This event helped him earn back his job at County General, because his supervisor in pediatrics originally wasn't going to renew his fellowship due to his repeated disrespect for authority.

Ross learns her name only after her death, which prompts him to stop sleeping around and make an effort to get back together with Carol Hathaway, the head nurse of the ER at County General.

The relationship between Doug and Carol, which had previously ended on bad terms prior to the pilot episode, is rekindled in fits and starts over the course of the first five seasons.

NBC was unhappy that it was kept in the dark as it could have generated valuable ad revenue if it had aired promos that the episode marked the return of George Clooney.

In the season 15 episode "Old Times", Ross is working as an attending physician at the University of Washington Medical Center alongside his wife, Carol Hathaway, who is now a transplant coordinator at the hospital.

Together, they help a grieving grandmother (Susan Sarandon) whose grandson was gravely injured in a bicycle accident, convincing her to donate the boy's organs.

In the pilot episode, which takes place on St. Patrick's Day 1994, Ross is brought into the ER not long before his shift, to be "treated" for drunkenness by his longtime friend, Dr. Mark Greene.

Viewers also see Doug's reaction to the near-death of his ex-girlfriend, nurse Carol Hathaway, after she is brought into the ER as a patient following a suicide attempt.

When Peter Benton talks about how surgeons deal with emotionally charged cases and ER doctors have it easy, Ross leaves him speechless by describing cases that include a young girl who beat her mother to death, a kid who is going to lose his leg to cancer and another kid who is dying from a life of homelessness.

His brashness leads him to confront parents he thinks are irresponsible, and in one instance he publicly assaults a man who had abused his daughter; Ross's counseling in that case just consists of a shrink telling him not to do that again.

Hathaway assists, but when Greene and Dr. Kerry Weaver discover that the procedure is being done in violation of hospital policy and the law, Doug is punished.

He resigns in Season 5 following a scandal in which he shows a mother how to bypass the lockouts on a Dilaudid PCA, enabling her to give a lethal dose of medication to her terminally ill son.

Ross had earlier stolen Dilaudid from a pain-medication study and given it to the mother, only to be discovered by Weaver and Greene, who reprimand him but kept the incident private.

The incident prompts the closure of Hathaway's free clinic in the hospital, since it supplied the PCA to this mother, and Ross faces suspension from work and possible criminal charges.

[This quote needs a citation] He appeared at the end of the penultimate episode of season 6, when Carol leaves Cook County to reunite with Ross in Seattle.

"[4] The character was described as "a complicated children's doctor who could be self-centered, quick-tempered, and giving, hitting the bottle to avoid dealing with consequences of his actions.

"[5] ER executive producer John Wells originally intended for Doug Ross' relationship with an unknown son to be a bigger part of his character, saying in 2019, "There are people among us who lose track of their children.

[6] Until he restarts and strengthens his relationship with head nurse Carol Hathaway, Doug is shown to be a womanizing character who is involved with many women.