A realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today's America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh.
A doctor recommends four things to say when a loved one is close to death—one of them being "I forgive you." There are no mentions of abuse or abusers in the episode.
One repeat patient, Louie, has alcohol problems. iirc, he was discharged in S1E1 after a high BAC, only to return, again drunk, in episode 8. He is in high spirits and the doctors joke around with him.
In earlier episodes there is rat infestation in hospital. In episode 9, almost at the end, one of them shows up (it is played by pet rats). There is also a dog who catches it and shakes the rat in its teeth, after which one of the doctors takes the blanket, catches the rat in it, and twists its neck. You cannot see it as it is under the blanket but there are pain noises. The scene with dog is fake enough to know it is not a real rat. The dog is fine.
Javadi has a case where she discovers two small puncture wounds in the patient’s foot, determines that it looks like a bite mark, and pulls a dead black widow out of the patient’s shoe. The dead spider is clearly shown and focused on in close up for several seconds, although it is crushed and somewhat misshapen.
One patient is dangerously overheating and is placed in an ice bath to lower her body temperature. At one point she has a seizure, and the doctors hold on to her in a way that might superficially resemble forcing her underwater. Her head is never submerged.
A female doctor is not slapped, but sucker punched in the face by an enraged man who had waited hours in the hospital waiting area but was never seen. This is the very last scene in the episode.
A patient is brought in who was burned in a gas tank explosion, mainly 3rd degree. He is transferred to another unit, but it is mentioned that he is unlikely to recover.
In an earlier episode, there is a briefly referenced but not depicted eye trauma.
S1E10, a patient has eye trauma that requires emergency treatment, which is depicted on-camera. It is bloody.
Very beginning, someone asks “Where’s Abbot?” and a character explains she needs a moment and then the scene switched to the bathroom and a eoman throwing up. Sound and visual. About 3 minutes in. You get no warning.
Later in ep a woman has been vomiting off camera. She holds a bowl and looks sick but they never actually show her vomit.
A transfem patient is deadnamed when called back to the emergency room, but the doctors correct this on her file later to prevent it from happening again.
A trans patient is deadnamed when she is called up in the waiting room, but after she corrects them about her name, the doctors and staff all consistently use correct pronouns for her. Additionally, a student doctor points out that the patient’s gender marker is incorrect in her chart on the computer, and tells the patient that she’s fixed that without being prompted so that the patient won’t have any issues going forward. The student doctor’s supervising resident specifically calls this out afterwards as positive and good patient care, and is impressed by it.
Not ridicule, but Langdon uses Robby's earlier emotional breakdown against him to try to hurt him during an argument. Langdon is not presented as being in the right.