Ben Casey

Euthanasia. ""Journeys end in lovers' meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.""—Twelfth Night

Casey's colleague, surgeon Dr. Bill Justin, finds his work affected by several personal problems including his wealthy but inattentive wife Jeanne and his lover Felice. When Bill develops symptoms of a nervous disorder, Casey is on hand to help solve his problems.

""To a close shorn sheep, God gives wind by measure."" (George Herbert)

The key of mourning.

Modern medicine.

Dr. Green practices the best medicine, but Dr. Zorba and Dr. Casey are rather saturnine on his manner.

Wesley Boone, a strapping dockworker and the sole breadwinner for his parents and brother, is admitted to County General suffering from muscular problems. The case becomes complicated for Casey when Boone's indomitable mother accuses her son of malingering in order to shirk family responsibilities.

Various strings and attachments.

Looking Forward When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great, And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys. Robert Louis Stevenson

Cleopatra and the clepsydra.

Working in the hospital milieu.

A romantic ballet.

Australian veterinarian Dr. Geoffrey Collicott inspires his ward mates at County General. Although diagnosed himself with a terminal illness, his expertise could save the life of young Luke Creely, whose mysterious medical malady has Casey and his colleagues baffled.

The threshold of knowledge.

The whirligig of 3/4 time.

""As to moral courage, he [Napoleon] had very rarely found it, he said, that of two hours past midnight; which is to say, courage unawares.""

The Freudian prescription.

L'amour et la mort.

The classical Rx, yet Dr. Swanson fails to inspire respect.

A picture is most eloquent.

The punctuated forest. Autism and deafness in children.

The power of personality.

The proverb put to the test.

""The summer is over...""

""There is a march of science; but who shall beat the drums for its retreat?"" (Charles Lamb)

From the wreck of my past, which hath perish'd,    Thus much I at least may recall, It hath taught me that which I most cherish'd    Deserved to be dearest of all: In the desert a fountain is springing,    In the wide waste there still is a tree, And a bird in the solitude singing,    Which speaks to my spirit of thee. Lord Byron

It being reckoned that Jesus was actually born in September.

The seed of Mustard is the smallest grain, And yet the force thereto is very great, It hath a present power to purge the brain, It adds unto the stomach force and heat: All poison it expels, and it is plain, With sugar 'tis a passing sauce for meat. She that hath hap a husband bad to bury, And is therefore in heart not sad, but merry, Yet if in show good manners she will keep, Onions and Mustard-seed will make her weep. The Englishmans Doctor.       Or, The School of Salerne,       Or, Physical observations for the perfect Preserving of the body of Man in continual health Sir John Harington, 1608

A peculiar treatment plan.

Wise in their own conceits.

Isolation.

Rx for a medico.

Life and the ""stinking fist"".

MRS. MALAPROP: You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you? Sheridan, The Rivals

Student nurse Kathy Evans becomes the victim of an assault in a park near County General. The police are stymied in their search for the perpetrator as the attack has left Kathy with amnesia, which she is secretly faking in order to conceal the details of the crime from her prominent fiance.

Rare blood demands a coast-to-coast search.

... whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

The imponderables of personality.

A chip off the old block.

Dr. Ernest Farrow, a once brilliant neurosurgeon, is sent to County General for a refresher course. Learning that Farrow is paralyzed by self-doubt and recurring nightmares from the death of a patient, Casey attempts to assuage his colleague's fears and coax him back into the operating room.

Those caissons go rolling along.

The indeterminate.

From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. Swinburne, ""The Garden of Proserpine""

Irreducible affinities.

The title is reportedly the command of King Admetos in Gluck's Alceste.

""A fence around the void.""—Hawaiian saying

Alice laughed. ""There's no use trying,"" she said: ""one CAN'T believe impossible things."" ""I daresay you haven't had much practice,"" said the Queen. ""When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."" Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass

Fear of the unknown.

Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And the pleasant land. So the little moments, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of Eternity. So the little errors Lead the soul away From the paths of virtue Far in sin to stray. Little deeds of kindness, Little words of love, Help to make earth happy, Like the Heaven above. Julia A. F. Carney, ""Little Things""

""Love doth know no fullness nor no bounds."" (Keats)

""Unfelt, unheard, unseen..."" (Keats)

If there were dreams to sell,       What would you buy? Some cost a passing bell;       Some a light sigh, That shakes from Life's fresh crown Only a rose-leaf down. If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell,       And the crier rang the bell,       What would you buy? A cottage lone and still,       With bowers nigh, Shadowy, my woes to still,       Until I die. Such pearl from Life's fresh crown Fain would I shake me down. Were dreams to have at will, This best would heal my ill,       This would I buy.

A character out of the movies.

""That's an old Spanish proverb.""

The long arm of the law of nature.

