Strong Medicine

- Season 5

(2006)

As Lu and Ben's relationship begins to develop, his ex-wife comes back into the picture in search of a job and faces a health scare; new resident Kayla Thornton begins working at Rittenhouse; Jesse's friend ends up in the ER after overdosing on cough syrup in order to get high.

Andy tells Amber Seale, a famous rock star, and a patient to rest and cancel some of her concerts because of fatigue. The rock star invites Lu's young patient Lily who has a terminal disease to spend the day with her. Lu's patient's mother directs a terrible accusation at the rock star. Ben starts a concierge service to keep the clinic open after it faces financial difficulties.

Dr. Campbell treats Rachel, a patient she believes is an alcoholic but she won't admit to her drinking problem. The patient's daughter Jordan goes to desperate measure to get her mom to stop drinking. Another of Andy's patients needs to get a kidney transplant but nobody in her family is a match. Tammy's mom then reveals a horrible secret that could save her daughter's life - she was raped and her daughter is the product of that rape. Meanwhile, Lu, Lana, Peter, and Ben go out on the streets to find out what is threatening the lives of young infants.

Andy and Milo are invited to stay in a beach-side cabin owned by a patient of Andy's at Cape June, a beach-side vacation community. The vacation gets interrupted when a young boy suddenly becomes very ill with similar symptoms to Andy's patient who has cancer. Andy is further shocked to learn that 9 other residents of the town have died from cancer.

When elderly patients die under suspicious circumstances, Peter becomes a suspect; Andy treats a judge suffering from hearing loss caused by abusing pain medication.

Andy is concerned that a patient of hers who has survived breast cancer is suffering from body dysmorphic disorder; Lu says goodbye when Marc heads off to college and Ben's job is transferred to Miami.

Andy finds herself in trouble after a prejudiced patient complains that Andy refused to treat her; a patient of Lu's who needs surgery asks to be treated by a faith healer that is revealed to be a young girl.

Lu discovers that two teenage girls have been poisoned by a girl at their high school they have bullied; a patient of Andy asks her to endorse her new heart-health diet book only to end up in the emergency room suffering from a heart attack.

After a young adult film star is diagnosed with an STD, Lu tries to find out how she contracted the disease; Andy seeks to gain the position of chief of surgery; Kayla treats a teenage boy with a gunshot wound.

When the sister of a famous gymnast is in need of a liver transplant, Lu faces issues with her family who refuse to help; Kayla and Andy become concerned after a depressed resident attempts suicide.

Kayla wants to try an experimental surgery on a paralyzed patient; Lu treats a woman who is diagnosed with avian flu; Peter treats a woman suffering from allergies with homeopathic remedies.

In the series' 100th episode, an adoptive mother and a biological mother fight over the custody of a young girl; a patient of Andy sues her insurance company when she is diagnosed with cancer too late.

Lu treats a female acquaintance of Marc's who is discovered to be pregnant and claims that Marc is the father; Andy becomes a health food advocate at Lizzie's school; Kayla asks Peter to pose as her fiance when her ex-boyfriend comes to town.

Lu helps out a mother whose young daughter's mental illness has worsened; Andy becomes suspicious about a couple's true reason for wanting to undergo in-vitro fertilization; Peter becomes jealous when Kayla dates a man who volunteers at a zoo.

When a six-year-old girl comes into the ER with severe burns to her body, the only person who can save her life with a skin transplant is her twin sister; Andy suspects that cadavers are being illegally sold.

Andy meets the teenage boy responsible for Milo's death; Lu becomes suspicious when an organ-transplant patient suffers from mysterious complications.

Andy is considered for the position of Chief of Surgery; Lu deals with a drug company who wants to financially compensate her leukemia patient.

Lu treats a surrogate mother whose adoptive parents refuse to keep the baby when it's revealed that he's disabled; Andy suspects that her patient's daughter might have a serious medical condition.

Andy treats a woman who has a rare lung disease who wants to see her pregnant daughter, who lives in Paris; Lu helps out a woman whose job won't cover her medical condition.

In this failed spin-off pilot of the series, Dr. Vanessa Burke, the new chief of trauma at Rittenhouse pulls strings to get her adoptive ex-convict sister a job as a paramedic; meanwhile, Lu searches for a bone marrow donor for a infant.

Lu treats a group of illegal immigrant women who are pregnant; a beauty pageant contestant who has lupus wants to get her breast implants removed.

Jonas reveals news that could affect his relationship with Lu; Andy leaves Rittenhouse to become the new surgeon general.