering. Other people were dragged into it, which shouldn't have happened, but I don't believe that his motives weren't due to emotions and a wish to protect the value of a childhood which he didn't experience. JMHO.

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 07, 2000.

i think kerry didnt let carol help, because she knew there would be hell to pay, and she didnt want carol to get fired, or anything. she was taking all the resposibility onto herself, which is what doug should have done, without getting carol involved.

-- Alexis (lexicat1@webtv.net), April 07, 2000.

Elaine, the Canadian Preview on CTV gave us three situations and none of them were about Carol and Doug, so if you could tell me about that, that would be great. Any way here are the three situations.

1. The voice over said taht "Carter is losing control" the first scene you see of this is him throwing a tray across the room and him yelling at Carol. The next scene of him is him pushing Deb out of the way as she is trying to intubate using that, sorry I don't know what it is called, thing with a camera on the end so she could see the chords. Anyway Carter pushes her out of the way and the thing comes out and Carter begins to intubate, while he is yelling at Deb, and then Deb just says John? And finally the last scene we see of Carter is him exiting a trama room and throwing his gloves down.

2. Elizaeth gats mad at Cleo over some patient, and then latter she tells Benton that he will not be operating on some boy and that she will be. Benton than asks Corday if she is using rank to get her way.

3. The voice over says that "Abby makes a grave decision" (Ithink that is what it said) and then you see a husband questionning Abby about his wife and than Carter comes and tells him that they can not tell him anything.

I hope that helps, and isn't the same as NBC's

Amy

-- Amy (areinders@hotmail.com), April 07, 2000.

I agree w/ Arianna and Alexis...Kerry and Doug made similar choices but because of different reasons...it's a shame Kerry didn't appreciate him more! My point about Kerry vs. Doug though was in the nature of the procedures themselves. Starting a central line in a patient is not out of the ordinary, and Kerry got the correct authorization from Mark to do it. Doug's procedures were more cutting edge, and he didn't bother to get the proper auth. And like Alexis said, Kerry did the proper thing by not allowing Carol to get involved (though Carol didn't insist too hard) whereas Doug let Carol get dragged into his sticky situation.

-- nancy (ntc72@mailcity.com), April 07, 2000.

One of the previous spoilers I've read for next week's epi is that Abby helps a woman (and mother of five children) decide to have an abortion without telling her husband.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 07, 2000.

One thing that bothered me about this was it was such a simple procedure. Doug broke the rules for a major, dangerous procedure. Kerry was simply doing an IV. How much does an IV really cost that the state couldn't pay for it, anyway? Yes, I know, if thousands of people needed central lines and the state had to pay for all of them, it would cost a lot, but this is one person. How come they refused?

Lyss

-- Alyssa (Alyssa12R@aol.com), April 07, 2000.

Thanks Amy, for the description of the Canadian previews. You guys always seem to get more detailed previews, except here they left out the Carol/Doug storyline. Maybe they didn't want to spoil the surprise. That's very interesting that Carter yelled at Carol and Deb, because I'm sure he will apologize later and both will ask him what's going on with him.

The U.S. previews where similar with the Abby and Carter storylines. Abby makes a decision to hide a patient, Carter "goes too far" and we hear Carol yell "What's wrong with you?" and then he throws something. Then as an overvoice says "and amidst all of this a voice comes back from the past..." as Carol and Carter are sitting next to each other in a trauma room, and Carter hands Carol a letter. Then we see Carol telling Mark "he asked me to move to Seattle again" and Mark asks her what she said. Then she looks confused. I can't wait.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), April 07, 2000.

I kind of feel like Kerry was having a hard time facing Carol after being caught red-handed doing a "Doug". Also, after seeing what Carol lost(the clinic, her management position, etc.) by being involved w/Doug's misdeeds, she was looking out for her by not letting her help.

With regards to the previews with the Carol/Doug storyline - I think I heard the NBC announcer say that it was going to be an exciting May so I thought that these were previews of shows we would see leading up to the Season Finale. Did anyone else hear the blurb about May??

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), April 08, 2000.

I saw it but it had so much...other shows and upcoming network movies...that ER seemed to get lost in it. I watched a tape of Noah Wyle on Leno this morning. As they were going to commercial they showed a clip...there was very little else about ER. I think the clip was shown just before he came out. Anyway, in it, Carter seemed agitated at Deb. She seemed to be about to intubate someone and he pushed her hands away and almost hit her in the face with them. Did anyone else see that?

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 08, 2000.

I have some what of a difference of an opinion on what Kerry said to Carol, when she asked if she needed any help putting the central line in the patient. I felt that she told Carol not to get involved, because she knew that Romano would eventually find out, and he would take action against her and anyone who helped with the process. I don't think she said that to sound rude or come off hypocritical.

-- Tina G. (super29@ticz.com), April 09, 2000.