A father assaults his son over a youthful fascination with Nazism.

""Do not go gentle into that good night."" (Dylan Thomas)

The occupant and the resident.

A wandering minstrel, he, with some disfigurement.

A circle of admirers.

The ones that got away...

Greta Bauer wants to marry fiancé Kevin Blake; however, her mother opposes the marriage and insists that Greta concentrate on a career as a concert pianist.

""Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.""

The great rouse.

Although he's still an intern, Jimmy Peabody is raising funds to finance a medical clinic of his own, and one of the sources he's depending on is wealthy Adam Garrett, an elderly patient at County General.

He thought he saw an Albatross    That fluttered round the lamp: He looked again, and found it was    A Penny-Postage Stamp. ""You'd best be getting home,"" he said:    ""The nights are very damp!"" ... He thought he saw an Argument    That proved he was the Pope: He looked again, and found it was    A Bar of Mottled Soap. ""A fact so dread,"" he faintly said,    ""Extinguishes all hope!"" Lewis Carroll, The Mad Gardener's Song

The business has its allure.

Dr. Casey tries to help a lawyer kick her morphine habit, but encounters resistance, lies and manipulation when she gets a guileless young man to smuggle dope into her hospital room. He is visiting his mother, who is in the hospital for treatment of injuries received in a beating. (Part 1 of 2)

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. Lamentations

A sabbath diversion.

""Oh what hard luck stories they all hand me.""

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck; The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter's song—the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day—at night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs. Come! some of you! still be flooding The States with hundreds and thousands of mouth-songs fit for The States only. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Gr

""Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...""

A gentle occupation.

The tautological imperative.

Last straws.

To hell and gone.

""Brave in his burning pride.""

How do you repay such a debt?

A painstaking diagnosis.

It's a long shift that has no surgery.

""But one thing is needful.""

Sorrow and pity.

A vision of loveliness.

Dr. Casey spends a Saturday on Outside Medical Relief while the Neurosurgical staff, thinking Casey needs money, take up a collection for him.

As time goes by.

Souvenirs and trophies.

A consummation devoutly to be wished.

A decorated aviator with an alias goes into surgery.

""And his name that sat on him was Death.""

A piece of baggage.

From another point of view.

Post-scriptum to a surgeon's operating life.

He's not quite himself, or is he?

Between you, me and the nurse's station.

A clean, well-lighted place.

Recollections.

""The faith that looks through death."" (Wordsworth)

Dr. Casey operates on Billy Harris, a holdup man shot and paralyzed, but he's also concerned about the policeman, who may have been too keen and might be mentally hampered.

Expectant mother Ellen Parker loses her child after an auto accident. Casey examines her and finds that she is subject to chronic seizures, and these, not the accident, are responsible for the loss of her baby.

Dr. Alan Reynolds' mental state is not improved by constant pressure from his wife to be a successful neurosurgeon. The strain increases when he treats an abused 10-year-old boy. Dr. Casey forestalls an unnecessary operation, and tries to persuade Dr. Reynolds to receive treatment.

Orderly Nick Kanavaris' good friend Krikor Dakopian is committed by his family to the psychiatric ward. Dr. Casey, however, thinks the ailment is likely to be responsive to neurosurgery.

By degrees to the bare facts.

Dr. Dave Taylor returns to the hospital to do research, but Dr. Casey diagnoses him as a ""hospital bum"" afraid of competition, and also treats a woman's hypochondria.

Tony Romano, a struggling nightclub comic, suffers a cranial seizure. Dr. Casey operates, but Tony is left a paraplegic.

Casey has Walter Tyson for a patient, the president of a large corporation in difficulties, who makes treatment impossible by ordering him about. Zorba and Dr. Jensen try to dissuade him from withdrawing, because his patient is a big donor to the hospital.

Dr. Karl Anders is a brilliant surgeon, and Zorba wants to keep him on at the hospital. But Anders is concerned with illnesses of his own—he's addicted to morphine, and suffers from leukemia.

Dr. Michael Waldman, a former professor of Casey's and a former colleague of Zorba's, comes to the hospital with a cardiovascular ailment diagnosed as fatal. Casey and Zorba want to try a new surgery on him, but the medical board is opposed.

Little Cathy Reed is brought to the hospital for emergency treatment after an auto accident. Casey prepares a blood transfusion, but her mother won't consent.

Dr. Ben Casey is at odds with the medical board, particularly Dr. Zorba and Dr. Jensen, because of his manner toward interns. Under a reprimand, Casey tries to persuade the board to approve neurosurgery on nine-year-old Pete Salazar. After the first of three operations on the boy, Casey is accidentally jabbed with a needle while administering a rabies test to a female patient. During his thirty-day wait for a life-or-death prognosis, he is given permission to resume the surgery.