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Damage Control

Doctor Ella Davis loves her job. As senior case manager at MDA, she is in her element as a passionate advocate for doctors. Intelligent, outgoing and a fantastic case manager, Ella is a doctor’s best friend in times of trouble.

Ella rarely loses her composure but when she does, it’s often due to Richard Savage. A specialist in medical litigation, Richard thrives on the adrenalin produced by battle. Highly competitive and determined to win the best deal for his clients. Richard is not afraid to use everything at his disposal to upset his opposing counsel’s case or composure.

Ella Davis is a long time friend of Olga Stiles, an obstetrician, facing charges in the Supreme Court for contributing to the massive brain injuries of a young woman, following complications with her Caesarean delivery.

Opposing counsel Richard Savage employs a dramatic, emotive tactic to win the hearts of the jury, forcing Ella and Happy to call an adjournment to rethink their options.

Meanwhile, Caitlin cuts her teeth on a case of surgery politics involving two doctors at each other’s throats. The resolution for this one will need some truly lateral thinking. Jamie enlists Caitlin’s help in some hands-on sleuth work to discover the truth about a woman’s claim of sexual misconduct.

Note: reviews of this episode can be found in the articles "Doctors, lawyers and sex, of course" and "Drama would benefit from a nip and a tuck"

Fire and Rain

Ella must get to the bottom of a tragic case in which an elderly man dies inexplicably, while the young doctor on duty insists he can’t be held responsible for the death.

Caitlin gets her day in court, when she refuses to be intimidated by a violent ex-crim, who wants to be compensated because his doctor didn’t keep his tonsils for him after they were removed.

A psychiatrist performs surgery on a young ballerina with disastrous consequences and turns to MDA for help. Happy must convince the president of MDA to extend indemnity to the doctor.

Nick, Ella’s partner, is offered a lucrative research position in Philadelphia and tries to use it to lure Ella back to him. Hoping to heal some of the damage done by his affair, Nick promises Ella greater commitment to their relationship.

Overexposure

When a GP is caught having sex with a beautiful patient in his surgery Ella must make a decision about whether MDA should fight to save his practice. He claims it was a one off but his devastated wife is sure he’s been having an affair.

As Ella battles to keep her own emotions out of the case, Nick surprises her with his decision about the job offer in Philadelphia in an emotional showdown at the MDA office.

Meanwhile Happy and Jamie attempt to outmanoeuvre Richard in the case of a vain but popular gym complex owner whose cosmetic surgery resulted in some unusual complications.

Caitlin unravels the mystery of a women who claims her doctor gave her unwanted tattoos.

The Certainty

A young mum is suing her doctor after losing the sight in her good eye following surgery on the other. Is the surgeon to blame for not warning her of the one in 14,000 chance of sympathetic blindness—an effect with no known cause? Both Ella and Richard compete to enlist the famous maverick surgeon, Jock McGeoghan to their side, unaware that the presiding judge has a few surprises of her own.

Jamie takes up the challenge when an attractive psychiatrist is accused of providing financial advice to a delusional, schizophrenic patient.

Caitlin is drawn towards Richard’s distinctive professional style, and Happy must face a personal health crisis.

Venus Envy

Deana Raye, a very recent gender reassignment patient, is rushed into Dr Ella Davis’ hospital Emergency Department after a suicide attempt. Now Ella finds herself in a conflict of interest. Deanna claims that she was an inappropriate candidate for her procedure and is suing her surgeon, the apparently arrogant Mr Vince Phillips. Dr Jamie Lawless and Caitlin King take on the case, once again locked in conflict with Richard Savage.

Happy Henderson and Ella, meanwhile, represent Dr Michael Forsythe, a country doctor being sued by a man he had thought of as an old mate for a post-operative hernia. Or is the old mate just trying to pay for his new fence—and ruining Dr Forsythe’s reputation into the bargain?

Damned If You Do; Damned If…

Smooth, plausible psychiatrist Dr Oliver Maudsen is up before the Medical Practitioners Board on a charge of sexual misconduct. When a second victim comes forward, Ella clashes with Happy as she wrestles with the conflict between her duty to represent an MDA client and her personal morality.

Richard Savage represents Tina Morello, who claims negligence for an "unnecessary" hysterectomy, but then refuses to settle—until Caitlin sees the reason why.

