St. Elsewhere

St. Eligius is spared the final fury of the wrecker’s ball, after a huge conglomerate company comes to the rescue, the doctors and staff return to a refurbished, shiny new hospital.

Dr. Westphall fumes when he is second-guessed by Dr. Gideon, the new head of St. Eligius, who vows to ‘tame’ the hospital staff.

Dr. Westphall’s resolve to push Ecumena to provide an AIDS-patient program may instead push him out the door of St Eligius forever, and the hospital staff is dismayed at the prospect of losing his fatherly presence.

Just as the progressive Dr. Gideon battens down the hatches for a strike by orderlies, Auschlander’s interest in maintaining the hospital’s old values seems to ebb, forcing Gideon to give the former chief of services a pep talk to keep him from leaving.

It’s a wild ’n’ wooly Halloween when Craig performs the hospital’s first artificial-heart transplant (on a cuddly sheep who captures his sympathy) while Chandler angles for the post of chief resident by treating Gideon’s buddy who’s stabled in a haunted room.

Newlywed Ehrlich feels pangs of conscience when he is invited with Craig to the traditionally all-male Cushing Society Convention, and is paired off with a high-priced call girl.

Craig must ‘play God’ when he interviews a field of needy cardiac candidates: one will receive his new artificial heart, the others will die.

Craig’s decision to implant his newly designed artificial heart in a less-than-willing patient is questioned when complications arise during surgery and the recipient’s quality o life is negligible.

Time seems to be ticking everyone off as Craig laces up the gloves and enters the square circle to reclaim some of his lost and bloodies youth, and Fiscus (minutes from turning thirty) abandons all caution and plays an impractical joke on an angry Gideon.

A sizable media contingent waits as doctors gently prod the hospital’s first artificial-heart recipient to walk, roll over or even crawl before the camera, but he refuses to budge.

An AIDS patient reconsiders his worsening condition and decides to part from his lover; Ehrlich is sympathetic toward a curious inventor who enjoys the company of various dummies (human and otherwise); Kiem shows kindness to a discharged senior citizen with no place to go, then confronts Rosenthal on her suspected drug addiction; and a demented stockbroker tries to liquidate all his assets.

After discontinuing his own chemotherapy, Auschlander defies Gideon and tries to stave off death for a fellow cancer patient by enrolling her in a controversial and experimental treatment program.

Kiem brushes aside the threats of gang members as she struggles to save one of their rivals who was shot.

Morrison must inform a patient that she has incurable Huntington’s disease, and her children must decide if they want to be tested.

Novino is toughed by the devotion of a chivalrous elderly man who brings in his childhood sleeping beauty in the hope that the doctors can magically snap her out of a sixty year ‘spell.’

Craig’s life becomes a shambles when Gideon temporarily kicks him out of St Eligius during a malpractice suit, his divorcing wife kicks him out of his home and a thieving bum just plain kicks his tail - leaving the doctor among the unwashed and homeless.

Westphall seems content in his role as the country doctor in Peterborough but Craig’s withering assault on hi new life and motives gives him reason to pause. And his house guests (as Westphall notes in his asides to the audience) have their own problems: Craig is bitter about his split-up; Ellen sheds tears at returning home; Novino rates her life as a mess; and Lizzie feels unloved.

Some of the doctors shyly agree to an experimental surgery procedure which requires them to work unclothed. A dewy-eyed Auschlander greets the son he never Knew, and bone-weary Morrison and Novino find enough strength to share an intimate moment.

A suspended Craig isn’t around to help Axelrod whose life is threatened by a severe heart attack. Ellen breaks off her romance with Gideon, and Rosenthal confronts old demons when her family joins her in a rocky therapy session for her drug dependency.

A renewed Craig, returns to work with a vengeance, defies Gideon and arranges multiple-organ transplants from a single donor, which endangers the lives of the three recipients.

Lucy, searching for her missing hubby, gets unexpected help from in-laws Holga and Lech Oseransky; as Griffin and Novino await the results of their crucial exams, Griffin worries about the results of a more important test, one for AIDS. Gideon has Second thoughts about his administration of the hospital; Chandler, about his career; the Craigs, about divorce.

A private plane crashes into the side of the hospital; Morrison decides between Novino and his wife in Seattle; born-again Griffin awaits the results of a second AIDS test after the first proved positive; a reproached Gideon reconsiders his future; Luther suffers a devastating personal loss; and young Tommy Westphall turns St. Eligius upside down.