australian television information archive

The Heat is On

The mercury is pushing 41 degrees, bushfires are raging and tempers are fraying. While Ben and his new partner, Scott, are trapped in the path of a deadly blaze, the hospital staff are crying out for a cool change. Terri makes a major decision with her life while nursing a man with severe burn injuries. Meanwhile, Connor finds it difficult working with Bron after his attemp to woo her fails.

What Kate Did Next

Connor, Bron and Jared don’t know what has hit them when they come up against Terri’s replacement, Kate Larsen. They soon realise that this Nursing Unit Manager has very different ideas about how Ward 17 should be run. What they can’t figure out is whether she is friend or foe, a genuine legend or a know-it-pain. Meanwhile, Luke faces his greatest surgical challenge… and the life on the line may be his own.

Happy Birthday

In the late stages of terminal mesothelioma and 38 weeks pregnant, Sarah wants to go home to organise her daughter’s fifth birthday party. When she goes into labour in the ambulance it will be a battle to keep mother and baby alive. Jared is exhausted from working overtime and must make a big decision about his career when he accidentally allows a patient to take the wrong medication. Connor becomes referee to two brothers who have been feuding for 18 years. Connor, Bron and Kylie are kept busy making preparations for Jared’s surprise birthday party.

Bend Till You Break

Mitch diagnoses a gifted ballerina with scoliosis. She must make a choice between her career and her health, without disappointing her proud mother. Connor surprises Jodi with flowers and finds her reaction not at all what he expected.

A Matter of Choice

Sarah’s health is failing fast and the fight to keep her alive through the compensation case proceedings takes its emotional toll on Mitch and Kate. Bron’s gambling debts have escalated to a point that her loan shark, wanting to recoup his loss, suggests that Bron steal pethidine off the ward. Scott missed breakfast after a wild night of passion causing him and Ben to be at each other’s throat. Tempers fray when they are called to a biscuit factory where one of the workers has collapsed. Meanwhile Connor is struggling to find out why he is suddenly in the bad books with Jodi.

Mixed Messages

Mitch admits Chris, an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, who he suspects has been brutally raped and possibly by multiple attackers. During her care, Mitch and Connor discover that her case is more complex than they initially thought. The death of an 18 year-old-girl who had been only just been discharged from All Saints by a foreign born intern leads Luke into conflict with Claudia. Jodi, meanwhile, finally breaks her moody silence and stuns Connor with a shock announcement.

Defiance and Denial

Mitch is forced to realise he is not so different from a hypertensive potential stroke victim QC whose high-risk condition is largely caused by addiction to work, lack of exercise and poor diet. Connor defies a Senior Surgeon hoping to find a way around protocol to allow a patient to make an informed choice on exploratory surgery. Ben comes to the rescue of a timid, slow young man, dominated by a sincere but overbearing mum.

Secrets and Lies

Nicky Herman arrives for routine bladder surgery to correct enuresis. During the surgery, Luke finds an atrophied testicle. It seems Nicky was born with ambiguous genitalia and has never been told. Bron struggles to help Nicky accept her situation. Ben is concerned about how new Ambulance recruit Scott will cope with the grisly discovery of a suicide victim, unaware the case echoes a childhood trauma Scott is desperate to convince himself is all in the past. It is chaos at Ward 17. In the aftermath of Jodi’s sudden departure, the administrative aspects of the ward are in disarray. Nursing Frank, a brimming with enthusiasm S.L.E. (lupus) patient, is a challenge for Von. But there is something not right about Frank’s symptoms and Von’s medical sleuthing eventually unearths Frank’s real condition. Kate is cracking under the pressure of running the ward. She is secretly drinking in the NUM’s office and it is starting to impact on her work. Jared drives the ward mad with his enthusiasm for some new techniques learnt at his Uni course, and Connor is trying to come to terms with losing Jodi.

Changing Places

Ian Hanrahan arrives to undergo corrective surgery for a minor hernia. However, things do go badly wrong when Ian has a completely unforeseen reaction to the anesthetic. Ian comes out of the routine operation in a vegetative state and there seems to be little hope of any improvement. Ben and Scott are called out to attend a young woman who has collapsed, in extreme pain, at a train station. Meanwhile, Bron is battling with a patient who, despite being discharged, is refusing to leave hospital.

