Choices

**Choices** is the ninth episode of Season 1 of Chicago Med. It aired on February 9, 2016.

## Summary

Dr. Halstead jeopardizes his career when he goes against a family's order regarding a terminally ill cancer patient. Meanwhile, April and Dr. Reese treat a homeless man, and Choi's personal issues emerge while caring for a bipolar patient.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Nick Gehlfuss as Dr. Will Halstead
* Yaya DaCosta as April Sexton
* Torrey DeVitto as Dr. Natalie Manning
* Rachel DiPillo as Dr. Sarah Reese
* Colin Donnell as Dr. Connor Rhodes
* Brian Tee as Dr. Ethan Choi
* S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin
* Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles
* Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood

### Recurring Cast

* Gregg Henry as Dr. David Downey
* Julie Berman as Dr. Samantha Zanetti
* Susie Abromeit as Zoe Roth
* Eva Kaminsky as Jennifer Baker
* Ross Kimball as Sal Baker
* Lorena Diaz as Nurse Doris
* Gordon Chow as Nurse Anthony
* Cesar Jaime as Paramedic Cesar
* Courtney Rioux as Paramedic Courtney

### Guest Cast

* William Stanford Davis as Ed Brennan
* Angel Desai as Olivia Gray
* Moira Hughes as Bailey
* Erin Elizabeth as Orderly

## Plot

The episode begins with Dr. Choi working on the punching bag as he couldn't sleep. At the Hospital Sharon tells Maggie about the new patient satisfaction forms. She informs Maggie that every patient should be asked if they want to fill one out.

A woman was at a coffeeshop and fainted. She enters the Hospital unresponsive. Dr. Halstead is given the case, Dr. Manning helps and nurse April assists. The patient has cancer. Her husband arrives minutes later with their daughter. He tells Manning that his Wife has a terminal cancer diagnosed 4 years prior and has a DNR request. They have her records and give them to Dr. Will and Natalie. The patient wishes to go home but she still needs care so she demands to stay at the trauma room and to not be admitted. Dr. Manning is looking at the patient's history and tells Will that she has been through hell. Will doesn't agree with the DNR as he says she's not thinking about her family.

Pharmaceutical representative Zoe walks in, it's clear the both spent a few nights together. She asks him if he wants some samples of a new asthma drug. However, Will isn't interested in it at all. He asks her about a clinical trial her company was doing, but she tells Will the trial is over. She tells Will she'll make some calls and see what she can do. Zoe manages to get the patient into the trial.

    Will informs the patient about the possibility of the medical trial being a success but she is not interested in it. She wants to go home and die in peace with her family. Natalie doesn't support Will in front of the patient so he confronts her about it. Natalie tells him that the patient has made her wishes very clear. Will tells her that his mother died of cancer and if she had had access to a drug like that she could still be alive.

Halstead finds the husband at the vending machine and asks him to talk to his wife as the clinical trial is being a success. After a while, Will goes to his patient who is in code blue. She has a DNR but Will decided to revive her. He puts his career at risk for this woman as he can't let go of his mother's memory. Dr. Manning doesn't agree with him and tries to stop him as what he is doing is illegal. The woman is intubated and angry at Will for going against her wishes. Maggie tells Halstead that Sharon has called him up to the office. Since the husband didn't tell him to resuscitate the wife, he went against her DNR wishes. Sharon tells him that the situation is not about him, but about the patient and her wants. He put the Hospital at a dangerous position and Dr. Manning takes over the case. Will is ordered to stay away from the patient and her family. Will asks Natalie if she is still stable. Natalie is clearly angry at him and tells him she is no longer his patient. Furthermore, she tells him that he says he respects her but keeps dismissing her.

Meanwhile a 14 year old boy with 3 penetrating wounds comes in. He jumped a fence at a construction site and impaled himself. Dr. Rhodes, Reese and April attend the teenager. Reese shows improvement with center lines. The boy has a hole in his right ventricle so Rhodes opens his chest at the trauma room and staples the hole. It's a temporary fix so he sends the boy to the OR with an open chest. The surgeon is Dr. Sam. They are both working on the boy when Dr. Downey enters the OR. He asks Rhodes to change gloves and help him with the heart. He says no as Sam is the heart surgeon. However, David teases him about not being up to the part and with eye contact Sam allows Rhodes to assist Dr. Downey.

