In this week’s episode of New Amsterdam, many of the doctors and their patients are put in positions where they have to make difficult decisions.
Putting Yourself First
After Vanessa found out about Lauren being sober, she hasn’t been answering Lauren despite her efforts. Lauren tries all day and Vanessa doesn’t call her back until Lauren is stuck doing an emergency surgery and can’t answer it. Casey, who just got back from vacation and doesn’t know that Lauren has been staying with Vanessa, sees it and questions her about it after the patient is taken care of and headed to a recovery room.
She explains to Casey that she’s the reason her sister is like this so she owes her, but he reminds her that she needs to take care of herself too. After the conversation, she listens to the voicemail that her sister left her which is just her and her friend having a conversation on the other end of the phone. Lauren plans to go to them but ends up going to a NA meeting instead.
Unexpected Responsibility
While on a run with Max, Elizabeth runs into a busy intersection and almost gets hit by a car. Max reaches out and stops it just in time. While they’re reeling from what just happened, another car in the intersection hits two people. They rush over to help. Back at New Amsterdam, they take care of them both, a grandmother and a grandson. The grandson fractured his arm while the grandmother’s injury is to her spine.
After looking into it, the grandmother either can do a simple procedure but she has to wear a back brace for the rest of her life or they can do a more risky surgery. Her grandson is set up as her medical proxy and has to make the choice. He chooses the riskier surgery. The procedure ends up leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. He struggles with the guilt of making the choice, but Floyd stops by to talk to him about it and helps him feel a bit better about it.
Something New
Iggy tries to find a hobby because of the separation from Martin. When nothing works out, he thinks he might have just ruined his whole life with this separation. At the end of the episode, he learns of a workout room at New Amsterdam and is encouraged by someone there to try lifting weights. He does it and really likes it.
The Ability to Communicate
A kid that is brought in to work with Iggy is exhibiting major behavior issues and has been for a while. Quickly in, Iggy learns that the child went deaf after getting an illness at a young age but hasn’t learned sign language. Due to the age the child was when he lost his hearing, he had learned only so many words and isn’t able to learn more in a traditional way. The doctors that his parents previously went to told them that learning sign language would limit his world.
Iggy explains that’s not the case and the lack of language is causing this problem. He has no way of communicating at all and his window for being able to easily learn a language is closing. He works on teaching the kid some easy signs to show them how this would benefit him. Iggy also shows him Elizabeth working and explains that she’s also deaf. Sadly, the best course of action is to send the five-year-old to a special school that’s four hours away to be immersed in the language and help the progress of learning it. His parents only agree when the child makes it clear to them that this is what he wants.
Paint The Way
When they were wheeling the grandma and grandson into the hospital, a lawyer shows up to get them to sue due to the intersection being dangerous. Max tells her off but ends up going to her about wanting to sue the city to get crosswalks painted in the intersection. They go to court and win, but after they win she reveals that she’s won that same case three times before and they haven’t done anything.
They go to a few different people in the chain of getting it taken care of to try to push the progress along this time, but it doesn’t do anything. In the end, the lawyer decides to take the money that Max paid her for suing the city and bought paint for them to do it themselves. They get plenty of people, including Elizabeth, to help.
Hard Choices
Floyd’s been dodging calls from his dad lately. When he does answer one, it’s his dad needing to borrow money. The conversation is interrupted by Horace yelling at cars as he stands in the way of traffic. When he gets to New Amsterdam, he tells Floyd that he’s planning to buy his garage back and that’s why he needs the money. Floyd tries to get him to come into the hospital with him, but he refuses. Floyd explains that he’s putting Horace on a 24-hour psych hold and calls over security.
New Amsterdam is back on Tuesday, November 1 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. Until then, check out our other coverage of the show here!