Jing-Mei Chen
Jing-Mei Chen | |
---|---|
Attending (2002–04) | |
Occupation | Physician |
Family | Mr. Chen (father, deceased) Mrs Chen (mother, deceased) |
Children | Michael Alexander (placed for adoption) |
Relatives | Other relatives living in China (mentioned) |
Jing-Mei Chen,
Season 1 and early life at County
She experiences several difficult transitions in her years at County General Hospital. As mentioned, she suffers a crisis of career early in her medical studies. She arrives in the middle of season one as an eager young
She was also revealed to have been very wealthy (although not as wealthy as
Season 6
She returns to County General in the Season 6 episode "Family Matters" as a third year
Season 7
In Season 7, Jing-Mei reveals to Dr.
Season 8
During the early part of Season 8, Jing-Mei is having a hard time as an authority figure in the ER. Weaver is pressuring her about being indecisive. In the episode "The Longer You Stay", Jing-Mei and Dr. Dave Malucci make a hasty decision to perform a procedure before checking all necessary tests, ultimately leading to the death of a patient who is later found to have symptoms associated with Marfan syndrome.
Because of this mistake, and her history as a medical student, the Risk Management staff, Dr. Robert Romano and Dr. Weaver agree to have her resign as Chief Resident; in addition, Weaver fires Malucci. The board determines that because of her maternity leave, she did not have Attending status at the time of the incident and was therefore not authorized to make the decision for the procedure. Weaver, the Attending on shift, was off campus at the time and did not answer her pages, meaning that the procedure was unauthorized. As a result, Jing-Mei quits.
After the holidays, Jing-Mei returns to County to speak to Romano about getting her job back. She claims to have evidence that Weaver was not wearing her pager at the time of the incident and had, in fact, left it in a restaurant bathroom. In order to stave off lawsuits and accusations of professional negligence on Weaver's part, the hospital re-hires Jing-Mei as a full-time Attending, much to Weaver's dismay. Their relationship afterward is awkward at best, but reaches an accord after both parties impress the other with their professionalism and the need to work as comrades while under pressure from County's chaotic environment.
At the end of Season 8, Jing-Mei begins working with the new Dr.
Season 9
In the season premiere episode of Season 9, while under
Season 10
In season 10, Jing-Mei and Greg Pratt break up very early in the season when it becomes clear she doesn't particularly like him and he has no interest in "proving himself" to her. She later flies to China, where her mother died in a car accident, leaving her to care for her ailing father. In succeeding episodes, she is seen struggling with her father's increasing emotional instability and violent outbursts. At one point Chen's father hits her, inflicting a black eye. While she and Greg's post-breakup ties are strained (in one episode, Jing-Mei tells Sam Taggart she regrets that she missed out on a possible relationship with Luka Kovac and went in "another direction", and later on she pointedly assigns interesting parts of a complex case to a resident who is less experienced and qualified than Pratt, who knows exactly what she's doing but takes it in stride), by the season finale, Chen and Pratt have gotten back on decent terms with each other to the point where she is in a car with Pratt driving and his patient Elgin sitting in the back. Pratt angers another driver, who opens fire on their car. In the midst of the chaos the episode fades to black.
Season 11 and departure
While trying to avoid the shooting, the car spins out of control and crashes into the Chicago River, with Jing-Mei shot in the leg and Elgin shot in the neck. Jing-Mei and Greg Pratt require major surgery, and Elgin dies while receiving emergency care.
Later in Season 11, an overwhelmed Jing-Mei/Deb quits County after
Season 15
During the 15th and final season of ER, at the end of the episode The Book of Abby, long-serving nurse Haleh Adams shows the departing Abby Lockhart a closet wall where all the past doctors and employees have put their locker name tags. Amongst them, the tag "Chen" can be seen. She was not contacted to join almost every other former regular in making a guest appearance in the series' 15th and final season.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4408-4306-8.
- ^ December 10, Gary Susman Updated; EST, 2004 at 05:00 AM. "Ming-Na leaves ER, this time for good". EW.com. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
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