Also known as: Heart valve damage
Mr. O'Malley requires heart valve replacement surgery, which becomes the central conflict when George switches surgeons from Burke to Dr. Hahn due to concerns about Burke's tremor, creating major interpersonal drama throughout the episode.
Also known as: Brain bleed
Larry Dickerson, an 86-year-old driver who crashed into a fish market, has bleeding in his brain requiring neurosurgical intervention. His case reveals underlying spinal stenosis that likely caused the accident.
Also known as: Narrowing of spinal canal
Larry has severe age-related narrowing of the spine causing numbness in his legs and feet, which prevented him from feeling the pedals properly and contributed to the car accident. This creates ethical tension when his wife admits she knew about his driving difficulties.
Also known as: Fractured windpipe
Larry sustained a tear in his trachea from the car accident requiring cardiothoracic surgical repair by Dr. Hahn, who discovers additional complications during the procedure.
Also known as: Tear in the aorta
During Larry's surgery, Dr. Hahn discovers a partial tear in his aorta causing critical bleeding that requires Burke's assistance, creating the crisis where Burke must leave another patient on bypass.
Also known as: Blood around the heart
Janelle, a pregnant fish market vendor, has a large shard of glass penetrating her heart causing cardiac tamponade. Burke performs emergency surgery to repair the ventricular septum, but complications arise when she blows a stitch coming off bypass, requiring re-operation.
Also known as: Hole in the heart
The glass shard penetrated through Janelle's right ventricle and septum, creating a defect requiring repair with a pericardial patch during her cardiac surgery.
Also known as: Collapsed lung
Janelle initially presents with decreased breath sounds and low pulse ox requiring chest tube placement, though her surgery is expedited when she develops cardiac tamponade.
Also known as: Cuts
Janelle sustained extensive lacerations from flying through a window during the fish market accident, requiring careful debridement and removal of glass splinters by Karev under Sloan's supervision.