While Ben and his new partner, Scott are trapped in the path of a deadly blaze, the hospital staff are crying out for a cool change. Terri makes a big decision about her future while nursing a man with severe burn injuries and Connor finds it difficult working with Bron after his attempt to woo her fails.

Connor, Bron and Jared don't know what has hit them when they come up against Terri's replacement, Kate Larsen. They soon realise that this nursing unit manager has very different ideas about how Ward 17 should be run.

In the late stages of a terminal disease and 38 weeks pregnant, Sarah wants to go home to organise her daughter's fifth birthday party. When she goes into labour in the ambulance, a battle ensues to keep mother and baby alive. Jared is forced to make a decision about his career. Connor, Bron and Kylie prepare to celebrate Jared's birthday.

Mitch diagnoses a gifted ballerina with scoliosis, forcing her to make a choice between her health and a career. Bron is looking after Brett Addison, a former patient who is booked in for spinal surgery. Connor surprises Jodi with flowers and finds her reaction not at all what he expected.

Sarah's health is failing fast and the fight to keep her alive through the compensation case is taking an emotional toll on Mitch and Kate. Bron's gambling debts land her in trouble with a loan shark. Tempers fray between Scott and Ben when they are called to a biscuit factory where a worker has collapsed.

Mitch admits a woman in her mid-thirties, whom he suspects has been brutally raped, possibly by multiple attackers. During her care, Mitch and Connor discover the case is more complex than initially thought. Luke comes into conflict with Claudia following the death of a recently-discharged patient. Meanwhile, Jodi finally breaks her moody silence.

Mitch is forced to realise he is not so different from a hypertensive potential stroke victim whose high-risk condition is largely caused by work, diet and lack of exercise. Connor defies a senior surgeon. Ben comes to the rescue of a timid, slow young man.

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Ian Hanrahan arrives to undergo corrective surgery for a minor hernia. However, things do go badly wrong when Ian has a completely unforeseen reaction to the anesthetic. Ian comes out of the routine operation in a vegetative state and there seems to be little hope of any improvement. Ben and Scott are called out to attend a young woman who has collapsed, in extreme pain, at a train station. Meanwhile, Bron is battling with a difficult patient who, despite being discharged, is refusing to leave hospital.

Scott attends his first domestic violence call-out with Ben to find that a girl has been stabbed in the neck by her boyfriend. Scott provokes a fight with him. When Bron is assigned to nurse the girlfriend, it is discovered all is not as it seems. Mitch diagnoses a young woman with a serious heart condition and tries to reassure her by suggesting they fly in a top surgeon to operate. Kate initially supports the idea, but does a back flip when Claudia goes on the warpath about the cost. Mitch is disgusted believing Kate has sold out.

Connor stands in for Kate on a quiet night on the ward. He and Bron fool around as Jared tries to study, but then things start to go wrong. Meanwhile, Von watches her friend Kate finally succumb to the horrors of alcoholism.

Terri returns to Ward 17 and is amused to find Mitch's new boss is his former intern Malcolm Pussle, who once had a huge crush on her. Connor's mate, former Ward Clerk Tony Hurst, returns from the States after being dumped by his American boyfriend and is destroying himself with drugs and alcohol. When he has a respiratory arrest, he is admitted to All Saints, and Connor tries to persuade Tony that people do care for him. Mitch clashes with Malcolm over treatment of a young man who believes he is a vampire. Bron nurses Vietnam veteran Brian Douglas who, after surviving prostate cancer, caused by exposure to Agent Orange, wants to march with his mates on ANZAC day. Mitch has to break the sad news his cancer has returned and he doesn't have long to live.

When two teenagers are brought onto the ward after a home-made bomb explodes at a State Boy's Home, their different attitudes lead to a number of wrong conclusions being drawn. Bron is frustrated nursing a developmentally delayed young woman with an unquenchable thirst who will only listen to instructions from Mitch. Jared searches the ward for a mouse unaware it belongs to a patient, sort of. Rose returns to work, with the added emotional stress of leaving her baby in the crèche for the first time.

Things are typically hectic in Ward 17 as Kylie is involved in a car accident after the end of a protracted stint at the hospital. After suffering minor injuries, Kylie struggles to treat the driver of the other car. Bron is nursing 16-year-old Jacqui Henderson, a fit, young runner who collapsed while jogging to school. Mitch soon discovers Jacqui has pericarditis — heart disease. It is unusual in someone Jacqui's age, especially as she is so fit. Meanwhile, Terri must deal with a patient's unbroken repetition of the same song but after getting the elderly woman to stop singing, her condition rapidly deteriorates.

