Also known as: Brain death
Ray Bolger is declared brain-dead and becomes a potential heart donor. The episode's central plot involves the surgical residents competing to convince his family to donate his heart for the hospital's first in-house heart transplant.
Also known as: Heart failure needing heart transplant
An unnamed patient is awaiting the hospital's first in-house heart transplant, which drives the competition among surgical residents to secure the donor heart from the Bolger family.
Elliot demonstrates her endocrinology expertise by diagnosing Mr. Baum with an adenoma causing Cushing's syndrome, explaining his simultaneous development of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Also known as: Thyroid medication overdose
Elliot teaches interns about cardiac complications of thyrotoxicosis, explaining that it can manifest with incessant tachycardia leading to cardiomyopathy.
Dr. Cox corrects an incorrect diagnosis, revealing that Mr. Langley's pancreatitis is due to type I familial hyperlipoproteinemia, evidenced by eruptive xanthomas on his Achilles tendon, not gallstones.
Also known as: Stitches popped open
A patient sneezes and all his surgical staples pop out, leaving his chest cavity completely open with his heart visible, prompting Keith to appropriately page J.D.
Also known as: Depression
Dr. Burk, a hospital psychologist who was scheduled to give a lecture on fear of public speaking, dies by suicide due to his depression, necessitating a replacement speaker.