Dr. Ben Casey is at odds with the medical board, particularly Dr. Zorba and Dr. Jensen, because of his manner toward interns. Under a reprimand, Casey tries to persuade the board to approve neurosurgery on nine-year-old Pete Salazar. After the first of three operations on the boy, Casey is accidentally jabbed with a needle while administering a rabies test to a female patient. During his thirty-day wait for a life-or-death prognosis, he is given permission to resume the surgery.
Little Cathy Reed is brought to the hospital for emergency treatment after an auto accident. Casey prepares a blood transfusion, but her mother won't consent.
Dr. Michael Waldman, a former professor of Casey's and a former colleague of Zorba's, comes to the hospital with a cardiovascular ailment diagnosed as fatal. Casey and Zorba want to try a new surgery on him, but the medical board is opposed.
Dr. Karl Anders is a brilliant surgeon, and Zorba wants to keep him on at the hospital. But Anders is concerned with illnesses of his own—he's addicted to morphine, and suffers from leukemia.
Casey has Walter Tyson for a patient, the president of a large corporation in difficulties, who makes treatment impossible by ordering him about. Zorba and Dr. Jensen try to dissuade him from withdrawing, because his patient is a big donor to the hospital.
Tony Romano, a struggling nightclub comic, suffers a cranial seizure. Dr. Casey operates, but Tony is left a paraplegic.
Dr. Dave Taylor returns to the hospital to do research, but Dr. Casey diagnoses him as a ""hospital bum"" afraid of competition, and also treats a woman's hypochondria.
Dr. Casey is trying to ease the pain of an older patient by convincing her to undergo a dangerous operation, while simultaneously holding off on operating on a child while other pediatricians pressure him to make a decision.
Orderly Nick Kanavaris' good friend Krikor Dakopian is committed by his family to the psychiatric ward. Dr. Casey, however, thinks the ailment is likely to be responsive to neurosurgery.
Dr. Alan Reynolds' mental state is not improved by constant pressure from his wife to be a successful neurosurgeon. The strain increases when he treats an abused 10-year-old boy. Dr. Casey forestalls an unnecessary operation, and tries to persuade Dr. Reynolds to receive treatment.
Expectant mother Ellen Parker loses her child after an auto accident. Casey examines her and finds that she is subject to chronic seizures, and these, not the accident, are responsible for the loss of her baby.
Dr. Casey operates on Billy Harris, a holdup man shot and paralyzed, but he's also concerned about the policeman, who may have been too keen and might be mentally hampered.
A 38 year old woman is pregnant, and she's having fainting spells. The doctors determine she has a brain tumor that must be operated on immediately, but the risk to her or the baby is great.
Casey puts a new patient, an alcoholic former doctor, to work doing blood tests while a volunteer candy striper learns not to become too attached to another patient.
Ben Casey is the doctor in charge for a night in the Main Admitting Room; among others, he examines a withdrawn girl, a stabbing victim, and a juvenile delinquent.
Gerry and Lee Bramson's marriage is shaky, partly because their son is mentally handicapped.
Dr. Casey suspects that a fellow resident on his service, Dr. Charlie Kozelka, performed an illegal abortion.
Casey's predecessor, former chief resident Dr. Philip Walton has developed a new method of doing a craniectomy in children. However, when Casey learns that Walton has Parkinson's Disease, he tries to prevent him from operating on a child.
When a novice needs hospital care after seeing double, Casey uncovers malpractice by her assigned doctor and risks going to court on a slander charge for exposing the quack.
An Austrian émigré doctor with 3 decades of experience bristles with resentment that he is required to do a long US hospital retraining residency and only gradually opens up to relearning from Casey and others.
A pushy businessman injures himself trying to prevent his daughter's marriage. What is her harmful secret that he has hidden for 14 years and kept her in the dark about?
A decorated veteran hiding his identity puts off having a 13th surgery for his back due to superstition. A Navajo boy making hospital deliveries who he bonds with is similarly afraid of the number 4.
A high strung little girl recuperating near a depressed elderly man is tempted to help him kill himself. An injured black boxer avoids care and surgery as it may end his rising career.
