How do you top losing the lead character of your top-rated drama to inoperable brain cancer?

Reliable sources indicate that in the first episode of "ER’s" ninth season, a major character will undergo a trauma so shocking it can only be shared with readers via the miracle that is inviso-text: During a hectic and harrowing emergency rooftop evacuation of several critical patients, one of County's staffers will walk into a helicopter’s tail rotor and instantly sever his or her arm above the elbow, bathing the scene with that character’s blood! (We’re not talking Malik or that paramedic girl we seem to see every week either; this is a character we've seen in the title credits.) Not only does the remaining cast have to deal with one more major medical emergency, they lose access to desperately needed helicopter transport: the pilot fears his tail rotor has been damaged! He's afraid to even move the aircraft off the helipad, preventing replacement choppers from landing!

The horror emerges as 9.1 picks up where 8.22 ended: with Country General crippled and quarantined due to the outbreak of a mysterious mutated monkey virus. The staff is desperate trying to get dying patients away from the “hot zone” the hospital has become.

The only character we’ll reveal is not subject to grave physcial harm is Elizabeth Corday, who we’ll learn has already moved to London with daughter Ella – and is quickly reminded of why she left in the first place. She learns that her fellow brits remain less accepting of women as surgeons, and colleages mock her mercilessly for all the horrible American verbal habits she’s picked up.

E! Online's Wanda had the details of who it is:

From evaersmama: Anything yet on Must-See shows? Like ER? I'm dying here.
NBC's turn isn't until next Tuesday (oh, the humanity!), so it's going to be a little wait for tidbits on Scrubs, Friends and The West Wing. But I do have something rather chilling on ER: In the season premiere, "Chaos Theory," Romano gets into a hideous workplace accident, and his arm is severed. They work to reattach it, but it's possible he won't regain enough function to work as a surgeon. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been in England but decides to return to Chicago.

From noahsgirl: Who cares about stupid Romano? What about Carter and Abby?
You know, it's a sad world when people care more about a cliffhanger kiss than a nearly fatal lost limb. Thankfully, I'm equally pathetic! A.&C. are going full steam ahead in the first ep! Happy-happy, joy-joy!

Romano isn't on the main credits, is he?

Romano is in the opening credits.

"incident"

he's one of my favorites on the show. if he's no longer able to practice, that says what? [not that he's on it all that much now...but what little there is I find thoughly enjoyable -- can't say that about too many characters that are left on this show]

Abby

Romano is shown walking through hospital doors in the opening montage.

I care about Romano, you stupid twit. Even though he can be (to put it mildly) abrasive, he's one of the best characters on the show because his character just seems so comfortable in his own skin.

Romano is my favorite character on the show - you just love to hate him, except when you hate to love him, if you know what I mean.

The thing is they made him almost human towards the end of last season. It was nice to see him sympathetic to Dr. Greens situation. Now to do this to the character...

I could see this working. If Romano loses the use of his arm, then it could really humble him, or make him more bitter towards County. If the reattachment surgery is a success, I can see him moving up into the administration roles at County General, and giving some help to the ER. Plus, I imagine the road to recovery will be a long one, and we could really start to see the life outside the office for Romano.

As far as Corday is concerned, EW said in recent article that she will be around all season, we don't know why or how, but they said she would.

The also metioned a 4-episode arch that talks about Don Chealde being a financier-turned-surgical resident, and the addition of Pfiefer as a full timer and Bibbs (the chick from Popular), as a new addition too, but no mention of Thomas Everett Scott... as was reported earlier.

Oooooh. Good point. We don't really see much of Romano out of the ER like we do with the other characters. The one downside to this would be that we watched that otherbald doctor fumble around with his impairment for the better part of last season, if not the last two seasons... I don't know how ready I am to see the "same stuff on a different day" again.

I just had another thought...

What if Romano bumped into a canister of contaminated waste in the ER, started to mutate, wandered out into the entryway by the road and got hit by ambulance... wouldn't that be funny...

... oh yeah, that happened to him in Robocop!

outbreak of a mysterious mutated monkey virus

He could always grow a new arm by ingesting cancerous tumors from patients in the hospital. That's how his head grew back!