Patman

"nicu"

Abby and Neela spend a rotation in the NICU and go through the ups and downs of watching babies premature and sick fight for their young lives.

Neela has a hard time dealing with the uncertainty of neonatal care, and the issues dealing with child abandonment. Abby helps a family through the ordeal of losing a child so young, so quickly as a blood infection leads to damaged intestines which leave the baby without the means to grow and thrive.

Sandy and Kerry have a baby boy, Kerry kept Sandy's pregnancy a secret all the way through.

This episode did its best to show that the NICU is a tough place to practice medicine, it is heartbreaking when babies lose the fight, in spite of efforts to help in treatment.

I have to wonder if the writers are doing their best to transition the main lead from Carter to Abby if/when Noah Wyle leaves. It feels that way.

B.A.

I think Noah Wyle is going to stick around, I think his wife had a kid in real life and they let him take an extended maternity leave so as not to alienate him. I believe they rewarded him w/ the extra time-off and a more supporting role this season for sticking w/ the show for ten years (and probably to avoid burnout).

Even though this ep featured Weaver, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Hell, I enjoy any ep that predominantly features Abby w/out her family. Maura Tierney and Parmanger Nagra (sp?) performed well together, imo. I liked the wise-ass doc that was on their rotation, too. Ditch the Morris character and put him on the show. The NICU resident was also decent.

Maura Tierney really showed her acting chops tonight - this was the kind of performance that gets someone nominated for an Emmy - imo, she is long overdue.

I hope there are no more story-lines in the NICU, they are much too emotional and depressing.

Buck Turgidson

Agreed, on all particulars. Especially about Maura and her lack of recognition. (Nothing new. The Emmy voters gave Juliana Marguiles' hard-earned award the year she was in The Long Way Around to Gillian Anderson...)

Glad that Weaver has come to terms with who she is since the Great Blackhawk Game Duckout Incident.

I liked the way they subtly reminded us of the other regulars by having Carter and Pratt show up for small stretches.

Excellent episode.

MrX

Great episode

I thought this one of the few episodes that lived up to the hype they give it in the ads.

I liked how it started off with Neela looking like the one that would be the standout student and Abby having problems and then at the end the roles were reversed with the attending telling Abby she's one of the best students she's ever had.

The scene at the end with Abby taking the dying infant out to his family when he only had an hour left to live was heartbreaking

I liked Weaver at the end showing more of a human side telling Abby to do the spinal tap after her gf asked the attending to do it.

A definte to Abby and Neela this week.

Patman

Abby's always had the gift of being a good doctor, it was her circumstances that prevented her from getting through med school, so she had to settle for nursing when she was added to the show. I applaud the writers for using Maura in ways that definitely keep her character's arc interesting and challenging (because Abby's far from perfect outside the ER, and has plenty of personal demons inside of her). There was a time where Abby's wacky family dragged ER down, I blame it on Sally Field getting an Emmy and the writers almost felt obligated to bring Abby's mom back, to the detriment of the show that year, and then her wacked out brother storyline didn't help either. But now they are finally letting the doctor inside of Abby shine through.

B.A.

I am also glad to see Abby and Carter getting along and being cordial to each other. I imagined there would be a little more conflict between the two, especially from her towards him. I still see a future for the two as a couple - I just can't see Thandie Newton becoming a permanent cast member. Something is going to happen to her and/or the baby.

Cusm

I thought it was a good episode, but OMFG!!! I was about to kill my wife. She is bad enough watching this show and nitpicking, but tonight the entire episode takes place in her field, and she was brutal. I had to tell her several times that is just tv.


And if you thought those stories were bad, you have no idea how bad they truly are, or at least at a level 1 NICU.

JasonF

Unless something has changed, Wyle is leaving ER at the end of the season. I assume Carter and Thandie Newton's character will head back to the Congo, never to be seen again until NBC pays Wyle a lot of money to do a guest stint one sweeps period (or Wyle's career doesn't go as he'd like, and he decides to come back).

Edit: Oops. My info was out of date. Wyle had been saying 2003-2004 was it for him, but apparently he signed a 1-year contract and agreed to come back for the 2004-2005 season.

B.A.

I thought he was staying around for at least another season after this one, thankfully you confirmed that. I think Abby and Carter might still end up together, because I wouldn't be surprised if next year is the last season. It will the 11th, I believe, and that is one hell of a run for a show, but it has to end sometime. Why drag it out further?

Exzavier00

who else cried?
im a wuss

tofu

Dang, that was a hard episode to watch. I felt that I would start crying after almost every scene.

The part where Abby puts the picture up and Neela takes her picture down and puts it in the crib had me closest to tears.

Rogue588

What happened to Coop? He just dropped off the face of the earth. I'd rather see more of him than Sam's hellspawn &/or Morris...

They could also let the Asian doctor who was in the NICU hang around since Chen is now MIA in the Orient.

Josh H

Great episode. Depressing, but great.

JasonF

Once again, no love for Ellen Crawford and Deezer D.

devilshalo

Not sure why Neela didn't understand the issue of girl abandonment? I'm unfamiliar with her character's background, but I could understand why that family (the father) was more than happy to ditch the girl when they had a healthy baby boy. That's been a big thing in China. Sad episode to watch.. especially that other family when they lost their son.

scoot95

I agree with everyone here that this was a great episode. Like everyone else, I was choked up quite a bit watching this. However for me, not only was it the content of the episode, but my daughter was born 11 weeks early on November 28, 2003 and irony of all ironies came home this past monday, the same week this episode aired. Watching this episode made me realize how lucky my wife and I are. Our daughter is doing just great. She was born at 3 pounds 5 ounces and is now up to about 6 pounds with no apparent lingering effects of her prematurity. I told my wife after the episode that even just last week I would not be able to watch this episode (we only found out last Friday that she was fit to come home).

What was mentioned in this episode is that the NICU staff not only attends to the needs of the babies, but also their families as well. This couldn't be more true. What my wife and I went through I don't wish upon anyone, but the NICU staff did plenty to put us at ease, not to mention the fact that they took great efforts to take care of our child.

Cudos to ER for bringing attention to NICU and the work that they perform. Although, a lot of parts of the episode was a bit off, it did effectively portray life in the NICU, something I want to never experience again, but something I will be forever indebted for.

Michael Corvin

No love because they aren't in the opening credits nor do they ever have a major plotline. They are supporting characters.

This episode was excellent on all fronts, very intense. It was different having the entire show basically take place in one department though. Abbey is such a good character when her family isn't around.