A famed aged hunter and a youth of no fame have fatal infections resisting antibiotics. A new supply of an experimental drug is enough for only one of them. Who should Casey, Zorba, and the hunter's regular doctor choose to get treatment?
While his friend Dr Hoffman is sidelined with strange symptoms, Casey deals with an injured middle aged ex-heiress with delusions of grandeur, who refuses to face the facts of a biopsy.
Dr. Casey spends a Saturday on Outside Medical Relief while the Neurosurgical staff, thinking Casey needs money, take up a collection for him
Aiko Tanaka suffers from a ruptured spinal disk and blindness caused by a school fire. She insists that Casey perform brain surgery to restore her sight, but he refuses, convinced that her blindness is psychological.
Nurse Anna Olsen and patient Eve Porter deal with menopause.
Man with head wound is put in neurosurgery ward. An intern notices he has smallpox. The ward is put in quarantine. Authorities race to vaccinate anyone who came in contact.
Gene Bilstrom is a leading business man of the community but a series of incidents causes his family concern. Bilstrom is admitted to the hospital for a complete mental evaluation but there is a fear of the stigma involved.
Brilliant chemist John Wickware is seemingly catatonic since his wife spent the night at a friend's house. The wife's parents want John committed . Casey thinks there is an organic cause.
Casey's patient and acquaintance Alma Gardner confesses to police that she killed her husband, former staff neurologist Dr. Paul Gardner, and then attempted suicide by shooting herself in the head.
A hysterectomy patient bonds with an orphaned girl who needs brain surgery and overcomes the fear of getting close after having lost two children of her own.
While Dr. Casey is in charge for a night in the Main Admitting Room, there is a city-wide blackout that affects the treatment of several patients, including a woman about to give birth.
World wanderer Charles Dirkson comes back with a brain tumor and reunites with his three estranged daughters.
Casey's ward includes convicted criminal Ollie Burdick, in the final stages of a terminal illness, and Illyana Trivas, a young woman whose blindness has resulted in own life being over. Burdick agrees to will his corneas to Illyana so that she might want to live again; however, they each accuse Ben of playing God.
Parents refuse an operation on their son if the tumor is malignant.
Dying priest and rabbi help an ill race car driver make a decision about a life-changing operation.
Connie Dawson's wedding anniversary takes a strange turn when her husband Joe gives her a bracelet engraved with the name of another woman. Joe, having been amnesiac for eight years, seeks help from Dr. Rossi in restoring his memory and reconciling his past, which includes another wife.
David Duncan, a young archaeology student with a bright future, is stricken with illness just as he prepares to wed. He refuses to contemplate life ahead without reassurance that he can be cured. Ben is faced with the unenviable dilemma of delivering a terminal diagnosis to him.
Calvin Ross, a man with the intellect of a child, is a beloved mascot for his local firehouse. After being injured and hospitalized, the fireman decide to remove him from the hospital in an effort to prevent his sister from having him institutionalized. Ben looks the other way but finds himself professionally censured for aiding in Ross's "abduction."
During the hectic holiday season, Ben hires elderly Mrs. Plumduff, a nurse with an excellent reputation. Her eccentricities, including serving homemade plum pudding to the patients, soon begin to compromise established hospital routines. However, the situation becomes even more untenable when Mrs. Plumduff decides to isolate an injured young motorcyclist and a salty bronco rider.
Traveling salesman O.B. Dodson inadvertently hits Rose Hill, a local vagrant, with his car. Ben attempts to prevent Dodson from taking advantage of Rose when he arrives at the hospital with the intention of cajoling her into absolving him of any legal responsibility for the accident. The situation becomes more complicated when romantic feelings develop.
Criminal attorney Bradley Hunt represents Lester Partridge, a prisoner convicted thirty years ago for murder. When a tumor is discovered in Partridge's brain, Hunt compels Ben to testify that an operation could possibly alter his client's personality and consequently provide a good argument for parole.
