Tonight on NBC their new medical drama Chicago Med returns with an all new Tuesday May 10, season 1 episode 17 called, “Withdrawal,” and we have your recap below. On tonight’s episode April (Yaya DaCosta) and Dr. Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) clash over how to treat an alcoholic homeless man with a broken leg.
On the last episode, a teen patient with abdominal pain firmly refused any drugs. Meanwhile, Dr. Halstead reconnected with his past when treating a patient; a pregnant woman did everything in her power not to deliver the child; and Dr. Rhodes tried to avoid family issues. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the NBC synopsis, “April and Dr. Halstead clash over how to treat an alcoholic homeless man with a broken leg. Also, Dr. Manning continues to grieve over her husband’s death; two elderly women with the same symptoms share a surprise link; Halstead mulls over a job offer in California.”
Tonight’s season 1 episode 17 is going to be exciting. We’ll be blogging it right here for you.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
Tonight’s episode of Chicago Med kicks off with Dr. Choi at home in the morning with his girlfriend – she is leaving to teach a course. Choi brought home the bird from the hoarder’s house that he was called to when he was working as an EMT on Chicago Fire. His girlfriend jokes that the bird has taken a liking to him.
At the hospital, Natalie is chatting with ill in the break room, he says that he got a job offer in California. Before they can discuss it any more, the nurses begin shouting that there are patients coming in. Mr. Gleason is rushed in with a broken leg, he says that he broke it yesterday. Apparently, he knows April, she says that he is a drunk and a “frequent flier” at the emergency room. He jokes to April that he could use a drink.
Suddenly, Mr. Gleason starts having a seizure, Will rushes to get meds in him to try to stop seizing. April says that she has never seen Gleason have this problem before – something is wrong. They get Chuck Gleason under control, he’s awake and alert, and throwing up. Gleason has delirium tremors and the seizure was called by alcohol withdrawals. He screams that he needs to get out of the hospital and get a drink – Will tells him that there is no way he can leave on that leg, he is going to have to wait at least a day.
In the ER Natalie starts panicking when she notices that her wedding ring is missing. Maggie tries to comfort her and makes an announcement to all of the other nurses – she has them searching every exam room from top to bottom. Maggie is a mess.
Rose Wexler is in her 80’s, she was brought in because she was confused and agitated. Dr. Charles checks her out – she screams at him to “get the hell out” of her exam room. Reese blames it on the nursing room, she is upset because Rose has been over-medicated, malnourished, and hasn’t had hardly any human contact.
Meanwhile, a man named Frank is rushed in to the ER with his wife running behind him – he had a massive heart attack. They manage to revive him, then Connor rushes him back upstairs and says that he needs a bypass surgery. His wife stops Connor and says that it is against their religion, their Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they don’t believe in surgery that involves any machines or blood transfusions.
April is having a tough time with Chuck Gleason. She tries to tell him that he needs to sober up, she has been watching him deteroriate for years. Chuck’s delirious though – he screams at her to get him a drink and then throws up on her.
Choi, Connor, and Downey talk to Frank and his wife and try to convince them that he needs the bypass or else he will have another heart attack and could die. Frank and his wife refuse – their religion won’t let them spend eternity together if they take his blood out of his body. Dr. Downey announces that they will do a bloodless surgery, and operate without stopping the heart from beating. Connor warns that it is too risky – but Downey and Frank agree to go through with it.
In the ER, Goodwin corners Dr. Charles, she is trying to take him out on a blind date with her husband and an old friend of theirs. Goodwin turns her down, he is already paying two alimonies, he doesn’t want to take a chance by meeting any new women.
Reese corners Dr. Charles. It looks like they have a situation. She got some fluids in to Rose Wexler and she is coherent again, and makig a lot more sense. But, the nursing home just brought in another elderly woman with the same problem. Charles tells Reese to get some fluids in her and start running tests.
Will finds Natalie frantically searching for her wedding ring. He tells her that she will watch her patients so that she can keep looking for the ring. Natalie cries that she feels horrible, like she betrayed Jeff. Will spots April sneaking through the lobby with a brown paper bag. He corners her and demands to know what it is. She confesses that she was sneaking Chuck Gleason a drink. Will lectures her that it is against protocol, April has no problem breaking protocol if it means that Chuck won’t die right in front of her.
