Dana counsels a woman and her emotionally distant son, who are both being treated for lead poisoning. Also, Lu goes to bat for a stenographer with carpal-tunnel syndrome.
Striking nurses send the hospital into chaos, forcing Dana to withhold an experimental treatment for a dying baby. Also, an abused patient of Lu's is turned away.
Lu copes with the trauma of being raped by devoting her thoughts to a patient who accidentally overdosed on over-the-counter cough medicine. Dana, meanwhile, grudgingly turns to Dr. Kilner for advice about a pregnant woman with colon cancer.