Connor wrestles with the fear that his mother has contracted a very serious illness , with the rules of patient confidentiality, and with the suspicion that his brother or his mum's boyfriend is responsible for her illness. Bron confronts her own issues with her childhood and her father when a young man is admitted after slashing his wrists. The father seems completely uninterested in visiting him or communicating with him in any way. Scott organises a birthday treat for Ben — a raunchy on-stage tango with a lingerie waitress.

Bron and her patient, a self-help motivationalist, both have an influence on each other's lives and Bron's relationship with Ben takes an unexpected turn. Ben treats a man who is drinking himself to death and finds himself remembering Stephanie — wondering if it is time he moved on. Terri and Mitch fight for the rights of a hunger striker who claims to be a victim of political oppression.

It is the morning after their first night together and Ben and Bron both find themselves wondering if they have done the right thing. Ben and Scott are called out to a suburban house where a young father, Jack, has accidentally backed his 4WD over his toddler and killed him. Bron nurses Jack on his arrival on Ward 17 and finds her own fears mirrored in his behaviour. Mitch is mightily unimpressed to find Malcolm Pussle back in his life when a patient comes in and is quickly diagnosed as having an aneurysm. Von and Kylie are shocked to discover their new patient uses dressing and being treated as a baby as a way of coping with stress. Kylie is trying hard to convince Jared she is ready to come back to work after the accident but his concern for her is almost suffocating.

Mitch diagnoses a strong-willed bag-lady with severe gangrene. When she rejects medical attention, Mitch finds it hard to respect her decision to return to a life on the streets because it means certain death. Bron nurses Steve, a young Australian backpacker who has lived with epilepsy for most of his life. After a failed lunch date Ben finally catches up with Bron. Jared arrives at work to discover the medical fundraiser calendar in which he appears near-naked has gone on sale.

Bron, happily in love, clashes with a grumpy old patient who is ungrateful for having his life saved. Von takes over nursing him with the idea that her grumpiness will suit the old bloke better but he is a hard case. Terri agrees to go on a date with Malcolm Pussle. It has been more than a decade since she has been on a date and she is excited and incredibly nervous. They have a lovely evening but Terri is still apprehensive about how the evening will end… she is relieved when Malcolm is happy to part with a goodnight kiss. Knowing that Malcolm is happy not to rush things allows Terri to relax and begin to enjoy the romance even more. Everyone on Ward 17 can see how happy Terri is and even Mitch decides to make the effort to be nicer to Malcolm. Perhaps he can start by calling him Dr. Pussle instead of Dr. Pustule.

Ben and Scott receive a call-out to a low security prison and arrive to find a siege in progress with a guard, a nurse, and another inmate hostage in the prison clinic. Connor's day does not start well when a post-op patient pleads to be allowed out of bed and subsequently falls over — Luke then becomes irate at Connor's apparent lack of patient care. After nursing a life coach, Connor also starts to examine his own life. Terri reveals to Von that she is worried Dr. Pussle will want to progress the relationship faster than she can handle.

Luke is cornered into letting his brother Rick stay at the flat after he is released from jail. When Father Francis Tyler is admitted in an emaciated state, Mitch diagnoses Beri-beri but suspects the Father to be alcoholic and suffering from the more serious condition of Wernicke's Encephalopathy. There is a carnival atmosphere in the carpark where a group of bikers are holding a charity event for the Children's Ward. Bron decides to go on the Pill and has an appointment at the Staff Clinic for a check up and prescription. It is Kylie's big day in court and Jared is determined to accompany her. When she is awarded 60 hours community service and complains that it is not enough, Jared refuses to be party to her self-flagellation. A newborn baby, found on the Ward, holds the key to a secret shame.

Von never makes it to the charity ball when her little friend Zac's condition begins to deteriorate. Terri and Malcolm bond at the ball but Terri is shocked to discover Rose suffers from bi-polar. The revelation causes problems between Mitch and Rose. Kylie drinks too much, Scott puts more moves on Andrea and Luke's date is horribly raped outside the ball venue. Meanwhile, Connor and Bron are on night shift in Ward 17.

On a day when the stars seem to be coming true, Connor tries his luck with love and Bron takes a gamble, which ends up being one of the worst mistakes of her life. However, for two of their patients the stars come through with their predictions of love and fortune.

Mitch faces a double crisis that threatens his professional future when the legal fallout arrives from giving a patient marijuana. Bron battles to save her relationship with Ben after her gambling relapse. Connor's life may be forever changed after receiving an amazing gift from a former patient but it is a current patient that helps put things in perspective. Bron nurses a young woman who struggles with disclosing the details of her illness to the staff. The ambo's bring in a man whose wife tries to coverup the cause of his injuries and find themselves in the middle of an unlikely love triangle.

Mitch is struggling with his marriage, and faces up to a woman who is wrongly told that her husband has died. A visit from the Minister of Health throws Luke into a nasty situation when an organ donor's secret is discovered.