Stanley Schultz, an aging vaudevillian, believes his old routines will rally patients. He commandeers Ben's ward to use as his theater of good cheer, but his good intentions become harsh disappointments when his act fails to elicit the response he wanted.
Casey's colleague Dr. Keith Bernard suffers from severe balance issues that affect his ability to work. Although Ben recommends surgery, Bernard refuses, opting instead for physical therapy from polio victim Laura Saunders, another doctor who has developed romantic feelings for her patient.
A successful but arrogant lawyer, one of the few women to make it to the very top in a male profession, enters the hospital, and it turns out that she's hiding an addiction to heroin.
Having discovered Faith Parsons's excuse of a back injury to feed her addiction to morphine, Zorba demands that Casey make changes in her treatment. Faith then cleverly exploits the attention of a young hospital visitor to help her procure the drug she craves.
During the filming of a major motion picture, leading actor Miles Houghton is rushed to County General with a medical emergency. Casey must break the news that further work will quite literally kill Houghton. He must retire, despite the fact that the film's producer stands to lose millions of dollars if his star quits.
Following the loss of her newborn baby, Jane Demarest begins to lose touch with reality. Although Casey recommends surgical intervention, psychiatrist Walter Kulik professes confidence in his ability to cure her through therapy. His dogged determination ultimately begins to affect his own psychological health.
James Peabody, an eager-beaver young physician, bites off far more than he can chew.
Dr. Alvin Mackenzie, a brilliant but cold surgeon, is consumed with pathological hatred for his ex-wife Anna. When he is faced with the prospect of performing the surgery that will save her life, Mackenzie's bitterness intensifies, prompting Casey to intervene.
Casey and a hospital radiologist are at loggerheads over the death of a thirteen month old child. He suspects the infant's death and serious injuries to the child's sister were not an accident, and sets out to prove their parents, John and Helen Randall, are the perpetrators.
Greta Bauer wants to marry fiancé Kevin Blake; however, her mother opposes the marriage and insists that Greta concentrate on a career as a concert pianist.
City Councilman York receives treatment from Casey at County General, while outside the hospital, a group of protesters create a disturbance. Student nurse Michael Ann Bowersox is embarrassed to discover that her eccentric father is among the protesters targeting York.
A circle of admirers.
Two patients face brain surgery with completely different outlooks. Disfigured Bartholomew looks forward to perhaps a better future. Beautiful Julie facing potential blindness and lengthy recovery, is unsure of fiance Carter.
A middle-aged man's decision to give up everything to become a doctor has some major implications for and effects on his family.
Two cases of paralysis confront Ben Casey. First, he clashes with Dr. Charles Freel, another young neurosurgeon, over the treatment of a stricken laborer. He also tackles the case of Burton Strang, a celebrated architect whose illness interferes with his ultimate quest to build a cathedral.
Casey diagnoses temperamental French chanteuse Madeline Marossi with a brain lesion. Although her condition proves to be terminal, the headstrong singer insists upon carrying out her commitment to perform at an upcoming concert for servicemen.
Casey's patient Robert Anderson responds to surgical treatment with only partial success, and he disagrees with psychiatrist Dr. Laura Chappelle, who theorizes Anderson's problem is rooted in a repressed incident experienced during the war. As Dr. Chappelle decides to use truth serum to uncover unpleasant memories, she must face her own.
James and Martha Dignan's infant foster son Billy must undergo surgery. Although the procedure will save the child's life, the costly post-operative care is likely to completely exhaust the family's finances. Casey is caught in the middle when one parent consents, and the other insists upon returning Billy to the adoption agency.
Dr. Malcolm Flanders declines Casey's prescription of neurological surgery to treat his spinal tumor. Meanwhile, Flanders' daughter Gloria rekindles a former romance with Dr. Hoffman, but their relationship is endangered by Dr. Flanders's domination of his daughter.
Following a fall at his father's restaurant, clarinetist Jason Landros, dressed in a Nazi uniform, is admitted to Neurosurgery.
After a worker is admitted to the hospital with a radioactive substance lodged in his spine, County General finds itself in a state of emergency with all employees on alert. Meanwhile, Casey must deal with Mike Rosario, a fellow doctor with a big desire for adulation.
