S01.E15: Inheritance

[WendyCR72]

Dr. Manning and Dr. Charles deal with a 16-year-old patient suffering from abdominal pain who adamantly refuses any drugs for fear of winding up like her drug-addicted father. Dr. Halstead relives a bit of his past when a patient, along with his brother, turn out to be former high school classmates whose past history with him is anything but stellar. Meanwhile, Dr. Choi works on a woman 32 weeks pregnant who has a big reason to do everything in her power not to deliver the child, much to the dismay of Goodwin, Charles and the hospital staff. Elsewhere, April is less than thrilled to discover her brother Noah has an enterprising side-business that involves her new boyfriend Tate. Dr. Rhodes avoids meeting up with his sister Claire (Christina Brucato) so he doesn't have to deal with family issues.

[Stardancer Supreme]

Crap. This episode made me feel bad for Halstead.  Looks like the attending is going to be bitchy after being overruled.  But, that brother was a major dick.  He should have let Ginger handle his brother's treatment!

I felt for that surrogate, but if she and that baby died, there would be no payout and her boys would have had no mother.  Big picture, lady.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Stardancer Supreme

[rollerblade]

That stuff Noah is doing with the banana bags (whatever that is).... is it legal? I guess it is or April would have reported him. The whole thing just seem to fishy. Wonder if Noah stole it from work.

[teebax]

1 hour ago, rollerblade said:

That stuff Noah is doing with the banana bags (whatever that is).... is it legal? I guess it is or April would have reported him. The whole thing just seem to fishy. Wonder if Noah stole it from work.

I wondered that too, especially after April scolded him and told him he's not even a doctor yet. Would she have turned him in? I'm not sure.

[CoyoteBlue]

I thought they'd let the surrogate keep the baby if it didn't go to term? Well, bonus! In two months, she'll have a healthy baby to sell to the highest bidder. Or just parents who aren't complete assholes. 

[Lady Calypso]

I honestly thought that Goodwin would point out in the contract that they want a healthy baby and that even carrying it to term, it would ensure the baby is not healthy because of the risks of killing the mother and fetus. I mean, the mother still gets money for the weeks she did carry it to, right? Whatever, those surrogates were clearly very touchy about premature babies. Maybe they have experience with them and didn't want to chance taking care of this one? I can't really judge because we never met the surrogates. And maybe it's just me, but I thought the surrogate agent was just doing her job. Goodwin seemed to be freaking out more about the system, or whatever. 

....damn, they're really trying to redeem Halstead. And look, I actually am calling him Halstead! It might be working! His 'friends' were dicks. Ok, dude with the blood clot was not as bad as his brother, who freaked out on Halstead, chose another doctor, and then demanded why Halstead wasn't helping. Dude, you kicked him off your brother's case. What more do you want? And bitchy attending lady? Chill out. As much as I don't want Halstead staying, we all know he's going to be staying and you're probably going to get yourself fired for something.

I would think if Noah was doing something illegal, April would have been more concerned. It just seemed like she was disappointed in his choice to do something shady. Noah is an asshole and I dislike his attitude a lot. He can go and get fired any time now. 

I feel bad for Connor. His family life seems very complicated. 

I didn't mind Manning's story with the daughter and addict father. It was kind of interesting, and I get that sedating the girl was the only way to see what was wrong. I also don't mind that the addict father had to have a reason to be an addict. At least it was something a little bit different, with the actual medical issue and self medicating going too far. It was just a contributing factor, so I kind of liked it.

[candall]

Little help, please--my picture froze ten minutes from the end, but I could still hear the audio.  I heard what the attending told Halstead and what SEM said to the adoption agency woman, but there was some heavy music for a couple of scenes I couldn't see.  Maybe heroin dad went and scored some drugs right outside the emergency room door?  I know this show is prone to end with something making one of the doctors heave a "can't save them all" sigh.

 

Thanks in advance!

[starri]

20 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

 

I would think if Noah was doing something illegal, April would have been more concerned. It just seemed like she was disappointed in his choice to do something shady. Noah is an asshole and I dislike his attitude a lot. He can go and get fired any time now. 

It is 100% illegal.  He's practicing medicine without a license.

There was a thing on Vice a few months ago about outsourcing surrogacy to poor women in India.  I've always been okay-to-ambivalent about surrogacy as a theory, but seeing it in practice is something else.  I'd like to think that it's not completely exploitative, but I'm not sure it ultimately can be.

[izabella]

I'm torn on the surrogacy issues.  I can see how it can help couples who want to be parents.  However, I think any time you use women as incubators for your own sperm/egg combo and there is money changing hands, the possibility of abuse of the system, the surrogate mother, and the baby make it so only the most desperate of women with the least resources and the least support would sign up for that. 

