Gideon's Crossing Season 1, Episode 14: Life Sentences

The Gift

The success of Ben's experimental treatment for kidney cancer leads to mixed feelings for both doctor and patient; Sid uncovers the simple diagnosis to a young man's perplexing symptoms, and Bruce provides the cure; Aaron faces resistance and resentment from the overwhelmed mother of sick boy; Bruce is forced to go above and beyond the call of duty to treat a hospital benefactor's loved one, when it's really the benefactor who critically needs care.

60 min

The Way

60 min

A Routine Case

60 min

The Race

Ben's friend and patient, a career politician, is diagnosed with cancer.

60 min

The Mistake

The staff have to tell a woman enquiring about her husband that he has died.

60 min

Freak Show

A woman with breast cancer is strangely opposed to the treatment which Ben prescribes. Bruce is infatuated with the girlfriend of a patient, and Ben witnesses a serious accident outside his daughter's school.

60 min

The Lottery

Excited when their antibody finally shows promise, Ben and Mike mount a clinical trial and clash over the lottery system that excludes one of Ben's patients, forcing him to pursue an alternative, less-effective therapy; fearing for his job and the financial future of the hospital, Max releases the news about the antibody to the press prematurely and incurs Ben's anger; Ollie counsels Sid after he goes on the date from hell, and provides an inspired and extremely pleasurable way to make his date regret dumping him; the post mortem after an indiscretion with a patient's wife provides Sid with just the thing to effect a cure for the man; in a series of events that Ben is at a loss to explain, the clinical trial fails and the alternative treatment his patient received instead miraculously cures his cancer.

60 min

Father Knows Best

Ben has problems with a difficult patient who happens to be one of the hospital's major benefactors. A young woman who is terminally ill wants to be mummified.

60 min

Is There a Wise Man in the House?

60 min

Clinical Enigma

60 min

Hinkytown

Ben and his students race to find the cause of a mysterious infection which is sweeping the hospital.

60 min

Dr. Cherry Must Be Stopped

Bruce falls under suspicion when one of his patients commits suicide.

60 min

Orphans

A deaf girl seeks Ben's help. Sid faces a life or death dilemma, and the Porter case is finally resolved.

60 min

Prodigal Dad

Boies' father suddenly comes back into his life. Ben looks for a new way to help a hemophiliac boy.

60 min

The Others

Cabranes faces a dangerous situation with one of his psychiatric patients. Boies' father fights cancer.

60 min

Flashpoint (II)

Gideon's patient Ellenor Frutt is diagnosed with a disease that complicates pregnancy. She makes Gideon promise he will put the baby's life ahead of her own. This crossover starts on The Practice S05E16 Gideon's Crossing (I).

60 min

Filaments and Ligatures

Cherry treats a girl who, due to a terrible accident becomes brain dead. He confronts the parents about taking her off life support, and when they agree, he presents the choice to donate her organs. Although the mother is willing, the father is greatly opposed. Gideon and other doctors routinely work on the priority list for a liver transplant. Whom will be the number one candidate comes down to Gideon's patient (Black male in 40's, Asian wife, three kids, on list for several years, terminal) and another doctor's patient (Gay white 30-something male, HIV positive, with 2 adoptive kids and partner, terminal). The black man's tumor sizes disqualify him. The gay man is decided to be most elligible. After pressure from the gay man's doctor, Cherry secretly lets the mother know that only one parent is needed to sign the consent form. She agrees. He is immediately plagued by guilt, and when his girlfriend, Money (Hedy Burress), tries to pragmatize the situation to him, he remarks, ""Yo

60 min

The Crash

In the opening scene, Gideon is trying to get his son, Eli, off to school. Neither of them is in a good mood, and Eli is being extremely difficult. It's a battle every step of the way. Gideon asks Boise to perform his routine physical for insurance purposes. He eats his first of dozens of antacids eaten through the show. The questions on the lifestyle portion of the exam seem to accuse Gideon of being burnout, impatient and at risk for stress related illness. He dodges the question on alcohol consumption as ""the bear."" Frustrated with Boise's thoroughness and candidness, Gideon ends the session early with this statement ""Sometimes you eat the bear; sometimes the bear eats you."" Gideon is treating a patient with Parkinson's disease. The patient's gradual deterioration has motivated his wife to opt for the highly risky, but sometimes miraculous fetal stem-cell implant therapy. Gideon is apprehensive; the surgery is irreversible and without protocol at this hospital. She insists.

60 min

Heart of Glass

We start where we left off, with Gideon getting off the floor. He takes his own blood pressure, collects himself, and goes out as if nothing occurred. The Coopers come in. Wyatt whispers to Cherry that his wife hasn't felt the twins in over 12 hours. Cherry takes her off calmly for a ""checkup."" Gideon's heartburn and mood are getting worse by the second. He resists Boise's pleas for a check-up for a diagnosis. Boise leaves, but is soon called back by the sound of crashing. He and several others see Gideon passed out, and they work to resuscitate him. To Wyatt's dismay, the OBGYN discovers that one twin is getting too much blood, one not enough. They have three options: to do an amniocentesis, laser surgery to direct blood flow, or...terminate the pregnancy. They decide to go with surgery. Gideon, now very awake, resists all treatment, even a simple heparin drip (a blood thinner). Cabranes and Pirandello insist; Gideon confides he had a bleeding ulcer two years ago and a blood t

60 min

The Old School

A classmate of Ben's asks him to treat her father, who is dying from cancer. But the man, a believer in old-school medicine, doesn't want Ben's help.

60 min