Law & Order (TV Series)
Prescription for Death (1990)
Trivia
Based on the Libby Zion case. Zion was an 18-year-old woman with a high fever who died six hours after being admitted to New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center. A grand jury determined that the long hours of often unsupervised interns and residents contributed to her death. Although her father, an attorney and writer for "The New York Times," claimed inadequate care resulted in his daughter's death, the hospital was cleared of criminal charges. An appeals court exonerated the doctors. The subsequent investigation led New York State to form the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Emergency Services, more commonly known as the Bell Commission. This committee developed a series of regulations that addressed several patient care issues, including restraint usage, medication systems, and resident work hours. One aspect of these regulations is commonly referred to in the medical community as "the Libby Zion Law" or "the Libby Law," which sets limits to working hours for medical "post graduates" (commonly referred to as interns and residents).
If a man of Dr. Auster's age, sex and weight drank 6 standard shots of bourbon within 45 minutes, his blood alcohol concentration would be 0.12%/dL, almost twice the legal driving limit.
Meperidine--sold under the brand name Pethidine in Europe and Demerol in the US--is a synthetic opioid analgesic with around 1/10 the potency of intravenous morphine. During most of the 20th century, it was the most commonly prescribed opioid in hospitals for the treatment of acute pain. However, due to the development and availability of newer opioids with fewer side effects--such as Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and Fentanyl--Meperidine has fallen out of favor, and its use in the United States has been all but phased out.
Meperidine--sold under the brand name Pethidine in Europe and Demerol in the US--is a synthetic opioid analgesic with around 1/10 the potency of intravenous morphine. During most of the 20th century it was the most commonly prescribed opioid in hospitals for the treatment of acute pain. However, due to the development and availability of newer opioids with fewer side effect--such as Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and Fentanyl--Meperidine has fallen out of favor, and its use in the United States has been all but phased out.
This was the first episode of the series. Several instances of courtroom reactions can be observed that were phased out of later episodes of "Law & Order": loud laughter when a witness says the victim could have died from "death rays from Mars," and several audible gasps during parts of testimony. Such reactions were seldom present during later episodes.
To emphasize the universality of alcoholism, Cragen admits to having had a drinking problem when he was partnered with Greevey years earlier, and Stone says his father drank every day at lunch.
Ron Rifkin (Phillip Nevins) also played the role of Alex Drakos in Law & Order: Self Defense (1992) (episode 3.7).
Chris Noth (Mike Logan) and Ron Rifkin (Phillip Nevins) also worked together on The Good Wife: Winning Ugly (2015) (episode 6.19) as Peter Florrick and Spencer Randolph, respectively.
Sean Whitesell and Lee Tergesen, who both appear in the opening scene, would go on to share the screen in two episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and 16 episodes of Oz (1997).
