The Birthday Party

Dr. Peter Benton (ERIQ LA SALLE) desperately searches for someone to take over his work shift so he can attend his mother's birthday party. He's getting pressure not only from attending surgical doctor Hicks (CCH POUNDER) but from his sister and brother-in-law as well. John Carter (NOAH WYLE) mistakenly believes it's Benton's birthday and hastily organizes a surprise bash. Carter is anxious to ask Benton to have him return next year since Benton already asked Deb (MING-NA WEN). Later, Benton misses his mother's birthday party because he has to work overtime to remove a knife from a skinhead who hates Blacks.

Meanwhile, Dr. Douglas Ross (GEORGE CLOONEY) risks his career when he loses his temper with the abusive parent (CHRISTOPHER DARGA) of a baby girl. Ross also helps a curious boy who got stuck between the sharp teeth of a stuffed Siberian tiger. Nurse Carol Hathaway (JULIANNA MARGULIES) and Ross are sad to see the young Russian AIDS victim, Tatiana (MILANA VAYNTRUB), leave the hospital to enter a pediatric AIDS hospice. Hathaway wants to adopt the girl, but her fianci disapproves. Ross continues to have relationship problems when he sleeps with a woman whose name he doesn't even remember.

Dr. Susan Lewis (SHERRY STRINGFIELD) tries to help a patient (JOHN CHANDLER) whose love of cigarettes hasn't abated despite his terminal lung cancer. Dr. Mark Greene (ANTHONY EDWARDS) saves the life of a teenage drug-overdose victim who's being abused by her boyfriend. Greene's marriage problems worsen when his wife, Jennifer (CHRISTINE HARNOS), announces that she'll continue to clerk in Milwaukee next year.