Ben Casey's new patient is the wealthy Penelope Shattuck who is used to getting what she wants. And she has decided what she wants is marriage to the handsome doctor. Casey has other ideas.
During a league game, baseball player Allie Burns is injured while stealing home. Faced with the loss of an eye, Allie must learn to navigate a new world, a journey impeded by ophthalmologist Felix Martin, himself embittered by racial inequalities.
Young Collie Smith lives in a world dreams. When she loses her beloved grandfather, she looks to Casey as a father figure. Her mother Jean, cynical and impoverished after a lifetime of failed dreams, fears Casey will only hurt her child with more false hopes.
Casey recommends surgery for young athlete Larry Masterson, but clashes with his father David, who feels an operation is not necessary. When David steadfastly refuses to give medical consent for surgery, Casey seeks assistance from Masterson's estranged wife Carol.
Athletic Larry Masterson becomes paralyzed following emergency surgery performed by Ben Casey. After Larry's father David files a lawsuit for unauthorized surgery, the hospital board forces Casey to resign from County General. He takes the witness stand at that ensuing trial in an effort to save his reputation and career.
Dr. Casey misdiagnoses Frank Alusik's lead poisoning, contracted at his job, as a brain tumor. This prompts Mr. Kranz, the attorney for the employer's insurance company, to make Frank an offer he considers: $15,000 plus the cost of an operation to determine if Frank has a brain tumor. However, the operation could kill Frank in the absence of a tumor. Meanwhile, Mr. Lindsey, Frank's attorney, urges Frank to sue his employer for $100,000.
A bar room brawl sends salty Irish sea captain Mark Cassidy to County General for treatment. There, he falls for Kathleen Dooley, a spirited nurse and equally strong personality. However, their burgeoning romance becomes threatened by Casey, who discovers that Cassidy's condition is more serious than expected.
After being sedated prior to surgery, patient Henry Davis confesses to Dr. Maggie Graham that he recently beat up two women, one of whom died.
Casey's colleague Dr. Richard Connell is in love with beautiful Yugoslavian refugee Anna Rucheck. When tests reveal that Anna is pregnant, but bearing the child could prove fatal, Dr. Connell wants the hospital to consider aborting the fetus to save Anna's life.
Rose Genet, an aging grand dame of opera, suffers from partial blindness. With all of her hopes and dreams quickly evaporating, she considers undergoing a dangerous surgical procedure in a last ditch effort to save her vision, much to the worry of her devoted secretary Polly.
Hospital pathologist Joe Garry wages a battle against his own illness, multiple sclerosis. His inattention to his wife begins to take its toll on their marriage, which is further threatened when Garry begins to develop feelings for June, another MS patient on the ward at County General.
Married woman Eileen Pryor is brought into County General following a suicide attempt, which she survives. Henry, Eileen's physician husband, appears annoyed rather than compassionate or concerned regarding his wife's predicament. His feelings stem from a suspicion that his wife has committed adultery.
A young girl, critically injured in an accident, is brought into County General. Her presence baffles Casey as she will not identify herself, tells lies, and quotes proverbs in Latin and German. Casey attempts to the solve mystery of his unusual patient.
Casey successfully operates on nightclub stripper Dede Blake. However, he finds he must also help Dede recover her self-respect, which has been lost through a past alliance with the intimidating Jonas King, a self-styled fire-and-brimstone evangelist.
Dr. Ernest Farrow, a once brilliant neurosurgeon, is sent to County General for a refresher course. Learning that Farrow is paralyzed by self-doubt and recurring nightmares from the death of a patient, Casey attempts to assuage his colleague's fears and coax him back into the operating room.
An elderly man, hospitalized following a stroke, withholds personal information from the staff of County General, for fear he will become an inconvenience and burden to his family. He decides to leave the hospital in order to secretly attend the debut of his granddaughter in a dance recital.
Casey's latest case involves one of contemporary medical ethics. Clarence Simmons, his patient, is an impoverished homeless man who wants to offer his own eye for a fee, in order to help in the research of prominent zoologist Dr. Roger O'Hara.
