Strong Medicine (2000)

Dr. Lu Delgado is running out of money to run her free clinic by herself. When Lu goes to prestigious Rittenhouse Hospital to ask for assistance, famous O.B.G.Y.N./surgeon Dr. Dana Stowe blames Lu for ruining her breast cancer study to find a cure for cancer after Lu tells a woman her opinon about test studies. Dana later is asked by Chief of Staff Dr. Bob Jackson to tour Lu's clinic and see if the clinic should get funded by Rittenhouse . Dana tells one of her patients that she has ovarian cancer and that she will not be able to have any children even though she has the desire to. In the end, Dr. Lydia Emerson comes up with the perfect solution to Lu's problem.

As Dana & begin to work together, Dana has to tell a surrogate couple that their unborn baby has a defect that will cause it to be mentally disable. After the surrogate couple tells Dana they will put the baby up for adoption. Dana tries to get the biological mother, who can barely afford to take care of her other children, to keep her baby. Lu finds out that a woman who claims to have had a hysterectomy has not.

Dana treats an HIV positive patient of Lu's when Lu is out of the clinic and learns that his mother took him off the HIV medication with Lu's permission. She is furious and reports the mother. Although the boy suffers terrible side effects from the medication, Dr. Bob Jackson insists that he be put back on it. Dana falls for her handsome intern.

Dana's former beauty queen patient doesn't think her husband finds her attractive and insists on having extensive plastic surgery. Dana refuses to perform the surgery but when Terri Ann lands in the ER, she begins to doubt her decision. Peter tries to figure out why a transvestal is having side effects of menopause and counsels Marc about one of the stickier issues of adolescence. Lu and Lana try to find an appropriate punishment for two young teenagers who spray graffiti outside the hospital.

Lu coaches a teenage basketball team and is troubled when a player faints at a game. She later finds traces of steroids in her blood and wonders if the entire team is on the drugs. Dana is mystified when a complete stranger shows up in the ER with Dana's name and phone number in her purse. Dana must make a difficult decision for the women and regrets that she can't find her family so they can decide.

Dana has big problem on her hands when Susan Jackson comes to the hospital with bruises. Dana wonders if Robert Jackson gave her the bruises because their marriage problems. Dana gets the feeling Susan may not be telling her all she knows. After Dana learns Robert found his wife at the bottom of the stairs Susan tells that had double vision leading Dana to believe Susan might have Multiple Sclerosis.

After a councilwoman comes to the clinic to see Dr. Dana Stowe, Lu Delgado is trying to get gang members who are angry at the Councilwoman because they are unable to get insurance. The gang members continue arguing with the councilwoman who isn't interested in what they have to say. Seconds later an unknown gunmen began shooting at the clinic and Dana's patient is accidentally shot and is in need of immediate medical attention. The operation helps Dana's patient learn a valuable lesson. Also in this episode, Peter treats a woman who goes berserk at the shooting in the clinic. He later finds that she grew up in Cambodia during the war. But she may be suffering from more than pain from the memories.

When a command pilot learns she has a brain disorder she must learn to cope with not being able to fly a plane anymore. Dr. Stowe tells Jane that it would be wise to quit her job as an airline pilot before her disease progresses to where she will be unable to do her job properly. Dana questions whether or not to put her patient's privacy at risk as well as her own career as a doctor by telling the airline that she can't do her job anymore due to her illness.

Dana goes underground to help the wife of a high-powered real estate developer whose financial grip on his spouse is making her black and blue. Meanwhile, Lu comes between an orphaned boy with attention deficit disorder and his foster guardian when she finds the Ritalin she prescribed has fallen into the wrong hands. Lu finds a bit of romance over a Philly cheesesteak.

It's Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend at the Rittenhouse Hospital Women's Clinic, where Lu (Rosa Blasi), Lana (Jenifer Lewis) and Peter (Josh Coxx) are hosting a dance-a-thon and a free mammogram clinic. When one woman's mammogram reveals a lump, she must choose between losing both her breasts and losing her job. After Dana (Janine Turner) delivers the unexpected results of her breast cancer clinical trial, she learns the very disease that's defined her career has now hit too close to home.

Dana takes a leave from the clinic to help her mother through a double mastectomy. Lu's impromptu safe-sex speech at a prep school's career day puts her in the middle of a legal dispute over a date rape. Peter's ""alternative"" approach to pain management for a patient with Hodgkin's disease gets them both arrested. And Dana and Lu must each decide how much they want to know when they are both tested for the mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that would reveal a predisposition to breast cancer.

A woman's advanced Parkinson's disease forces Dana and Robert to decide whether to perform a controversial fetal cell transplant. Peter's stint as a nude model leads to a romantic interlude with an aspiring painter whose muse puts her in the emergency room. When Lu treats one of her son Marc's classmates for a broken wrist, she discovers that alcohol has hit junior high.