Too Little Too Late

Scott attends his first domestic violence call-out with Ben to find that a girl has been stabbed in the neck by her boyfriend. Scott provokes a fight with him. When Bron is assigned to nurse the girlfriend, we discover all is not as it seems. Mitch diagnoses a young woman, with a serious heart condition and tries to reassure her by suggesting they fly in a top surgeon to operate. Kate initially supports the idea, but does a back flip when Claudia goes on the warpath about the cost. Mitch is disgusted believing Kate has sold out.

Night Terrors

Connor stands in for Kate on a quiet night on the ward. He and Bron fool around as Jared tries to study, but then things start to go wrong. Von watches her friend Kate finally succumb to the horrors of alcoholism.

Lest We Forget

Terri returns to Ward 17 and is amused to find Mitch’s new boss is his former intern Malcolm Pussle, who once had a huge crush on her. Connor’s mate, former Ward Clerk Tony Hurst, returns from the States after being dumped by his American boyfriend and is destroying himself with drugs and alcohol. When he has a respiratory arrest, he is admitted to All Saints, and Connor tries to persuade Tony that people do care for him. Bron nurses Vietnam veteran Brian Douglas who, after surviving prostate cancer, caused by exposure to Agent Orange, wants to march with his mates on ANZAC day. Mitch has to break the sad news his cancer has returned and he doesn’t have long to live.

Lost Boys

When two teenagers are brought onto the ward after a home-made bomb explodes at a State Boy’s Home, their different attitudes lead to a number of wrong conclusions being drawn. Rose returns to work, with the added emotional stress of leaving her baby in the crèche for the first time.

You Do Me Wrong

Things are typically hectic in Ward 17 as Kylie is involved in a car accident after the end of a protracted stint at the hospital. After suffering minor injuries, Kylie struggles to treat the driver of the other car. Bron is nursing 16-year-old Jacqui Henderson, a fit, young runner who collapsed while jogging to school. Mitch soon discovers Jacqui has pericarditis—heart disease. It is unusual in someone Jacqui’s age, especially as she is so fit. Mitch believes it has been caused by an infection but when he suggests he can call Jacqui’s mum to talk about childhood illnesses, Jacqui is adamant she does not want her mum involved. Everybody has suspicions about how this girl has contracted the disease… but only Bron knows the truth. It brings back memories she has been trying to hide for years. After a confrontation with her estranged father, she reveals to Ben the terrible secret she has kept since she was a little girl. Meanwhile, Terri must deal with a patient’s unbroken repetition of the same song. After getting the patient to stop singing, her condition rapidly deteriorates.

All the Sons and Daughters

Connor wrestles with the fear that his mother has contracted a very serious illness, with the rules of patient confidentiality and with the suspicion that his brother or his mum’s boyfriend is responsible for her illness. Bron confronts her own issues with her childhood and her father when a young man is admitted after slashing his wrists. The father seems completely uninterested in visiting him or communicating with him in any way. Scott organises a birthday treat for Ben—a raunchy on-stage tango with a lingerie waitress.

To Be or Not To Be

Bron and her patient, a self-help motivationalist, both have an influence on each other’s lives and Bron’s relationship with Ben takes an unexpected turn.Ben treats a man who is drinking himself to death and finds himself remembering Stephanie—wondering if it is time he moved on. Terri and Mitch fight for the rights of a hunger striker who claims to be a victim of political oppression.

Growing Pains

It is the morning after their first night together and Ben and Bron both find themselves wondering if they have done the right thing. Ben and Scott are called out to a suburban house where a young father, Jack, has accidentally backed his 4WD over his toddler and killed him. Bron nurses Jack on his arrival on Ward 17 and finds her own fears mirrored in his behaviour. Mitch is mightily unimpressed to find Malcolm Pussle back in his life when a patient comes in and is quickly diagnosed as having an aneurysm. Von and Kylie are shocked to discover their new patient uses dressing and being treated as a baby as a way of coping with stress. Kylie is trying hard to convince Jared she is ready to come back to work after the accident but his concern for her is almost suffocating.

Bed of Roses

Mitch diagnoses a strong-willed bag-lady with severe gangrene. When she rejects medical attention, Mitch finds it hard to respect her decision to return to a life on the streets because it means certain death. Bron nurses Steve, a young Australian backpacker who has lived with epilepsy for most of his life. After a failed lunch date Ben finally catches up with Bron. Jared arrives at work to discover the medical fundraiser calendar in which he appears near-naked has gone on sale.

