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CHICAGO HOPE: INFORMED CONSENT (TV)

Summary

One in this series of medical dramas about the personal and professional lives of the staff of the state-of-the-art Chicago Hope Hospital and the ethical dilemmas they face.

In this episode, Kronk is suspicious when his girlfriend, Annie Rueman, turns out to be acquaintances with plastic surgeon Infante. Meanwhile, Hancock learns that he's been dropped from his clinic's HMO, meaning that 80 percent of his patients can no longer see him. Geiger's patient Ned Tannen, on the waiting list for a heart transplant, learns that he has a dangerous brain aneurysm — and that each condition prevent the necessary treatment for the other. Watters encourages Birch to pursue his idea that the HMO acted in "bad faith" with Hancock, and Annie frets to Infante that she's not sure how to tell Kronk that she is a transgender woman. Shutt and Geiger come up with an audacious plan to perform both of Ned's operations simultaneously by placing him in suspended animation, though the hospital board is highly skeptical about the potential bad publicity in the event of failure.

In court, Hancock tries to explain to an unimpressed Judge Harold Aldrich that the HMO is trying to manipulate doctors into providing inferior care to patients in order to save money. Kronk, who is "a little bit homophobic to begin with," is predictably shocked when Annie explains her past and reveals that Infante performed her gender confirmation surgery. Shutt is furious when Grad attempts to talk Ned out of the experimental surgery by pointing out that he could live another year with the standard treatment; Ned decides to go ahead with the more daring idea. Hancock praises the useful aspects of HMO but argues that non-medical administrators shouldn't be the ones to determine a person's treatment. Attorney Jonathan Saunders counters that many doctors often don't "police themselves" responsibly and in fact perform unnecessary and expensive procedures.

Infante is disappointed by Kronk's narrow-minded attitude as she attempts to explain Annie's medical condition and treatment; though Birch tries to defend Hancock's honorable refusal to endanger his patients by cutting corners, Saunders argues that it's "country-club doctors" who create the high prices of medical care in the first place. He adds that Hancock knowingly signed a contract allowing the HMO to drop him at any time, and the judge agrees. Kronk sadly concludes that he can't get past his hang-ups despite his ongoing attraction to Annie; the two go their separate ways. Hancock prepares to leave the clinic for a new post at Chicago Hope, and an elderly patient, Mildred Snell, thanks him for his kind and conscientious treatment. Geiger and Shutt are thrilled when Ned survives the complicated surgery and begins to awaken, but he then suffers a sudden complication and dies. His wife Sylvie tearfully thanks the doctors for their efforts and assures them that he "died with hope"; Shutt laments that they stole his potential final year out of their eagerness to try something so unconventional. Commercials deleted.

Details

  • NETWORK: CBS
  • DATE: March 13, 1995 10:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:46:32
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:55184
  • GENRE: Drama, medical
  • SUBJECT HEADING: LGBTQ+ Collection - Drama; Drama, medical; Surgery, Experimental; Transgender people
  • SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1994-2000
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • David E. Kelley … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
  • John Tinker … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
  • Michael Dinner … Co-Executive Producer
  • Rob Corn … Coordinating Producer
  • Dennis Cooper … Producer, Writer
  • James C. Hart … Producer
  • John Heath … Co-Producer
  • Steven Heth … Associate Producer
  • Thomas Schlamme … Director
  • Kim Newton … Writer
  • Jeff Rona … Music by
  • Mark Isham … Theme Music by
  • Mandy Patinkin … Cast, Dr. Jeffrey Geiger
  • Adam Arkin … Cast, Dr. Aaron Shutt
  • Roxanne Hart … Cast, Camille Shutt
  • Peter MacNicol … Cast, Alan Birch
  • Thomas Gibson … Cast, Dr. Daniel Nyland
  • Hector Elizondo … Cast, Dr. Phillip Watters
  • Peter Berg … Cast, Dr. Billy Kronk
  • Jayne Brook … Cast, Dr. Diane Grad
  • Vondie Curtis-Hall … Cast, Dr. Dennis Hancock
  • Diane Venora … Cast, Dr. Geri Infante
  • Carroll Baker … Cast, Sylvie Tannen
  • Allan Rich … Cast, Ned Tannen
  • Stephen Elliott … Cast, Judge Harold Aldrich
  • Ken Lerner … Cast, Attorney Jonathan Saunders
  • Mia Sara … Cast, Annie Rueman
  • Montrose Hagins … Cast, Mildred Snell
  • Darryl Rocky Davis … Cast, Reporter
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