    After the surgery Downey compliments Rhodes by telling him he has no tremors and that even for a young guy that's pretty good. Sam is clearly jealous about what happened. After a while, a woman who's a math professor was found unconscious at her desk at work. Dr. Choi is assigned to the case. Dr. Charles is paged to his case as the woman is having some kind of psychotic episode. The professor says the numbers are trying to escape and she's trying to take the catheter away so the numbers don't leave. Since she is hurting herself she is put to sleep. Apparently the woman was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder when she was 18 years old. Her kidneys were failing so when she was put through dialysis her kidneys improved but it washed the medication away, thus the episode.

Choi tells Dr. Charles that the effects of her medication can kill her so she needs to go to the kidney's transplant list. Dr. Charles and the professor share a conversation. Dr. Choi stops by and impressed by her recovery asks Dr. Charles what he had replaced the medication with. He reveals he hasn't changed the medication. The patient is doing the exact same treatment that could kill her. After talking to her, Dr. Charles says the patient realized she couldn't be who she wanted to be or live the life she wanted to live without the medication. Dr. Choi then asks Dr. Charles why can't the patient cope with her condition and learn how to live with it. The two exchange words about the case.

    Elsewhere, Maggie informs everyone about the new patient satisfaction forms and tells them that every patient that has been treated has to fill one out. She also tells them that a P&P isolation case, Reese is assigned the case with April assisting. April tells Reese what P&P stands for: pediculosis and pthiriasis AKA Lice Infestation.

The homeless man is sorry to be bothering them but he found it hard to keep clean. The man reveals he hadn't showered since the previous summer. After the treatment the man is given a Hospital gown and is sent to another room. Later on, Reese gives the man some clothes but he asks her to lay down for a few minutes. Reese agrees and asks the patient if he wants to fill the patient satisfaction form. When Reese checks on him after a while she realizes that the man has passed away after giving her the perfect score on the form. Maggie tells Sarah he came in to die, as he was homeless he just wanted to die somewhere clean.

Later on, Dr. Downey calls Dr. Rhodes to assist a AV replacement on a 65 year old lady. Dr. Rhodes doesn't understand why him. Dr. Downey tells him it's to work on the suturing technique as he can be faster. Rhodes later finds Sharon and asks why she approved him assisting Dr. Downey. Sharon tells him that it is Dr. Downey, if that's what he wants she approves. Rhodes reveals he has a problem with the situation. Rhodes goes up to Dr. Downey for some answers. He is a trauma fellow and doesn't understand why Downey wants him to assist him. Downey tells him a story about a couple who were in a car crash. The wife survived but the husband didn't. So his heart was transplanted to another person. When that person finds the donor's wife he told her he was sorry for his last words as they were so angry and wants her to know he loves her. Downey says it wasn't the man talking but the heart. Rhodes says it's a beautiful story he remember from when he was in 8th grade. He tells Downey he is more comfortable in trauma. So Downey tells him he will leave him alone.

Rhodes finds Sam at the doctors' common room and tells her Downey got Goodwin to assign Rhodes to him on a on-going basis. Sam is shocked he didn't accept Downey's proposition and calls him a coward.

    Meanwhile, a 58 year old male is admitted after a car crash. Rhodes is exiting but attends to the case. He realizes the man is actually Dr. David Downey. He asks Maggie to inform Sharon who upon arrival asks Maggie to call oncology and reveals Downey has liver cancer, diagnosed 6 months prior. Rhodes finally understands why Downey wanted him so hard under his wing. After realizing the seriousness of his condition, he decided to find someone he could teach and had the ability to do what he did. Rhodes wonders what he saw in him and didn't on the other surgeons.

Sharon is paged and informs Will the Hospital is being sued and so is Will. She doesn't suspend Will but depending on how the case goes he might just be fired.

Zoe stops by to tell Will he did the right thing and that when she's feeling better after being on the new drug she will thank him. Zoe invites him for a drink.

Ethan tells Charles a story about a woman who walked from a village ten miles away with her 3 year old daughter in her arms that looked like she was sleeping. However, a blast wave from a mortal round burst her lungs. He reveals he can't sleep, he has nightmares because he can't stop seeing her. He tried to cope but can't do it any longer. Dr. Charles just tells him he is glad he stopped by, he will help Choi deal.

The episode ends with Downey waking up to Rhodes at his side agreeing to being under his wing.