I’m reblogging this episode since Original Law and Order is now on Hulu and I’m watching on my down time.
At the moment I feel like my world is spinning out of control. I was in the process of adjusting to being home less because I took I full time job, but I haven’t been home at all for the last 7 days. My husband will have us completely moved into the camper and out of the house before Aly is discharged from the hospital. I know she needs me right now, so I’m right where I need to be, but I also need a little bit of normal.
My comfort shows are Friends and Law & Order. Since I have a truck load of Prime credits, I’ve decided to start watching Law and Order while we are at the hospital. Episode 1 is Prescription for Death.
The episode starts in an emergency room. Every bed is full. A man is trying to go check on his daughter. When he finds her, she is being pronounced dead and the doctor is looking guilty.
The girl’s dad goes to the police department to report a murder. He claims the resident treating his daughter at the ER killed her. He also says anti-B-otics, so I don’t know how much we can trust him.
Detective Logan and his partner head to the hospital to investigate the father’s claims. “Don’t people croak here every day?” I guess we know why he’s a cop and not a doctor… zero bedside manner. All of the doctors, and even the officers present in the emergency room that night have a different story about how sick the girl was. The detectives might have let it go, if Max hadn’t found that whiteout was used to cover something up in the chart.
Max and Logan have the chart analyzed and discover that Dr Raza is the one who wrote the original order and tried to cover up the mistake. His original order had been for a narcotic. After the whiteout it just looked like Tylenol had been ordered. If the victim, Susan, had received the narcotic it would have created a deadly drug interaction with her antidepressants. The detectives think the have a smoking gun, and the bullet… a drunk medical director.
Dr Edward Auster, the medical director, had been to party before attending rounds. He decided to give Susan the narcotic for her muscle pain, and even performed the injection himself. The look on his face when he was arrested was actually comical.
I often wonder is real prosecutors do as much investigation before trying as case as they do on Law and Order. I’m sure they interview witnesses, but do they dig up past incidents of wrong doing, like in this case? It turns out that drunk Dr Auster had killed an 11 year old girl after drinking bourbon, but the case was settled as malpractice.
My favorite quote happens during the trial. The defense attorney asked the medical director if it was possible Susan died of pneumonia. The medical examiner responded with, “It’s possible that death rays from Mars killed her, but I don’t think so.” I want him to testify in all future cases.
Stone gets his guilty verdict, but only because the judge asks for cross examination of the defendant to occur after lunch. He has Max follow Dr Auster and observe how much alcohol he drank. Stone was able to take the information and prove that Dr Auster was drunk, even though he didn’t appear to be inebriated.
Guest Appearances:
- Erick Avari as Dr Raza. I remember him from the Stargate movie, but this was before that.
- Paul Sparer as Dr Auster. I didn’t recognize the face, but his sounded familiar. I had to look him up and learned he narrated Tales from the Darkside.
I will tell you about the case this is based on in my next post.
Have a great day.
Kristie
Kristie's Craziness 