In this episode of New Amsterdam, the hospital faces a crisis when a legal issue appears while Iggy, Floyd, and Lauren deal with outside issues. Plus, Max has to face the fact that Luna is growing up.
Growing Up
Raising a kid isn’t always simple; Max learns that the hard way when Luna gets a case of the “grabby hands.” With her wanting to grab everything in sight, especially, to Max’s dismay, sharp objects, things were bound to go wrong. When Max doesn’t let her help with a smoothie and has his back turned, she manages to grab a knife and cut her finger. The wound is bad enough that he has to take her to New Amsterdam to get a few stitches.
Later, Max realizes that he was part of the problem with why Luna was trying to grab everything. His attempts to keep her safe were holding her back from being able to do things on her own when she was seeking independence. To resolve this, Max takes a step back and lets her make her own smoothie.
Unfortunately Unplugged
When the kids that Iggy is taking on a hike are glued to their devices the whole car ride there, he tells them that it’s a problem. He takes all their devices and explains the issues they’ve caused and why he’s doing it. The kids push back about him having his phone. He fights it until the kids point out that they saw notifications from the dating app he’s using when they were driving up as well. He caves and locks his phone up with the kids.
On the hike, they accidentally wander off the trail and struggle to figure out where they’re supposed to go. The signs posted around just have a QR code that brings you to the map, and with no technology on them, they can’t use it. They try some old fashion methods of finding their way back, but nothing works. It starts to rain, so Iggy has them all go under a tree for some cover, but it’s not much success. Eventually, Iggy apologizes for how he handled everything right before learning that one of the kids still had an iPad on them. They use it to lead them back to the car.
A Cost No One Should Pay
One of Elizabeth’s surgeries is interrupted when the cops come in and arrest one of the nurses in the OR. The woman is taken away despite Max’s protest for killing a patient. The situation is elaborated, and it’s explained that the nurse lost a patient when the machine that dispenses medicine for them made a mistake, and the wrong drug was given to the patient. The lawsuit that proceeded was ruled in New Amsterdam’s favor, but that didn’t stop the criminal prosecution. Max scrambles to fix it, only to learn that the nurse took a plea deal in an attempt to get the shortest sentence, and there’s nothing he can do.
The other nurses begin quitting after the arrest out of fear. A few start hesitating when things go wrong enough that it could be liable rather than helping the patient. Elizabeth’s patient starts crashing and the machine makes a mistake and needs a manual override to dispense the drug needed. The nurse refuses to do anything with the machine out of fear leading to Elizabeth having to take over. She’s too late though and the drug doesn’t work. They have to do other measures. Overall, the delay causes permanent damage to the patient’s kidney and in the future, the patient will need a transplant. Max talks to the nursing staff about what happened and how it’s not okay. He explains that as health care professionals, their patients come first.
Unlivable Conditions
When multiple people come in with a rare type of poisoning, Lauren and Max look into what could be the cause. The link is they all live in the same apartment building. Floyd jumps in to go get it checked out and discovers the cause was cheap rat poison that’s been placed all over the stairs. He blocks it off with the plan to get it taken care of but ends up talking to some tenants and learning that many more things are wrong in the building. With this information, he reaches out to the landlord, who agrees to fix it all if he can increase rent by 50% to fund it. The tenants refuse that.
Floyd ends up getting New Amsterdam to take on the building and the repairs made, but the change isn’t quite that simple. The tenants are still doing an increase in rent, but the money is getting applied to a mortgage rather than in someone’s pocket. The tenants have control over what happens with this deal as well.
Truth Comes Out
Lauren’s still living with her sister and keeping the secret that she’s sober from her. It comes to a head when Vanessa finds her AA chip, though. The two fight, with Vanessa calling Lauren out for leaving her with their mom years ago. Lauren responds that she left home at 18 and was an addict. She couldn’t have helped Vanessa back then, even if she wanted to.
New Amsterdam is back on Tuesday, October 25 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. Until then, check out our other coverage of the show here!