The Night Shift Episode 1.01 Pilot

In the series premiere, we meet the hard-working, hard-playing staff of San Antonio Memorial Hospital's night shift. Working overnight, the emergency room team sees the toughest, strangest and most demanding cases: a nonstop parade of Texans in need of immediate medical attention. Here's what went down on the night shift this week:

Night Shift Medical Report:

TC Callahan, a renegade ER doctor who started his day in a jail cell after another bout of public drunkenness and fighting, is commuting on his motorcycle to work. He spots an emergency scene at the side of a country road. An EMT crew is in over its head, working in vain on a victim whose midsection has been impaled by a large branch. The victim is clearly in shock and can't be moved, with minutes to live. TC, a combat vet who's used to improvising in the field, identifies himself and helps the first responders remove the branch, then proceeds to clamp off a severed artery and instructs the EMTs to start recycling the victim's own blood back into him, preventing him from bleeding to death on the scene. It's strictly nonstandard protocol, but in this case, it stabilizes the victim so he can be transported to the hospital. An amazed paramedic asks TC where he learned the trick. "Afghanistan," the doctor replies before heading to work.

Drew treats a gunshot wound (GSW) victim who seems to continue bleeding despite being sutured up. Dr. Alexander grabs an ultrasound and spots the problem: a bone fragment has punctured the patient's spleen.

The doctors treat a 35-year-old female who's unresponsive; they diagnose an overdose from anti-depressants. She's intubated and stabilized.

Topher and TC medevac to the scene of a multi-car accident. A young boy with a severed spinal column is trapped inside. TC must treat him while hanging upside down through the sunroof. Along with Topher, TC sedates the boy and fashions a stabilizing collar so the kid can be transported. Firefighters cut the car open, then load the boy onto a chopper back to San Antonio Memorial - just in time for TC to be fired publicly by Ragosa. Jordan talks to TC, telling him he must apologize to get his job back (he is her best doctor, after all). A neurosurgeon's been called to operate on the boy, but he's stuck in transit. TC jumps in, proceeding with the spinal surgery himself. Ragosa knows he's opening the hospital up to a lawsuit if TC botches the surgery, but lets him go ahead with it. When TC reaches an impasse and the patient looks to be dying, Ragosa suggests a cutting edge procedure of grafting a chunk of rib bone to hold the boy's skull in place. It works; TC's grudgingly impressed.

The night janitor's daughter arrives in pain from a mass protruding from her abdomen. Since she's without insurance, she hasn't seen a doctor yet. Topher wants to order some tests, but knows he's going to run into an administrative wall. Kenny reassures the girl while Topher wheels and deals (convincing Krista to go on a future date with a plastic surgeon who then agrees to perform a future liposuction procedure on the lab technician who then agrees to perform the test on the girl now without authorization. We learn she has a condition known as fetus in fetu: she was born with the remnants of a fetal twin inside her. As it turns out, the condition is benign and extremely rare. A local med school will pay for the operation to correct it.

Drew and Topher are summoned to treat two victims of a motor vehicle accident (MVA). A drunk driver has struck a car carrying two brothers. The drunk driver has only modest injuries, but the teenage boy doesn't make it, despite Topher's best efforts. A furious Topher enters the drunk driver's recovery room and disconnects his morphine drip - a tiny stab at justice.

Trauma Drama

Hospital Administrator Michael Ragosa's been brought in to try to stem San Antonio Memorial's financial losses and fend off a threat to close down the facility. He needs a new chief of staff for the night shift; Doctor Jordan Alexander is lobbying for the job. She knows how to handle the rowdy bunch of doctors and nurses, many of who are former military. Ragosa's not so sure, but he gives her the job on an interim basis. First move: implementing the use of tablets for doctors and nurses to track their work.

A newborn baby suffering renal failure spins TC into action. When it appears the baby will need dialysis, Ragosa tells TC to send the baby to another hospital for treatment. TC refuses, instead admitting the baby. In an early test of authority, Ragosa orders Jordan to override TC's diagnosis. Jordan notices that the child is responding positively to dialysis; TC called it right.

Ragosa pulls TC into an office to explain how the chain of command at the hospital works. He tells TC in no uncertain terms that he won't tolerate insubordination. But TC's not used to being told what to do; he can't help himself: he decks Ragosa. When Ragosa comes to, he informs Jordan that TC's fired. Jordan pleads with her boss to let her try to turn him around; Ragosa's not having it. Still Jordan persists, talking to TC and convincing him that he shouldn't let his job end this way. After a harrowing night, Ragosa runs into TC in the men's room. Ragosa punches TC in the jaw. "Now we're even," Ragosa tells him. Somehow they've found a way to keep working together, much to the staff and Jordan's happiness.

Pain Relief

First year intern Paul Cummings tries to impress fellow resident Krista, showing off his juggling prowess. Paul can juggle anything, but in this case the box of odd objects he's tossing up in the air are from this month's box of objects the doctors have removed from people's rectums. So much for first impressions.

Landry de la Cruz, attending psychiatrist, teams up with Dr. Alexander to subdue a rambling middle-age woman who's obsessed with Matt Damon - and violently demonstrating it. While Jordan distracts the woman, Dr. de la Cruz pokes her with a shot, sending the superfan into dreamy unconsciousness.

An irate patient who's been waiting for an hour loses his cool and starts screaming at the staff. He wants to be scene NOW. When the duty nurse tells him he'll have to wait, the guy loses it, punching out the security guard. Dr. Drew approaches, trying to calm the man down, but receives a fist thrown in his direction for his trouble. In a flash, Drew drops the guy with a knee kick, then puts him in an oxygen-starving headlock, causing him to pass out. Mixed martial arts training to the rescue.

Drew and Kenny pull off a perfect prank, leading Paul and Krista to a hearse parked outside the hospital. A deceased elderly person lies dead on a stretcher inside, covered by a sheet. Drew informs Paul that he most go inside and verify that the body is dead; a little spooked, Paul cautiously crawls inside and peels back the sheet - only to have a very much alive Kenny scream and sit bolt upright. Paul's fellow residents capture it on their phones.