No one seemed too concerned about the miswritten prescription but Romono. I would think that it would be a major malpractice issue, considering they almost killed him with their neglegence. Benton was smirking, and I would of thought he would have been upset? I wonder if this will show up later, with a malpractice case. I think it would be cut and dried.

-- Elaine (namkcub1@aol.com), April 09, 2000

Answers

I don't know how this situation will be handeled, but malpractice has been discussed in the past. When the mother died in Love's Labor Lost, Marc had to appear with his attorney when Josh O'Brien sued the hospital-that law suit was setted out of court, and when Dr. Ross missed a diagnosis of cancer in a little boy, the grandfather didn't sue because Doug agreed to pay for his grandson's chemotherapy. The situation with Cleo and Peter probably won't get mentioned to the patient. There is a strong code of ethics with doctors and most mistaked get mentioned, but not to the patients--that's what M&M conferences are for. Whatever is said in those meetings is kept within the walls of the room. Unfortuately most mistakes go unpunished.

-- Carin (cdenisehaze@usa.net), April 09, 2000.

Remember, though, that we're in ER-land, the place where Romano gets to operate while drunk without any further mention, among other things. It would be interesting for someone to come up with all the really bad mistakes all the doctors/nurses have made on the show and figure out if there's any sort of logic to who gets punished and who doesn't. It very well may be just the whim of the writers, or maybe everyone is slated to get suspended exactly once, no matter what. A little frustrating for the alert viewer....

-- nancy (ntc72@mailcity.com), April 09, 2000.

I don't remember Romano operating while drunk!!! Which epi?

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 09, 2000.

The Miracle Worker, the season 5 christmas ep. It was funny, cuz he tried to punch Peter, but just ended up knocking himself out! The only reason that that went unpunished, as far as I know is that Romano was blackmailing Peter with something (I forget what) and Peter blackmailed him in return with the results of the BAL.

-- Lisa (Shaniakicks@hotmail.com), April 09, 2000.

Carin, Wasn't the patient's wife standing right there when Cleo said the medicine was "not what we gave him"? I thought she was still in the room at that point and so would know a mistake had been made, whether the hospital decided to tell her or not. She pulled the medicine out of her purse and tried to read the label. Carter said the name of the drug and Cleo said, "No!". If this is the case, then it does seem she and her husband would have a case; after all, she was pretty upset by her husband's condition. But since it's TV, it's likely we will never hear about this again :) And yes, considering the severity of the mistake, Benton had no right to be smirking and Romano had every right to be really mad!

-- Annie (GoldenLaur@aol.com), April 09, 2000.