I'm also of the opinion that there are plenty of unwanted children already born and living without homes or parents and no adoptions in sight.  So I'm less inclined to sympathize with people who want to be parents but only to one with their own genes.  Then, it seems less about wanting to be parents and raise children and more about wanting their own mini-me's (again, only if they are perfect.  If not, they can be abandoned to the "system" like all the other unwanted babies).

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, starri said:

It is 100% illegal.  He's practicing medicine without a license.

There was a thing on Vice a few months ago about outsourcing surrogacy to poor women in India.  I've always been okay-to-ambivalent about surrogacy as a theory, but seeing it in practice is something else.  I'd like to think that it's not completely exploitative, but I'm not sure it ultimately can be.

Then what the actual hell, show? I blame the show for making April so nonchalant about what he was doing. Yeah, she was upset about what he was doing, but she never tried to stop him, never said that it was illegal and he could go to jail, nothing of the sort. She gets really pissed when he does stupid shit in the hospital and she reports him, but then he does something actually illegal and she lets it go? I know she's 'done with him', but goddamnit, April!

[Texasmom1970]

Does not matter if he saved a bus full of nuns and innocent school children by himself I will never care for Halstead. He just bugs me being on screen, I just think he is a smug ass even when he is not exhibiting it.

The scene at the end made me remember how pretty Dr. Rhodes is, the patients of the week to me were kind of dull. Guess I am hard to impress. 

[candall]

2 hours ago, starri said:

There was a thing on Vice a few months ago about outsourcing surrogacy to poor women in India.  I've always been okay-to-ambivalent about surrogacy as a theory, but seeing it in practice is something else.  I'd like to think that it's not completely exploitative, but I'm not sure it ultimately can be.

I wasn't even aware there was a "legitimate" industry where you engaged an agency to hire someone to cook you a baby and then they retailed the merch back to you.  Seems like a business in serious need of some Standards & Practices regulation.

[starri]

7 minutes ago, candall said:

I wasn't even aware there was a "legitimate" industry where you engaged an agency to hire someone to cook you a baby and then they retailed the merch back to you.  Seems like a business in serious need of some Standards & Practices regulation.

There's a really big industry for it.  There's an agency called Growing Generations that targets LGBT couples that keeps serving me ads on Facebook for some unknown reason.  I looked into it out of idle curiosity, and it costs about $150K from start to finish.  That's before you factor in raising a child for eighteen years and then sending him/her off to college.  It's cheaper if you outsource.  India just clamped down hard and banned surrogacy for parents who don't hold Indian passports, which protects the surrogates, but some of theme also don't feel like they were being exploited because it can earn them something like three or four times the average Indian income per pregnancy.

It's awful, and I don't know if there is a good answer.

[Sarnia]

59 minutes ago, candall said:

I wasn't even aware there was a "legitimate" industry where you engaged an agency to hire someone to cook you a baby and then they retailed the merch back to you.  Seems like a business in serious need of some Standards & Practices regulation.

I didn't know either it was that serious. I'm on the fence with surrogacy but I can see how it can genuinely help people and as long as it's done with regards to the dignity of everyone involved, including the child. But I'm appalled that some people can be OK with ordering a baby and then refusing it when he/she's born because he/she doesn't tick all the boxes. That's what parenting is about people. Children are human beings and they don't tick all the boxes. How can you be happy with yourself knowing that there is somebody out there who was born because of you and you didn't take responsability? The child was born. The parents refused it like a faulty merchandise.

On another note, I think April told Noah that what he's doing is illegal. I hope that not reporting it will not backfire on her when it's found out (it's bound to be found out).

[candall]

46 minutes ago, starri said:

 $150K

This made me do a cartoonishly outsized double-take.  I guess I'm stuck back in Law & Order world where would-be parents get scammed into paying fictitious utility bills and springing for an extra-fancy hotel room during the trip to NYC.

[wonderwoman]

Glad to finally be able to comment on this episode:) Re the surrogate mother: all I could think of is that however difficult that baby's life may turn out to be, she dodged a bullet being adopted by such shallow, venous people.

And, on a more shallow note: does anyone know where that scene in the department scene was filmed? I though maybe Marshall FIeld's. But, where ever it was, the building was beautiful. 

[Xantar]

So basically the writers realized that the best way to make Halstead look like less of a douche is to make him share screentime with even bigger douchebags. And you know what? It kind of worked. Whether it works for you is going to depend on if you let time pass enough that we can all just sort of pretend the medical assault never happened.

Also, April threw a snit, acted unfairly to the guy she was dating, and then...she apologized to him like an adult? And he acted understanding? And they talked it out? What the hell, show? How are we supposed to get dramatic storylines this way? Don't you know that's breaking all the rules of TV relationships?

(Sadly, Loving Father McAthlete is turning out to be such a good stand up guy that I have a feeling he's going to end up dead).