Can You Hear Me

Bron, happily in love, clashes with a grumpy old patient who is ungrateful for having his life saved. Von takes over nursing him with the idea that her grumpiness will suit the old bloke better but he is a hard case. Terri agrees to go on a date with Pussle. It has been more than a decade since she has been on a date and she is excited and incredibly nervous. They have a lovely evening but Terri is still apprehensive about how the evening will end… she is relieved when Malcolm is happy to part with a goodnight kiss. Knowing that Malcolm is happy not to rush things allows Terri to relax and begin to enjoy the romance even more. Everyone on Ward 17 can see how happy Terri is and even Mitch decides to make the effort to be nicer to Malcolm. Perhaps he can start by calling him Dr. Pussle instead of Dr. Pustule.

Close To Home

Ben and Scott receive a call-out to a low security prison and arrive to find a siege in progress with a guard, a nurse and another inmate hostage in the prison clinic. Connor’s day does not start well when a post-op patient pleads to be allowed out of bed and subsequently falls over—Luke then becomes irate at Connor’s apparent lack of patient care. After nursing a life coach, Connor also starts to examine his own life. Terri reveals to Von that she is worried Dr. Pussle will want to progress the relationship faster than she can handle.

Skeletons in the Closet

A newborn baby, found on the Ward, holds the key to a secret shame. When Father Francis Tyler is admitted in an emaciated state, Mitch diagnoses Beri-beri but suspects the Father to be alcoholic and suffering from the more serious condition of Wernicke’s Encephalopathy. There is a carnival atmosphere in the carpark where a group of bikers are holding a charity event for the Children’s Ward. Luke is cornered into letting his brother Rick stay at the flat after he is released from jail. Bron decides to go on the Pill and has an appointment at the Staff Clinic for a check up and prescription. It is Kylie’s big day in court and Jared is determined to accompany her. When she is awarded 60 hours community service and complains that it is not enough, Jared refuses to be party to her self-flagellation.

The Sign

Von never makes it to the charity ball when her little friend Zac’s condition begins to deteriorate. Terri and Malcolm bond at the ball but Terri is shocked to discover Rose suffers from bi-polar. The revelation causes problems between Mitch and Rose. Kylie drinks too much, Scott puts more moves on Andrea and Luke’s date is horribly raped outside the ball venue. Meanwhile, Connor and Bron are on night shift in Ward 17.

Maiden’s Revenge / Chains of Love

On a day when the stars seem to be coming true, Connor tries his luck with love and Bron takes a gamble, which ends up being one of the worst mistakes of her life. However, for two of their patients the stars come through with their predictions of love and fortune.
Mitch faces a double crisis that threatens his professional future. Bron battles to save her relationship with Ben, and Connor’s life may be forever changed after receiving an amazing gift from a patient.

Reality Bites

Mitch is struggling with his marriage, and faces up to a woman who is wrongly told that her husband has died. A visit from the Minister of Health throws Luke into a nasty situation when an organ donor’s secret is discovered.

Law of the Jungle

Pussle and Terri’s future together is uncertain after Mitch and Pussle’s arguments over a patient with hypothermia force their mutual jealousy over Terri out into the open.

Private Lives

Scott is put to the test when Ben blacks out on the job. An emotionally distraught Bron then puts Ben’s life at risk by undermining Luke’s confidence prior to surgery. A man’s life is thrown into turmoil when he is told he is terminally ill. Von’s talkative neighbour gets a job on Ward 17, but her dedication to cleanliness nearly ends her life.

A Little Knowledge (aka: Empty Nest)

Mitch and Rose’s relationship reaches a crisis when Mitch no longer responds to his wife’s manipulations. Connor’s future at Ward 17 is in question and he has to make the decision of a lifetime. Will he leave Ward 17 and his HIV positive mother to further his career in London? Ben and Bron discover a little more about each other and Ben finally puts his past behind him. Scott works hard to impress Rebecca, the attractive ambo temporarily replacing Ben. But it seems he can do nothing right.