Casey discovers that Larry Walker, a man known for having religious visions, has brain blood clot. The physician is unsure where the operation will end the experiences which are lucrative to the Walker family.
Dr. Casey directs a nationwide search for a rare blood type for a young girl who requires emergency surgery.
Figments.
MRS. MALAPROP: You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you? Sheridan, The Rivals
Life and the ""stinking fist"".
Rx for a medico.
Isolation.
Wise in their own conceits.
A peculiar treatment plan.
The seed of Mustard is the smallest grain, And yet the force thereto is very great, It hath a present power to purge the brain, It adds unto the stomach force and heat: All poison it expels, and it is plain, With sugar 'tis a passing sauce for meat. She that hath hap a husband bad to bury, And is therefore in heart not sad, but merry, Yet if in show good manners she will keep, Onions and Mustard-seed will make her weep. The Englishmans Doctor. Or, The School of Salerne, Or, Physical observations for the perfect Preserving of the body of Man in continual health Sir John Harington, 1608
An original.
The good-humored M.D.s.
...and riseth up again.
The substance of things hoped for.
It being reckoned that Jesus was actually born in September.
From the wreck of my past, which hath perish'd, Thus much I at least may recall, It hath taught me that which I most cherish'd Deserved to be dearest of all: In the desert a fountain is springing, In the wide waste there still is a tree, And a bird in the solitude singing, Which speaks to my spirit of thee. Lord Byron
""There is a march of science; but who shall beat the drums for its retreat?"" (Charles Lamb)
""The summer is over...""
The proverb put to the test.
The power of personality.
The punctuated forest. Autism and deafness in children.
A picture is most eloquent.
The classical Rx, yet Dr. Swanson fails to inspire respect.
L'amour et la mort.
The Freudian prescription.
""As to moral courage, he [Napoleon] had very rarely found it, he said, that of two hours past midnight; which is to say, courage unawares.""
The whirligig of 3/4 time.
The threshold of knowledge.
The parabolic return. A scientist from Australia on his last legs.
A romantic ballet.
Working in the hospital milieu.
Cleopatra and the clepsydra.
Looking Forward When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great, And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys. Robert Louis Stevenson
Various strings and attachments.
Shadow and substance.
Dr. Green practices the best medicine, but Dr. Zorba and Dr. Casey are rather saturnine on his manner.
Modern medicine.
The key of mourning.
""To a close shorn sheep, God gives wind by measure."" (George Herbert)
Gen. 41:41
Euthanasia. ""Journeys end in lovers' meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.""—Twelfth Night
A change of management.
A son of the auld sod.
A memorable rapprochement.
A mount with a legendary moniker.
The surgeon's secret.
""Were I a nightingale, I would act like one."" (Epictetus)
Le Médecin Malgré Lui
A proverb of great pith.
An academic debate.
Introduction and variations.
Rules of the game.
A lifetime of hard work seems undesirable for an intern.
It couldn't be called ungentle, But how thoroughly departmental. Frost
Rich gifts wax poor, to the noble mind.
Another county heard from.
To see the night before.
""Like a patient etherized upon a table.""
""Tell the truth or trump—but get the trick."" (Twain)
""And let slip the dogs of war.""
Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age; Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death. King Lear
You can get there from here.
The agony and the estimate: trigeminal neuralgia, the tic douloureux.
Whistling in the dark.
Courts adieu, and all delights, All bewitching appetites; Sweetest breath, and clearest eye, Like perfumes go out and die; And consequently this is done, As shadows wait upon the sun. Vain the ambition of kings, Who seek by trophies and dead things, To leave a living name behind, And weave but nets to catch the wind. O you have wrought a miracle, and melted A heart of adamant: you have compris'd In this dumb pageant, a right excellent form Of penitence. John Webster, The Devil's Law-Case
The unmoved mover.
""No gardener has died within rosaceous memory."" (Beckett)
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
Self-diagnosis.
""Fear in a handful of dust."" (Eliot)