Lu (Rosa Blasi) and Dana (Janine Turner) intervene when a woman with a controversial bone and muscle disease is denied her disability claim. And Dana gets in the middle of an immigration dispute when she finds out that the physical damage on a 15-year-old sexual assault victim was actually inflicted by the girl's parents.

A mother- and father-to-be clash over whether or not to allow Dana to perform in utero surgery to correct a birth defect on their unborn son. Lu must decide whether or not to get involved when a woman she was treating for schizophrenia is charged with murder.

It's Christmas at Rittenhouse Hospital. A woman engaged to be married finds out she's pregnant — even though she's a virgin. Robert fires a kitchen employee, assuming her to be drunk on the job. Lu later diagnoses her with Lou Gehrig's disease. Lu's son Marc develops a crush on a runaway teen.

A journalist comes in with an infection on her foot and Dana(Janine Turner)realizes that she is actually a closet heroine addict. Lu (Rosa Blasi) is called to the emergency room when her patients, a deaf family, are brought in following a fire in their apartment building. She worries about their safety and suggests a risky ear surgery for them — but the husband disapproves. Lu brings her boyfriend home to meet Marc(Chris Marquette).

Environmental toxins in a low-income housing unit trigger early menopause in one of its 25-year-old residents. A new mother spirals into depression and runs away from home. Dana meets Nick's mother.

When a 12-year-old girl is diagnosed with oral gonorrhea, she tells Lu (Rosa Blasi) that she got it from her teacher. Lana (Jenifer Lewis) takes on a new role at Rittenhouse: that of patient. Two of Dana's patients deliver babies — and both newborns have the same father.

Dana Stowe must help a family consider if they should take Scarlett off of life support because of the disease she has. Scarlett has expressed to her husband that she does want life support, however her mom says her daughter doesn't want life support. Dr. Lu Delgado tries to help a Mom understand that she didn't prescribe medicine to help her daughter speak after not hearing anything from her daughter in two years. Dana tries to comebat her fear of flying and needs to do deliver a baby from 3,000 feet in the air.

Dana cares for a dying patient who has been disguising herself as a man in order to fulfill her calling to the priesthood. Lu prescribes Demerol for a woman suffering from sickle cell anemia, but the woman's local pharmacy will not carry high-priced drugs for fear of robbery.

It's an all-nighter for Lu at Rittenhouse — and there's not a moment's rest. Robert's wife, Susan, is back in the hospital as her MS progresses. A baby is kidnapped — from a pregnant mother's womb. And Lana's blind date ends in the ER.

A mother goes on a hunger strike in the hopes of saving her son from being executed. And when something goes wrong in the OR, Dana wonders whether it's time for her to leave Rittenhouse.

The second season begins with Dana and Lu at odds over the fate of a dead college student's fertilized eggs. The day is further complicated by the arrival of Peter's mother, who clings to the idea that her heterosexual son is gay. Elsewhere, a dying patient and her husband wait impatiently for a donor heart and Nick's appointment to the ER staff is in doubt.

After denying employment to a candidate who is both overqualified and overweight, Robert faces off against a civil-rights lawyer famous for her plus-size clientele. Elsewhere, Dana comes under fire from the Army when she diagnoses a 14-year veteran with Gulf War Syndrome. Lana cares for the newborn son of a neighborhood streetwalker.

Dana's bedside manner is put to the ultimate test when a former high-school rival comes to her for treatment. A nurse considers suing the hospital after she tests positive for the HIV virus following an incident in the ER.

Lu travels to Puerto Rico, where her beloved grandmother urgently needs a bone-marrow transplant to survive. As the headstrong doctor copes with this life-or-death situation, she flashes back to her days as a resident, recalling her first meeting with Peter and Lana. Mary J. Blige guest stars as a moody blues singer named Simone.

The parents of conjoined twins refuse to have them surgically separated, even though that means they may both die. Lu suspects a leukemia patient may have attempted suicide by starting a fire. Peter is concerned about a patient with a severe rash on her arm and suspects it to be the some kind of virus. Dr. Jackson feels that Rittenhouse needs a good safety & emergency plan and he puts Lana in charge of it.

Philadelphia baseball fans blame Dana when the home team loses a crucial playoff game. Lu cares for a piano prodigy with scleroderma, a potentially fatal disease that hardens the body's organs. Peter helps a retired research chimp find greener pastures.

An Alzheimer's patient attempts to maintain custody of her 15-year-old son with Down syndrome, and a domestic diva puts the health of her unborn child at risk.

A woman hoping to form a maternal bond with her adopted teenage daughter ignores Dana's advice and proceeds with plans to re-create the child's birth. A second patient of Dana's seeks Lu's care after falling on hard times. Outside the hospital, Marc is caught cheating at school.

Robert's wife's battle with MS becomes more difficult, so he asks Dana to try a new experimental drug on her. Lu treats a young Korean woman for anorexia.

