St. Elsewhere

Ninety-year-old Father McCabe, founder of St. Eligius, returning to the hospital in ill health and prepared for death.

Dr. Craig attempts his first surgery since injuring his hand; Dr. Morrison tries to deal with his new wife’s two children and Dr. Wade is very troubled by her husband’s request for a divorce.

Vietnamese surgeon Paulette Kiem replaces the injured and angry Dr. Craig. An apartment dweller across from the hospital spies on the staff from her window - and takes pity on the crestfallen Craig.

Ellen Craig’s patience wears thin as convalescing Dr. Craig gets underfoot and a sympathetic maid compounds the problem.

A dying boy, with the aid of Dr. Westphall, helps his parents come to terms with his fatal illness.

Dr. Craig’s sweet dream of saving Dr. Auschlander’s life turns into a nightmare.

Dr. Craig’s life is thrown into a tizzy when the elusive John Doe #6 begins thinking he is Craig.

Dr. Ehrlich becomes a tyrant when he is put in charge of drug-testing his staff; and Luther recruits Dr. Craig to do a magic act for the children’s ward.

Unaware of the tremendous efforts to save his life, the unconscious Fiscus mentally visits heaven, hell and purgatory and meets some ghosts from his past - including the long-dead Dr. Peter White.

Dr. Westphall reluctantly decides to end his romance with Dr. Novino. Dr. Auschlander plans to renew his wedding vows after forty years of marriage.

Dr. Westphall tries to help his new friend, an alcoholic poet who refuses to admit his life is in danger.

Craig pitches hard to reinstate his maid’s husband, a Soviet doctor, the better to get them out of his house; Richard Clarendon, Rosenthal’s balding ‘paramour,’ considers drastic measures to ensure her affection; and Turner is under pressure when she learns a couple expecting their first baby have record of filing malpractice suits.

Dr. Craig crosses scalpels with his maid’s husband, a Russian surgeon who advocates laser surgery (which would make Craig’s cutting obsolete).

Axelrod is called on Westphall’s Carpet for not trusting his own judgment to flood a patient with antibiotics; an overworked Dr. Kiem tries to keep her long-distance marriage flickering; and Luther takes pity on a destitute woman suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome who cannot tolerate the becalming side effects of her medicine.

Griffin squirms when Westphall’s daughter asks him home to dinner to tell him she’s pregnant; Novino ponders how to tell a loving family that their late father’s head won’t be available for casket viewing; Auschlander is given who choices - Sell St. Eligius to a private medical corporation of padlock the doors; and Chandler clashed with an elderly ‘fat cat’ physician.

Auschlander learns some shocking news from his past when his former flame returns for eye surgery, and Novino risks a reprimand when she tries to shelter a wounded, blind indigent.

Fiscus and the staff have the pleasure of treating a dangerous, bigoted biker who manhandles the female nurses; and Chandler’s apartment is burglarized.

Fiscus helps a dentist prone to lapsing into twilight sleep; a feuding Lucy and Ehrlich bury the hatchet and give way to passion; pressured by family problems, Kiem stomps out of surgery when Craig tries to meddle; and a troubled Morrison is called to appear at a parole board hearing for Nick Moats, the con who attacked him in a prison riot.

When the woman who had been artificially inseminated by Fiscus returns to St. Eligius, he cannot compromise the confidentiality of his donor agreement. However, he beams with paternal pride and is overindulgent with her care.

Lucy and Ehrlich delight in letting everyone speculate that they were secretly married; Chandler and Novino use a patient as a field of competition to decide whose diagnosis is correct; Griffin ponders a long-term relationship with Wade after spending a night with her; Craig fears he’s married ‘Mother Teresa’ when wife Ellen brings home an ex-college buddy who’s now an indigent.

When Ebenezer Wright arrives from Magna-Fujiyama to assess their new property, he suffers a heart attack. Meanwhile, vintage scenes of the hospital’s recent history are recalled: an anxious husband crashes his car into the emergency room; a spoiled woman is paired with an elderly patient; and the obnoxious Mrs. Hufnagel harasses the staff.

Dr. and Mrs. Craig’s worst dream materializes when the mother of their baby granddaughter recovers enough to return for her infant.

St. Eligius’s vital signs flicker and Westphall desperately tries to stave off the wrecker’s ball by making eleventh hour pitches to historical commissions and anyone else who might provide a stay of execution for his beloved hospital. Meanwhile, everyone evacuates the old hospital hoping for work elsewhere and a distressed Auschlander lies unconscious inside.