Maggie notices that Natalie doesn’t look so good. She says that her head is spinning and she feels like she is going to throw up. Maggie sends her in to the break room to lie down, but Natalie passes out and drops to the floor before she gets there. Everyone rushes to her side.
Will and Maggie get Natalie in an exam room and hooked up to an EKG. Natalie insists that she is fine and she is just a little anemic. Will wants her moved upstairs to Echo to have more tests done on her heart – he says that something isn’t right.
Meanwhile, Dr. Charles and Reese are perplexed by Wanda and Rose’s symptoms. Dr. Charles thinks they may have contracted gonorrhea at the nursing home, Reese thinks that is absurd. While they are arguing over whether or not the 80 year old women are sexually active – an old man named Clyde shows up with flowers for both of them. It looks like they may have been dating the same man at the nursing home.
April runs out of Chuck’s room calling for help – he started vomiting blood, a lot of it, he’s bleeding out. Will and Choi rush in to help, apparently Chuck burst a blood vessel in his esophagus from so much vomiting. April doesn’t say anything, but from the way she is glaring at Will while he works on Chuck, it is obvious that she blames him. Goodwin watches from outside of the exam room.
Will gets Natalie’s test results and heads upstairs to Echo to check on her. He says she didn’t have a heart attack, but she did have a cardiac myopathy. One of the muscles in her heart was strained. Natalie starts crying, she tells Will not to sugar coat it, she knows what it is called, “Broken heart syndrome.” The stress of losing her wedding ring and bringing back memories of Jeff triggered the episode. Will tells her that the odds of it happening again are slim to none.
Dr. Downey is operating on Frank – while keeping his heart beating, but just like Connor predicted, without the machines and blood transfusions, Frank starts flatlining. They manage to keep his heart beating manually, but Connor can’t stand there and pump his heart forever. Frank argues with Downey that they need the machines and the blood transfusion STAT.
Downey finally gets irritated and says that it is Connor’s ball game now. Connor has Frank’s wife come in to the operating room and shows her that her husband is basically dead unless she agrees to the blood transfusion and machines. Frank’s wife finally caves and tells the doctors to do what they have to, and then she begins asking Jehovah for forgiveness.
Reese and Charles check Mr Glickman, and he tests positive for Gonorrhea. Reese is furious when he tells them that there are two other women back at the nursing home that he was having sex with too. He insists that there is nothing wrong with it, he is just providing them with companionship.
Frank wakes up from his surgery and Downey and Connor explain to him that they had to use the bypass machine. Frank is furious when he learns that they used the machine on him and his wife gave them permission, he screams at her that now he can’t have eternity and kicks her out of the exam room. Dr. Downey lectures Connor, he tells him this is why they are supposed to listen to patients’ wishes.
Maggie pays Natalie a visit upstairs, she finally found her wedding ring. Atalie is thrilled – she thought it was gone for good.
Dr. Charles and Reese help wheel Wanda and Rose out to the van with Mr. Glickman so they can head back to the nursing home. Reese and Charles bicker over whether Mr. Glickman was a cheater, or if there is a such thing as an “open relationship.” Their talk inspires Charles to tell Goodwin that he has changed his mind and he wants to go on that double date after all.
Will notices that Chuck Gleason has made a miraculous recovery. He knows someone gave him a drink, there is no way the tremors would have stopped so fast. He confronts April, but it wasn’t her, she says that Goodwin did it. Will is furious – he confronts Goodwin and demands to know why she would sneak Gleason a drink. She explains that Gleason was going to die, literally die, if he didn’t get some alcohol in to his body and she wasn’t going to sit there and watch it happen.
Tonight’s episode ends with Dr. Downey waking up from surgery – they were trying to reduce the tumor on his liver. He wakes up and Connor is standing over him, he bursts in to tears of joy.
When Natalie is released from the hospital she heads to the cemetery to visit Jeffrey’s grave. She takes off her wedding rig and buries it in the grass in front of his tombstone.
THE END!