A patient of Dana's gives birth to twins — one baby is black, the other is white. And Lu suspects that a woman with chronic back pain is addicted to prescription drugs.

Dana debates whether she should risk her relationship with Nick to comfort a terminally ill flame from her past, while Lu faces off against a Philly police officer who mistook a diabetic for a drunk driver.

Dana waits for Nick to decide when they will get married, and treats a figure skater who's determined to compete in the Olympics despite being diagnosed with osteoporosis. Elsewhere, Lu takes an instant dislike to her son's new girlfriend's father (Don Michael Paul). Lana looks forward to graduating from high school. Peter finds his new romantic relationship to be fleeting.

Dana suspects an Amish woman is infected with mad-cow disease; and Lu treats Lana for a sexual dysfunction stemming from her days as a prostitute.

A pregnant and very ill pro-life politician has her principles put to the ultimate test when the only treatment that will save her life will result in losing her baby. Meanwhile, a patient of Lu's who is trying to pass herself off as a much younger woman is hampered by the inconvenient arrival of menopause.

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.

Lu's return to her college alma mater is marred by an outbreak of meningitis. At the clinic, Dana develops symptoms suggesting she is pregnant.

Dana is troubled when a patient requests new breast implants immediately after her first ones rupture. Elsewhere, Lu fears for the life of a wanted criminal's sickly newborn.

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.

The Rittenhouse doctors cope with a blood shortage in Philadelphia. Dana helps a patient who unknowingly contracted hepatitis from her husband, and Lu deals with a family of illegal dog fighters who have Lyme disease.

Lu is raped by Rittenhouse's star surgeon — but he insists that the sex was consensual. Meanwhile, Dana attempts to help a critically injured woman whose car crash may or may not have been an accident.

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.

Lu tries to cope with the aftershocks of her rape, she finds her life spinning out of control. Her rage causes Robert to dismiss her from Rittenhouse, and at home her son Marc barely recognizes her. Meanwhile, one of Dana's patients agonizes over whether to continue with in vitro fertilization, which will likely hasten the progress of her deadly disease, LAM.

As Dana's upcoming birthday makes her decide to seek a volunteer sperm donor so that she can have a child, she is confronted with a newborn who is HIV-positive. Lu is accused by an enraged mother of being responsible for her teenage daughter's sexually-transmitted disease because Lu provided the girl with birth control.

When Dana's attorneys make Peter's being a sperm donor difficult, Dana considers getting pregnant the old-fashioned way. Lu suspects that a baby's mother is the one responsible for the child's mysterious sickness.

Although it is now several months since she was raped, Lu is still reluctant when a cute paramedic asks her out on a date.

A teenage cancer patient refuses to continue chemotherapy, Dana makes preparations for what she assumes will be her forthcoming pregnancy, and Lu finds herself in the middle when she suspects abuse in a family.

Hospital executives approach Dana to perform a risky procedure to save an unborn child's life; Lu treats a prison inmate for cervical cancer and decides to take on the prison system in regard to women's health care. Also Dana becomes emotionally distraught after her pregnancy ends. Lu tries to stop a patient from utilizing an expensive screening test not covered by the clinic to save the patient's money. And Lu fears an elderly patient may be stashing enough medication for a suicide attempt.

Dana tries to win custody of an HIV-infected baby, even though becoming its full-time caregiver will end her career; a transsexual patient tries to win custody of a child, and Lu treats a homeless woman who has epilepsy.

Lu has plenty of opinions when it comes to deciding on Dana's replacement, but she soon learns that Dr. Robert Jackson, the chief of staff, has already hired someone for the position. Enter Dr. Andy Campbell, a former Army colonel who has returned to civilian life for the sole purpose of co-directing the Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic. It's not long before tempers flare and Andy and Lu butt heads over a case involving a wealthy patient who needs a kidney transplant and a poor woman who sells her healthy organ for the money.

It's Andy Campbell's official first day as co-head of the Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic. But before she can go in and save lives, she needs to help her two young daughters adapt to their new lives. Once she arrives at the hospital, Andy is left scratching her head, wondering what could be causing a woman's repeated miscarriages. Later, Lu and Andy face off when a drug-addicted patient almost dies from an overdose.

Andy goes beyond the call of duty to expedite the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a drug that could help Robert's wife, who has multiple sclerosis. Also, Andy intervenes when a family is accused of endangering the life of their young daughter. Meanwhile, a woman with terminal lung cancer claims to be Lu's half-sister.

When an old colleague with a breast lump calls for Andy's help—from space, of all places—the former Army colonel is at full attention. At the speed of light, she mobilizes both her hospital and NASA troops to perform a biopsy and, eventually, the removal of a growth. Back on Earth, Lu tries to help a pregnant woman with breast cancer make the delivery of her child—and the removal of the tumor—the happiest day of her life.