At the hospital’s Accident & Emergency, cultural and procedural issues arise for Ella when some family members needing non-emergency medical attention visit intern Tony McKinnon.

When It Rains, It Pours

Ella calls on the services of a long lost love Paul Bennett, a romance from her Uni days to provide an expert opinion in the tragic case of a woman claiming damages because her doctor failed to diagnose one of her twin babies with Spina Bifida.

Failure to detect Spina Bifida twelve years earlier has the mother, Kathy Langley, briefing Richard Savage to claim for negligence and financial hardship.

Happy, preoccupied with his own imminent colonoscopy, tries to understand why an up-tight doctor would give a patient with a swollen ankle a vaginal examination.

Meanwhile Caitlin and Jamie look into the case of the radiologist in trouble for X-raying his dog at the hospital.

And Ella and Caitlin attempt to appease an angry man who wants to sue his wife’s doctor because his wife had an abortion behind his back.

Bowels, Bosch and the Whole Damn Thing

Ella becomes increasingly ambivalent about fighting a case against the mother of twin boys, one of whom has spina bifida. Her expert witness, Paul Bennet, seeks to rekindle their med school relationship.

At MDA, Happy, in high anxiety about the results of his colonoscopy, tries an unusual approach with a doctor who has had a Hepatitis C test performed without his patient’s consent.

Richard Savage tests Caitlin’s career ambitions by getting her invited to a Law Society lunch; and Jamie falls for a heroic and beautiful young doctor facing a Coronial Inquiry and a possible manslaughter charge.

Note: Happy’s print: "The Garden of Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch

One Small Step

Happy represents Dr Wendy Rossi at the Coronial Inquest into the patient who accidentally died at her hands in ICU. Jamie is frantic: he’s Wendy’s case manager, but he’s fallen in love with her too.

As MDA’s reinsurer goes bust, leaving the organisation financially exposed, Ella and Happy fight Richard Savage on behalf of a doctor who allegedly mismanaged a delivery, thus causing a child’s spina bifida.

Caitlin deals with the case of an obstetrician who let slip the sex of a baby, preventing the mother having a termination. And arrogant plastic surgeon Dr Phillips is in trouble yet again.

Quid Pro Quo

Caitlin and Jamie are in conflict when they represent a young anaesthetist, whom Caitlin is sure is not what he seems.

For Ella and Happy, it’s a feeling of "here we go again" with another psychiatrist accused of sexual misconduct, but luck, Ella’s intuition and Happy’s legal skills reveal the truth.

Jamie guesses the real problem for a frisky senior citizen who claims he’s shorter after a circumcision.

Jamie is dubious when Ella suggests that the best lawyer to defend Wendy Rossi is Richard Savage.

Break It Gently

All on the one night: As Ella and Tony deal with one emergency after another at St Albans Hospital, Layla makes her first public speech to first year med students—and wins a heart.

Richard draws out a straightforward mediation till late at night to impress his client—but not Caitlin—and the mediator notices something going on between them. Back at MDA, the Board grapples with the collapse of their insurance company and whether MDA will defend Wendy Rossi on her manslaughter charge.

Minder Games

Ella persuades Richard to defend Wendy Rossi and takes on the case of neurosurgeon Dr Jacobs, whose brain-damaged patient suffered an unknown trauma in a neuro recovery ward.

Meanwhile, Tony and Ella face a Coronial Inquest over a head injury patient who left Emergency after refusing treatment and died the next day. As Richard gears up to represent the dead man’s family, Caitlin’s affair with Richard is discovered and Happy explodes.

Jamie sorts out the matter of a GP-acupuncturist who accidentally left a be-needled patient locked in her rooms.

Human Error

Happy represents Ella and Tony at the Coronial Inquiry, discovering that Sam, Layla’s med student boyfriend, witnessed the incident in question. But Happy also strongly suspects that Caitlin is leaking information to Richard Savage.

While Jamie worries about Wendy and her imminent manslaughter trial, he also has to deal with case of a man suing over a pubic area shave. Ella and Caitlin advise a GP who thinks a child may be the victim of sexual abuse.

The Hippocratic Oath

The MDA team have the strange experience of barracking for Richard Savage as he defends Dr Wendy Rossi against a charge of manslaughter.

