Also known as: Rape
Joy is brought to the ER after being found unconscious following a sexual assault at a college party. She has sustained pelvic fractures and later develops life-threatening hemorrhage requiring emergency pre-peritoneal packing. The case drives the episode's central plot about misidentification of the assailant.
Also known as: Broken pelvis
Joy's pelvic fracture from the assault leads to massive internal bleeding when she ambulates. The team performs an emergency pre-peritoneal packing procedure to control hemorrhage before surgical repair.
Also known as: GIST
Whitney is a 22-year-old with metastatic GIST that has spread to her brain, causing seizures and progressive neurological decline. She seeks physician-assisted suicide under California's End of Life Option Act, which becomes a major ethical conflict in the episode and ends with her death.
Also known as: Seizure
Whitney experiences tonic-clonic seizures secondary to brain metastases from her GIST. She arrives seizing and unresponsive to initial treatment. The seizures severely impact her quality of life and contribute to her decision to pursue assisted suicide.
Also known as: Neck injury
Mike, a recurring character and Angus's brother, presents with lower extremity paralysis after bone fragments compress his spinal cord. He undergoes high-risk surgery to remove the fragments with uncertain outcome regarding recovery of function.
Also known as: Collapsed lung
Seth presents with blunt trauma to the chest and absent breath sounds on the left, requiring emergent chest tube placement. Initially thought to be the assault perpetrator, he is later revealed to be the victim who saved Joy.
Also known as: Blood in chest cavity
Seth develops massive bleeding through his chest tube from a pulmonary vein injury, requiring emergency thoracotomy in the ER to identify and clamp the bleeding vessel.
Stewart, a comedian, presents with abdominal pain and is diagnosed with complicated diverticulitis requiring IV antibiotics. When he fails to respond and becomes febrile, he requires emergency bowel resection.
Also known as: Face injury
Justin presents with facial trauma and visual symptoms after the altercation. He is eventually revealed to be Joy's actual attacker rather than her rescuer.