Prescription for Death

Suzanne Morton dies after a visit to a hospital emergency room during a hectic night shift. Her father, a former medic in Vietnam, accuses the hospital of negligence and demands a police investigation. Logan and Greevey question a doctor who made adjustments to her chart, but are soon led to the respected Dr. Edward Auster, who they feel may have been drunk on duty. The other residents are reluctant to speak for fear their jobs may be in jeopardy, and Stone is faced with the awkward job of prosecuting a revered physician.

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This episode of Law & Order was the first episode of the series to air, but it was not originally intended to be the pilot. Everybody's Favorite Bagman which aired on 30 October 1990 was originally written and shot as the pilot.Steven Hill appears in this episode as D.A. Adam Schiff, but was not actually part of the original cast and did not join the series until after the pilot. [1]

Logan's father is alive and well thanks to a heart transplant he had in a hospital seven years prior to this episode. At the time of this episode, his character was dating a woman named Maggie. [2]

Stone's father was an alcoholic, and drank every day at lunch. [3]

Cragen reveals that back when he and Max were partners, he had a drinking problem. He didn't 'look or act' drunk, but he went to his first AA meeting after he found himself standing in the middle of Lexington Avenue with his gun pointed at a taxi driver because he 'didn't like the way he was honking his horn' at him. Logan learns of this for the first time when Greevey uses Cragen's previous alcoholism as an example of how a drunk does not always look or act drunk. [4]

Greevey reveals that in 1982, he hit his head on a radiator during a scuffle with a suspect. The first doctor diagnosed a brain tumor, but Greevey sought a second opinion, which revealed that it was actually a subdural hematoma. Ever since he's been suspicious of doctors, feeling they believe that they are God. [5]

[edit] Quotes

Dr. Edward Auster: You solve every case you work on?
Mike Logan: We can tell a felony from a traffic ticket.
Dr. Edward Auster: Look, a patient walks in with a headache. She could have a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a berry aneurysm, a retro-orbital tumor — or does she just have a headache? Do you give her an aspirin? Or do you saw open her skull?
Max Greevey: You make this speech at funerals?

Ben Stone: We got what we needed from Dr. Simonson.
Dr. Edward Auster: An intern, Mr. Stone. Are you planning on asking the cleaning lady to testify, too? About the time I threw the tissue into the wastepaper basket and missed?

Dr. Edward Auster: When you practice medicine, Mr. Stone, sometimes the patient dies.
Ben Stone: And when you're a lawyer, Dr. Auster, some of the people you prosecute are convicted.