Poles Apart

It’s Connor’s birthday and he’s determined to celebrate the way Ben did—at a club with lots of girls to perve at. However, his party turns sour when Jodi turns out to be one of the girls.
Senior neurosurgeon Professor Walter Thomas is obviously worried about Luke’s technique in operating on a patient Heather O’Neil. Fearful that she may go into spinal shock, Luke shows his concern by doing everything in his power to ensure Heather has a smooth night. He gets Bron on side, and despite some attitude from Luke, Bron is more than willing to help him prove Thomas wrong. Luke calls on Mitch for a second opinion, and only walks away from the case when he is called to emergency to save first Linda’s life, then Ellie’s. In his place, Mitch and Bron see the patient through the night.
Terri is making her way to her car after work when she finds Linda Davies, the former pethidine addict, on the ground and assumes it is an overdose. Or is it?
Von has an old battle-axe on her hands, in the shape of Dulcie Battye, who turns out to be an ex-matron of a Sydney hospital. Miss Battye criticises Von’s nursing—especially in regard to the nail polish Von has left on her fingernails. Von would normally take it off, but the old buzzard is getting on her nerves and she digs her heels in. When Miss Battye proves unexpectedly skilled at bonding with Linda the rape victim, and helping her settle down, Von is forced to change her opinion. Later, while doing her obs, Von learns that Miss Battye was a POW nurse in Changi, and while Miss Battye never mentions what her captors did to her, her easy understanding of Linda’s pain makes it all too clear.

Delicate Matters

An ex-priest undergoes a near death experience, and returns to life claiming there is no God which stirs up Terri’s emotions over her past decision to leave the religious order. Mitch is frustrated when Rose turns up back at work but refuses to talk to him. He is further frustrated when he goes to the crèche to visit Lucy only to discover she’s not there. Jodi arrives back at work, but wonders if she’s made the right decision to return. Ben is given the all clear to return to work.

Look Into My Eyes

An exhausted Jared is making mistakes on the job and tragically he puts Terri’s life on the line. Terri’s accident is potentially fatal and for Mitch, this is almost the end of a bad day. It started when he encountered Rose and his little girl in the car park, and Rose, again, refused to let him see her. It ends, as he is about to go home, he receives devastating news. A woman with Parkinson’s, who had successfully sued the hospital after her husband suffered brain damage from an anaesthetic, insists on hypnosis instead of a general anaesthetic for an operation on her ankle. A man suffering with tumours from second generation Agent Orange Syndrome looks to euthanasia for a way out.

Wild Justice

Scott puts his life and his job on the line to save the victims of a gunman’s violent rampage through a quiet suburban street. But it’s not just those on the street who are affected. The repercussions of the violence stretches deep into the heart of All Saints when tragic news arrives that one of the team has been killed. Rose’s Mum delivers shocking news to Mitch—Rose has disappeared with the baby.

Life as We Know It

Terri is in tears over Connor’s departure and as Mitch comforts her, their true feelings for each other surface in an intimate exchange that will shock them as well as anyone else who finds out. Connor’s last day in Ward 17 turns sour after a serious run-in with Jared. As Connor prepares to leave Jodi reveals her true feelings for him. Ma O’Connell discovers she has terminal cancer and makes Luke an offer that’s almost too good to refuse. Bron nurses a patient who is convinced he’s part of an alien plan to take over the human race.

Sympatico

Von has spotted what is going on between Mitch and Terri. Mitch is conveniently preoccupied with a mysterious bond between twin patients. Jared’s life reaches crisis point when Terri catches him selling confidential hospital data. Ling discovers Jared has a drug problem, and must decide the future of their relationship. Scott’s career is on the line and his reaction to a hatchet-wielding drunken tourist could signal the end.

Critical Pressure

Mitch’s desperate search for his wife and daughter turns into a serious incident for the police. Terri is so worried about Mitch, it’s affecting her work and she makes a mistake on the job that could cost the lives of Von and a patient. Scott realises just how badly the tragic events of the last few weeks have affected him.

