Geiger and Austin perform a highly experimental heart operation. Kronk asks Grad to help him end his ailing father’s life. A woman claims to have experienced a holy vision in the hospital lobby.
Nyland is charged with murder. Grad tells Kronk that she and Shutt kissed. A loopy teenager thinks McNeil is his father. Emma asks Watters if he will move with her to Paris.
An Assistant State’s Attorney launches an investigation after the mother of a mortally-wounded gangbanger accuses the hospital of letting her son die.
Sara’s friend is fatally injured during a baseball game. Watters’ former commanding officer in Vietnam refuses treatment for severe arthritis. Shutt guest-hosts a television talk show. Wilkes catches Ricky taking medical supplies from the hospital.
A newspaper reporter authors a profile on Austin. McNeil’s gambling addiction influences his decision to operate on a dying infant. Kronk and Grad have second thoughts about their engagement.
A woman who tested positive for a breast cancer gene requests a double mastectomy. Nyland empathizes with an unconscious Jane Doe. Austin pressures her daughter to apply to a private all-girl school.
Nyland is seriously injured in a car accident. Austin fights to save the life of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author in need of a heart transplant. McNeil loses the last of his savings in a poker game.
Shutt meets his real father. Watters and his estranged son aid a wounded gangbanger. Austin befriends a dying eleven-year-old genius.
Watters and Shutt’s proposal for operating Chicago Hope angers many doctors. A whiny, rotund patient with dubious symptoms tests Wilkes’ patience. Kronk fibs on an insurance report.
Austin and Wilmette travel to Washington where they attend a Senate Sub-committee conference on the nation’s health care crisis. The opportunity arises for Marina to adopt a baby from a pregnant teenager.
Austin’s friend undergoes fertility treatments. Shutt opts for experimental gene therapy when Stockton’s health deteriorates. A cancer patient requests marijuana to ease her pain.
Shutt’s old friend, a practical jokester, claims he is dying of cancer; Wilkes’ wife has a miscarriage; Shutt encounters Geiger in a hotel lobby; and a patient dies after Nyland and Wilkes clash over a diagnosis.
White supremacists seize a group of hostages inside a grocery market. Kronk and Austin put themselves in harm’s way to save the life of a supremacist’s son. Nyland, McNeil, Wilkes and Shutt operate on a policeman injured during a shoot-out.
A woman faces losing both her children after her automobile is involved in a hit-and-run collision. A couple decides to see their baby to term despite the health risk it poses to the mother. Hancock’s shooter is brought to trial.
Wilkes proposes a radical surgical procedure to save the life of a suicidal man stricken with cancer. McNeil befriends a young patient whose father apparently has little time for his family.
McNeil attempts to graft an accident victim’s left hand onto his right arm. Armed guards deliver a mummy to the hospital. A woman finds herself attracted to her brutish ex-husband after he suffers memory loss.