Abe Benedict

**Dr. Abe Benedict** is a doctor at Atlanta General Hospital and the friend and mentor of AJ Austin. He is portrayed by Mike Pniewski.

## Biography

When AJ Austin was a resident, he was Benedict's star pupil. After AJ became a surgeon in his own right, he and Benedict maintained a close friendship. For as long as AJ knew him, Benedict swore by only one type of heart valve device. However, Benedict later changed his views as AJ learned when he was ordered to implant Bradley Jenkins with a QuoVadis device. AJ questioned Benedict about his change of heart and Benedict told him about the benefits of the new device. However, it was later revealed that Benedict had been bought off by Gordon Page to help promote his devices.

As it became clear that the devices were dangerous and even deadly, Doctors Devon Pravesh and Mina Okafor approached Benedict at a QuoVadis function celebrating the implantation of QuoVadis devices into hundreds of patients. The two attempted to get Benedict to help them stop Gordon and QuoVadis and reminded Benedict of the man he once was and how much Benedict had meant to AJ. Benedict finally admitted that he didn't have a choice as they had to get the VNS to market and that he didn't know at first. Benedict finally agreed to tell AJ and AJ alone the truth as AJ deserved to know, but AJ was stuck in a life and death surgery and could not be pulled out to talk to Benedict. As Benedict appeared about to tell them what he knew anyway, they were interrupted by Gordon's henchmen who kept Benedict from leaving. However, Marshall Winthrop was able to uncover evidence of Gordon's fraud and expose him to the military, ending the surgeries and publicly disgracing QuoVadis. Benedict later reassured Gordon that he had told Mina and Devon, nothing apparently satisfying him.

The next day, after not reaching his friend by phone all morning, AJ visits Benedict's house, only to find him on the floor, shot in the chest in an apparent suicide attempt. Benedict is rushed to Chastain where the bullet is determined to have damaged his spleen, left kidney and clipped his heart. AJ immediately suspects a murder attempt by Gordon to silence Benedict, pointing out that Benedict is a heart surgeon who would know where to aim if committing suicide. Benedict's spleen is immediately removed, but his condition proves to be too unstable to complete the surgery and it has to be stopped without even closing Benedict's chest. AJ and Mina go back in later and complete the repairs, but Benedict's injuries prove to be so severe that he begins having trouble breathing even on a ventilator. Unable to put Benedict on echmo, Devon comes up with the idea of flipping him over to force more oxygen into his lungs. The attempt works and Benedict is finally stabilized. AJ decides to dial down the sedation and wake Benedict up, allowing AJ to ask his mentor what he'd wanted to tell him. Unable to speak, Benedict writes out a single clue: Sever.

At the same time, Marshall enters QuoVadis wearing an FBI wire and bluffs that Benedict is awake and talking. After Gordon demands to talk to Benedict, Marshall calls his son Conrad who has just gotten the clue from Benedict. Conrad relays Benedict's Sever message, rattling Gordon enough that Marshall is able to provoke him into confessing to Benedict's attempted murder. However, Gordon realizes that Marshall is wearing a wire and attempts to flee, leading to his death when Gordon crashes his car while fleeing from the police.

After the fall of QuoVadis, Marshall meets with Julian Booth who provided the information that began the chain of events that brought QuoVadis down. Marshall reveals that the final blow to QuoVadis came from the clue that Benedict provided, Sever. Sever turned out to be a study where twenty patients were implanted with VNS devices and fifteen died.