Just as Ella and Paul Bennett are drawing apart, she is drawn into a problem with Paul’s father, Bernard Bennett, an elderly GP who is treating Paul’s mother, Sylvia, and making dangerous mistakes.

Ella’s GP client discovers that what he thought could be child sexual abuse is in fact chicken pox, but now the child’s father is suing.

Love To Death

MDA and Richard Savage actually work together to sort out an angry and guilty young man, who is desperate to blame a palliative care doctor for the loss of his father, who suffered from cancer.

Richard represents an aspiring model and actress against a plastic surgeon for an "unnatural" breast enhancement.

Loser lawyer Helena finally gets a strong case of "vicarious responsibility" against a psychiatrist whose patient jumped from a window in her absence. Richard sets up a job interview for Caitlin with a prestigious law firm.

Rites Of Passage

Richard Savage goes up against MDA, representing a model and dancer who claims her breast enhancement looks unnatural.

A country doctor mistakes pregnancy for menopause in an older woman. Meanwhile, Happy is a very anxious father when his misfit son Jason comes into MDA to fix the website.

At the hospital, Tony suspects that a teenager’s severe injuries are not accidental. MDA gets an audience with the Minister for Health over the medical indemnity insurance crisis. And pregnant Edwina thinks about moving to the country.

Eye Of The Beholder

As Happy is pre-occupied searching the city for his estranged son Jason, Caitlin takes over the breast enhancement case against Richard—with some surprise help from Jamie.

A country GP, under-qualified in obstetrics, loses a mother after childbirth. Unfortunately, it’s not his first disaster.

Tony loses confidence and grows increasingly anxious over the impending civil action against him and Ella. She, meanwhile, is just beginning her battle for a top surgeon charged with misdiagnosis of breast cancer, amid huge and growing public sympathy for the dying woman.

Flight Or Fight

Ella and the MDA team must move fast when the case of young mother Debbie Shanahan, dying of cancer, is brought forward. Richard Savage plays the sympathy card for all it is worth.

Despite a clear conflict of interest, Happy persists in representing a psychiatrist whose patient committed suicide and was Happy’s son’s best friend.

Jamie has to tell plastic surgeon Vince Phillips, who has an eye on a seat on the MDA board, that he is in trouble yet again, and deal with an angry med student, who is already being sued.

Win; Win, Lose; Lose

Ella must play medical fact against a tough judge and enormous public sympathy when the Debbie Shanahan case against breast surgeon Teresa Commons goes to trial.

Tony is demoralised by the press coverage as he worries about the negligence writ against him and Ella. Layla tries an unusual way to reconcile Happy and his estranged son, while Caitlin and Jamie deal with an MDA member who wants to see a no claim bonus implemented.

Scylla and Charybdis

Jamie is dismayed when a very depressed Wendy Rossi, back in town for her Medical Board hearing, rejects his help, instead turning to Richard Savage.

Ella confronts the big problem of a country GP practising as an obstetrician without the proper training. A mother and then a baby have died in childbirth. But who else can deliver the region’s babies?

Vince Phillips, the subject of six negligence writs in the past year, but now a member of the MDA Board, makes a surprise revelation.

Note: From Greek mythology, Scylla was six-headed monster who lived on a rock on one side of a narrow strait. Charybdis was a whirlpool on the other side. When ships passed close to Scylla’s rock in order to avoid Charybdis, she would seize and devour their sailors. (bartleby.com)

Line Ball

As Ella and Tony wait for the verdict in the negligence case against them, MDA receives a class action writ from 72 of their members, alleging MDA lied about the organisation’s financial health.

Jamie goes to a kids’ soccer match to hear about a job offer, but gets stuck there when a boy is injured on the field.

Meanwhile, Richard interviews a possible new client, a convicted murderer, who claims anti-depressants made him do it.

Happy gets an unusual message from his son Jason.

Divine Intervention

Ella and Caitlin clash with Richard over the ethical issues involved in the death of a baby conceived by IVF. At the same time, Richard tries to calm his client Alison Cathcart who’s still angry after the verdict in her civil action against Ella and Tony.

Layla gets an unsettling e-mail from Vietnam, as Happy tries to secure indemnity coverage for important but very experimental medical research.

Ella must talk inexperienced nurses in a remote rural area through life-saving procedures by phone.

The class action lawsuit and a flood of new claims puts MDA’s future at risk, but new Board Member Vince Phillips is full of ideas.