Bitter Medicine

Re-united with Mitch, Rose cheerily returns to work on Ward 17, more cosy with Mitch than ever. Von warily questions Terri on the wisdom of Rose’s presence, but Terri is valiantly determined to support both Mitch and Rose in their efforts to re-build their marriage.
Lee meantime proves a difficult patient, but is blown away when, with Mitch’s help, Rose reveals a trump card: Dawn Fraser. Dawn spurs Lee to start his life again and stop waiting for his leg to grow back.
Bron is stewing over a potential night out with Jodi at the casino. Jodi—like everyone else on the ward—knows nothing about the lengths to which Bron has gone to combat her gambling addiction so it has made turning the night down difficult. Jodi is facing important decisions too, as Julie’s arrival on the ward stirs up her feelings for the departed Connor.
Jodi is surprised when Julie reveals that Connor continued to care about her after the break-up.

Heartache

Mitch and Luke fight to save the life of a bride caught in a car smash on the way to her wedding. When it seems all is lost, the groom, recites his wedding vows to his beloved on her deathbed, and in his own way "marries" the love of his life. Dealing with the bride and her shocked groom-to-be only underlines for Terri and Mitch how far apart they now are, and it’s affecting Terri’s well-being. It’s Mitch and Rose’s first anniversary party and everyone’s invited—except for one.

Where There’s Smoke

Terri is caught between her affections for three men—Mitch, Malcolm and Dom. She finally decides who she wants to be with and acting on impulse, they spend the night together. Von and Bron deal with two smokers: one a young woman whose habit has sparked a fire, the other a mature woman whose life-long habit has led to terminal emphysema. Barbara Woods, a Down’s syndrome girl, returns to Ward 17, this time for a hysterectomy. When Luke realises that she hasn’t been properly informed of the consequences, he refuses to operate.

Child’s Play

Rose leaves baby Lucy at home alone and is later found playing on a swing in a park at midnight in the pouring rain. After a frightening night of Rose’s behaviour, a confused and extremely worried Mitch turns to marriage counselling. The strain is showing, particularly in Mitch’s unusually gruff treatment of patients. Bron is stalked and then trapped by the nurse-rapist in the hospital boiler room. With no way out, she knows she must fight for her life. Ben finds the tragic results of a three year old boy who was left alone while his mum played the poker machines. Shaken by a distressing day at work, Ben is late in picking up Bron, only to find her missing. Luke and Terri are confronted with the horrifically cruel results of a school initiation.

Behind Closed Doors

Von is nursing a terminal patient, a cross-dresser who wants to go out in style. Von tries to hide him from his wife, who doesn’t know about her dying husband’s secret. Ben vows to find and destroy the rapist who nearly got Bron and ends up doing more harm than good. Kylie Preece finally stands up to Dr. Murphy, but the stress results in a heart attack. Lyle accidentally throws out a patient’s thyroid gland leaving Bron and Luke to do the explaining.

A Little Death

The rapist strikes again, kidnapping Bron and leaving a young nurse dead. In mortal danger, Bron is shocked when she discovers the identity of the serial rapist. Ward 17 is threatened with quarantine after a breakout of golden staph amongst patients. Luke is forbidden to operate on patients after being suspected as a golden staph carrier.

The Other Side of Perfection

Scott is confronted by his own feelings for Rebecca as he battles to save her life after a bomb explosion. Ben’s surprise marriage proposal to Bron doesn’t turn out the way he’d expected. Malcolm finally reveals his secret to Terri which forces them to decide their future. Mitch presents a patient’s husband with an unenviable predicament; who does he most want to save—his wife or his unborn baby? Luke is deeply moved by an innovative, yet risky, surgical procedure on a Parkinson’s patient.

Falling Down

Rose is losing control,. Afraid of what might happen, she calls Mitch at work. Mitch immediately sets off for home, but on the way he’s forced to stop and help out at the scene of a major car accident. Not only is one victim severely injured, but another who walks away is subsequently arrested. Worse still, one of the ambulance operators is unwell and unable to help, leaving Mitch working on the injured man while aware that time is passing and he’s no closer to Rose.
Meanwhile, Rose calls Terri in search of Mitch, and Terri is alarmed by Rose’s progressive lack of focus and slurred speech. Terri goes over, only to find Rose lying on the floor, almost unconscious.
Before leaving the ward, Terri has a difficult day dealing with a complaint from Malcolm, who thinks Von, an enrolled nurse, should not be caring for a patient suffering post-caesarean complications. Paula is called in to take over, and she jumps to defend Von’s professional capabilities. It’s also Malcolm’s last day, and he’s still trying to convince Terri to go with him. What does she decide to do? And, more importantly, will Rose survive?