MDA

- Season 1

(2002)

Ella Davis' long time friend Olga Stiles, an obstetrician, is facing charges in the Supreme Court for contributing to the massive brain injuries of a young woman, Kim Cusack, following complications with her Caesarean delivery.

Ella must get to the bottom of a tragic case in which an elderly man dies inexplicably, while the young doctor on duty insists he can't be held responsible for the death.

When a GP is caught having sex with a beautiful patient in his surgery Ella must make a decision about whether MDA should fight to save his practice. He claims it was a one off but his devastated wife is sure he's been having an affair.

A young mum is suing her doctor after losing the sight in her good eye following surgery on the other. Is the surgeon to blame for not warning her of the one in 14,000 chance of sympathetic blindness - an effect with no known cause?

Deana Raye, a very recent gender reassignment patient, is rushed into Dr Ella Davis' hospital Emergency Department after a suicide attempt. Now Ella finds herself in a conflict of interest.

Smooth, plausible psychiatrist Dr Oliver Maudsen is up before the Medical Practitioners Board on a charge of sexual misconduct.

Ella calls on the services of a long lost love Paul Bennett, a romance from Uni days to provide an Expert Opinion in the tragic case of a woman claiming damages because her doctor failed to diagnose one of her twin babies with Spina Bifida.

Ella becomes increasingly ambivalent about fighting a case against the mother of twin boys, one of whom has spina bifida.

Happy represents Dr Wendy Rossi at the Coronial Inquest into the patient who accidentally died at her hands in ICU. Jamie is frantic: he's Wendy's case manager, but he's fallen in love with her too.

Caitlin and Jamie are in conflict when they represent a young anaesthetist, whom Caitlin is sure is not what he seems.

All on the one night. As Ella and Tony deal with one emergency after another at St Albans Hospital, Layla makes her first public speech to first year med students - and wins a heart.

Ella persuades Richard to defend Wendy Rossi and takes on the case of neurosurgeon Dr Phil Jacobs, whose brain-damaged patient suffered an unknown trauma in a neuro recovery ward.

Happy represents Ella and Tony at the Coronial Inquiry, discovering that Sam, Layla's med student boyfriend, witnessed the incident in question. But Happy also strongly suspects that Caitlin is leaking information to Richard Savage.

The MDA team have the strange experience of barracking for Richard Savage as he defends Dr Wendy Rossi against a charge of manslaughter.

MDA and Richard Savage actually work together to sort out an angry and guilty young man, who is desperate to blame a palliative care doctor for the loss of his cancer sufferer father.

Richard goes up against MDA, representing a model and dancer who claims her breast enhancement looks unnatural. A country doctor mistakes pregnancy for menopause in an older woman.

As Happy is pre-occupied searching the city for his estranged son Jason, Caitlin takes over the breast enhancement case against Richard - with some surprise help from Jamie.

Ella and the MDA team must move fast when the case of young mother Debbie Shanahan, dying of cancer, is brought forward. Richard Savage plays the sympathy card for all it is worth.

Ella must play medical fact against a tough judge and enormous public sympathy when the Debbie Shanahan case against breast surgeon Teresa Commons goes to trial.

Jamie is dismayed when a very depressed Wendy Rossi, back in town for her Medical Board hearing, rejects his help.

As Ella and Tony wait for the verdict in the negligence case against them, MDA receives a class action writ from 72 of their members, alleging MDA lied about the organisation's financial health.

Ella must talk inexperienced nurses in a remote rural area through life-saving procedures by phone. She and Caitlin clash with Richard over the ethical issues involved in IVF.