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, candall said:

Seems like a business in serious need of some Standards & Practices regulation.

And until such regulations are put in place, I imagine a poor surrogate will be at the mercy of wealthy parents with smart lawyers.

But this begs the question:  Could she have sued for child support?  I mean, the paternity of the child should be fairly easy to establish.  Surely, the father would be in the same position as if he'd impregnated her in the more traditional way, then run off and left her to cope on her own?

[candall]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

 Could she have sued for child support?

If his sperm was used, definitely.  Or there might be the situation where the surrogate was carrying an implanted egg that had been fertilized with the husband's sperm--then those parents aren't walking away scot-free because of early delivery, no matter what the damn contract stipulates.  SO many different scenarios!

I spent most of my legal career on child support issues and this stuff didn't even exist way-back-then.  It would be a fascinating, groundbreaking area to work in, with contract law, family law, "best interests of society and/or the child" arguments, maybe privacy issues. . .  And that agency would have very deep pockets to pick because I imagine that's where the bulk of the 150k goes.  It's way too rare to have a big pile of money sitting on the other side when impoverished mothers and kids need it.

[starri]

7 minutes ago, candall said:

 And that agency would have very deep pockets to pick because I imagine that's where the bulk of the 150k goes.  It's way too rare to have a big pile of money sitting on the other side when impoverished mothers and kids need it.

At least with the agency I mentioned, the biggest individual chunk actually does go to the surrogate.  There is a fee that goes directly to the agency, and there are other things, like fees for legal services that I'm sure involve some skimming off the top, but there are at least some places that at least maintain a veneer of respectability.  I'd like to think that there are services that exist for more noble reasons, but bad actors treating the surrogates like chattel give the entire industry a bad name.

Trying to steer back toward the show, I'm going to guess that, because these are the rules of television, that when Halstead gets his shot at an attending job (although why the hospital needs one now is beyond me), Dr. Charles and Ms. Goodwin would be the rest of the hiring committee, so maybe there will be less drama than we think.

Although, come on, you never mouth off to an attending.  That's like first day stuff right there.

[springtime]

20 hours ago, candall said:

Little help, please--my picture froze ten minutes from the end, but I could still hear the audio.  I heard what the attending told Halstead and what SEM said to the adoption agency woman, but there was some heavy music for a couple of scenes I couldn't see.  Maybe heroin dad went and scored some drugs right outside the emergency room door?  I know this show is prone to end with something making one of the doctors heave a "can't save them all" sigh.

 

Thanks in advance!

No idea - but you can (easily) access full episodes on the network's website:
This weeks episode

[candall]

Thank you for the link, @springtime, but with my location, that's a three-day bufferfest.

Netflix, I yearn for you.

[Netfoot]

I just upgraded my internet on Monday.  Switched from copper to fiber, speed went up 600% and it cost me US$2.50 per month more.

When it comes to disk space and bandwidth, it's true what they say:  There is no such thing as enough.

"Course, I still can't see videos on the CBS website...

[callmebetty]

23 hours ago, wonderwoman said:

Glad to finally be able to comment on this episode:) Re the surrogate mother: all I could think of is that however difficult that baby's life may turn out to be, she dodged a bullet being adopted by such shallow, venous people.

And, on a more shallow note: does anyone know where that scene in the department scene was filmed? I though maybe Marshall FIeld's. But, where ever it was, the building was beautiful. 

It was filmed at the Bloomingdales building. They rehabbed about about 10 years ago. It is as beautiful as it looks. I worked downtown when they rehabbed it and have been inside it. It used to be like a masonic temple I want to say but I can't remember exactly.

[izabella]

candall, I think all you missed was the dad talking with Dr. Charles.  Dr. Charles was suggesting that the dad might want help in overcoming his heroin addiction now that he knows the physical reasons why he turned to drugs in the first place, and he offered his help.  However, dad was not interested, though he didn't come out and say, "yes, I now know why I started doing heroin, but I didn't even consider this as a reason to try to quit now because I'm a hardcore heroin addict," but that's what he meant.  Dr. Charles gave him his card just in case he changed his mind, but it seemed clear that he would be filing that card away in his circular file.

Edited April 29, 2016 by izabella

[las68]

On 4/28/2016 at 1:20 PM, wonderwoman said:

And, on a more shallow note: does anyone know where that scene in the department scene was filmed? I though maybe Marshall FIeld's. But, where ever it was, the building was beautiful. 

The exterior of the building is actually the Chicago Cultural Center.  It was once the city's central library, but is now used for other purposes.  The interior shots, however, were definitely not the CCC and likely a real department store, but I don't know which one yet.  I hope I find out.  I'm curious! 

