Season 5 - Episode Guide

Dr. Shutt begins to do surgery again although his future in psychiatry is uncertain. A "suicide doctor" tries to get the hospital transplant committee to use organs that were not harvested properly, and promises one to Austin's patient without her consent. Sarin gas is released in a bank threatening many lives including Hancock's, who risks his own to save others. Wilkes loses it after the incident on the heels of the previous shooting at his son's school, leading him to take a drastic step. Diane returns to work after her maternity leave.

Dr. Shutt continues his work as a psychiatrist, helping a patient who needs to tell his father, who is an Orthodox Rabbi, that he is gay. The "suicide doctor", a friend of Jack's, might need her own services. A cardiologist in NASA's Doctors in Space program, has a heart attack, and Kate wants to take his place.

Hancock accuses Watters and Austin of racism when they refuse to operate on a black patient. One of Shutt's patients commits suicide when the medicine needed isn't covered by insurance.

Grad accuses a mother are starving her infant to death; Shutt and Catera disagree over a neurological patient; Austin announces her plans with NASA, and Watters takes away her status as Chief of Surgery; Yeats uses his "sixth sense" to diagnose a patient.

The hospital prepares for the Doctor of the Year party, and several old friends drop by; Watters goes into a virus-induced coma and gets some words of wisdom from Alan Birch; Camille Shutt returns for the party and Aaron discovers he still has feeling for her; Dr. Nyland returns to the hospital and reveals that he has really changed his life. Geiger also visits the hospital.

Several doctors make questionable decisions, including Jack ignoring his promise to a patient to not give him a blood transfusion, with serious consequences; Aaron's treatment of a musician who is his hero, and who fears his creativity may be stifled by taking medication prescribed for his bipolar disorder; Keith's behavior towards Cacaci's son, who drives the staff crazy as he "supervises" the ER, behaving exactly like his father.

Gordon teaches Kate how to fly; Hancock accuses a police officer of shooting a homeless African-American; Keith's son starts having breathing problems, and Diane believes that it is related to stress from the school shooting.

A TV star dies in the ER when a needle bursts his gluteal implant, causing cardiac arrest. News crews invade the hospital to cover the story.

Diane is obsessing about having an elaborate gourmet Thanksgiving celebration, when Billy's mother shows up ready to give birth; The delusional star of the road company of "Jesus Christ Superstar", is brought to the ER when he falls ill; The reincarnated spiritual leader of Dr. Yeats is brought to the hospital with chest pains.

Wilkes must face the parents of a child brought into the ER when it becomes clear that Raymond was responsible for the child's injury; NASA interviews Kate's colleagues; One of Aaron's patients is attracted to him.

A girl on the basketball team which Jack coaches sustains a serious injury during a game, leaving him to feel guilty; Drs. Austin and Yeats work together on a case of a man with heart disease and Alzheimer's, and disagree on a course of treatment that causes Kate a lot of agitation; Keith reluctantly agrees to let his son see Aaron to talk about the shooting, but is actively hostile to therapy... for either of them; Dr. Catera's assistant tries to spread holiday cheer a little too vigorously.

Aaron struggles with the loss of a patient; Billy is attracted to Emily's babysitter; A couple asks Bobby and Dennis for help in creating a baby with a genius I.Q.; Joe tries to decide who should go into the hospital's fallout shelter in an emergency.

Kate learns that she has an ovarian cyst which could ruin her plans to fly with NASA. To help her deal with the stress about it, she agrees to go on a Yoga retreat with Bobby; Sara nominates Jack to be her babysitter for the weekend, but she takes something he says too literally when he tries to alleviate her fears about her mother going to space, with dire consequences.

During a C-section on Diane's HIV+ friend, she cuts herself and is exposed to the virus; Jack works through his hurt when he sees Lisa and Bobby kissing, by playing golf through the hospital; A homeless woman harasses a sick Yeats outside his apartment, and he can't get any sleep; The entire team works furiously to save an unidentified man who has been hit by a train saving a child.

When a woman loses her hand, and her mother loses her life in a car accident, McNeil wants to perform a hand transplant from mother to daughter; Kate gets a shuttle assignment from NASA; A childhood friend of Phillip's visits him and asks for one of his kidneys.

Jack returns home to his abusive father after his brother's death; Billy's friend comes to the hospital for a heart transplant, and ends up getting an experimental procedure after the hospital receives the wrong organ; Fearing the impact of HMOs on his practice, Joe begins to sell Doorway products.

Billy ponders euthanasia when his dog Gordy is diagnosed with kidney failure; Lisa tries to help a woman with metastatic breast cancer get into an experimental group even though the woman doesn't fit the study parameters; Aaron's patient confesses to murder.

Kate confronts a world-renowned surgeon who's harassed her in the past; Keith has to face his prejudice against fat people when he treats an obese patient; Diane and Billy are waiting for the results of her HIV test; Diane's patient has a flesh-eating bacterial infection.

Diane tries to help grieving parents when their three-year-old child dies; As part of an experiment, Aaron is institutionalized. But when the person who arranges it for him has a heart attack, he can't get out.

A woman gives birth to twins - one black and one white; Unbeknownst to her, Dr. Austin's patient is improperly anesthetized during surgery, and can hear and feel the pain of the entire procedure. But everyone is more outraged about an insensitive - albeit accurate - remark that she makes, rather than his physical ordeal. While Lisa feels overwhelmed, a 13-year-old genius stalks her, looking for her help and attention.

The delivery of 8 babies from one mother prompts debate and consternation about their treatment - and their existence; Yeats ends up treating an ailing gorilla; Cacaci threatens Watters' career; Aaron is having difficulty with his depressed dog.

Kate rekindles a relationship with an old lover to whom she was married for two days, with surprising results; Dr. Catera tries to treat a pregnant woman with brain cancer in a way that she's still able to deliver her baby; Cacaci forces Aaron to investigate his charge that Phillip had an affair with a patient.

The E.R. is flooded with teenagers poisoned by an unknown psychoactive rave drug; Kate and Sara are hit by a drunk driver, and Kate's injuries ruin her chance at NASA; Phillip's fate is decided.

Aaron consults Dr. Gina Simon, a pediatric neurosurgeon after being presented with a 9-week old baby suffering from seizures; Jeffrey Geiger returns to the hospital and promptly fires half the staff, whom then sue to get their jobs back.