[MakeMeLaugh]

On April 29, 2016 at 0:26 PM, callmebetty said:

It was filmed at the Bloomingdales building. They rehabbed about about 10 years ago. It is as beautiful as it looks. I worked downtown when they rehabbed it and have been inside it. It used to be like a masonic temple I want to say but I can't remember exactly.

Yes! It looked just like the Bloomingdales (Bloomingdale's?) Home Store (a separate store from the Bloomingdale's regular department store) that used to be in a mall near me. The displays and decor were the same. It is in the lovely former Medinah Temple just off Michigan Avenue. 

[statsgirl]

Is the only way to make Halstead look good is to have him with even worse people?  The brother was bad enough; the attending was practisiing bad medicine.  You'd think not being sued by the family of a patient who died based on her recommendation would outweigh her ego.

On 4/28/2016 at 3:19 PM, tv echo said:

 

sorry, from another show, I don't know how to get rid of it.

On 4/28/2016 at 11:27 AM, izabella said:

I'm also of the opinion that there are plenty of unwanted children already born and living without homes or parents and no adoptions in sight.  So I'm less inclined to sympathize with people who want to be parents but only to one with their own genes.  Then, it seems less about wanting to be parents and raise children and more about wanting their own mini-me's (again, only if they are perfect.  If not, they can be abandoned to the "system" like all the other unwanted babies).

This is a real problem though.  Back in the 60s or earlier, when it was a terrible stigma to have an illegitimate child, you could be fairly sure of adopting a healthy baby or child.  But now if a single parent can care for a child (either with family or government help), a lot of the children being given up for adoption have fetal alcohol syndrome or other birth defects.  I'm not trying to be cruel because these children are innocents and it's not their fault their parents screwed it up for them, but it is a huge task to adopt a child with disabilities.  That's why so many people want to adopt from abroad, until they found out the emotional problems many of those children have from being abused as infants and children.

So I can understand wanting to do everything you can to make sure the child is healthy so that you'll be able to cope with raising him/her.  No drugs or smoking while pregnant, maintain being healthy.  A friend of mine has been looking into an Indian surrogate, with the other woman's egg and donor sperm, just to know that the baby has the best chance of being healthy.

Those surrogacy-seeking parents were scum though to refuse to consider the health of the surrogate and the baby. That kid dodged a bullet for sure.

[SnarkySheep]

My biggest peeve with this ep was how we learned about the dad's underlying medical condition and it was presented, not outright of course, but fairly understood, as a "reason" for his heroin addiction. I'm sorry, but there is NEVER a reason for that kind of thing, especially when you are a single parent.

Also, judging from the daughter's adamant rejection of all drugs even under horrific pain, it's pretty reasonable to assume that she must have witnessed some pretty terrible things over the years because of her father's drug use. So I find that end scene, of the two talking quietly like she had a better "understanding," a bit farfetched. Would she seriously be more forgiving of a no doubt horrific childhood simply because her father had a "reason"? I'm sure that many, if not most, drug addicts initially got started for some reason such as depression, mental illness, battling a trauma like sexual assault, etc. 

As for Halstead, I don't understand why he simply didn't turn over his former classmate's care to another doctor immediately. The two brothers basically started giving him crap the moment he stepped into the exam room; couldn't he have said right away there was a conflict of interest? Why would he let it get to that point, especially when he JUST got released from a medical lawsuit??

Re: Manning - My GOD, is being a mother going to be her main characteristic from now on?? I don't have any kids myself, but I basically would've given the surrogate the exact same advice; it was pretty basic logic that she was just not allowing herself to see in her desperation. Could Choi not have said the same?

Also, Manning may be a single mom, which is certainly a difficult task that no one would envy. But unlike many other women that come into the ED, Natalie has the luxury of knowing she has parents just a flight away, and a mother-in-law nearby who is willing to help care for her baby (most likely physically and financially). Natalie has the benefit of much education, which will allow her to support herself and her child comfortably. Just because she is a single mom and so is a patient she encounters doesn't mean they will necessarily have ANYTHING else in common. I doubt that Natalie has ever, or will ever, struggle to stay out of a shelter, or have to essentially sell her body to take care of Owen. But the show already seems to keep going back to "Hey! Single mom too! We all in the same boat!" It's a bit of a copout that keeps them from better writing.

[SnarkySheep]

Oh, and in regard to Noah...I wasn't 100% sure, but I thought what he was doing was selling "hangover cures," e.g. IV fluids and oxygen, to help the athletes keep partying without side effects. If so, that's an actual thing; I recently learned of it through my co-worker, whose nephew is a doctor that set up shop in prime spring break geography offering similar services. It's also done these days at celebrity weddings, so their wealthy guests can have a REALLY good time. It's totally legal, as it's really nothing more than replenishing people's fluids and such. However, to be legal, this service has to be provided by an actual doctor, not just "almost a doctor," as Noah said.