[citation needed] Viewers first meet Sam in the Season 10 episode "Out of Africa," where she distinguishes herself by quickly and effectively giving an intravenous sedative to an unruly patient, even impressing the usually stubborn Dr. Romano.

Sam shows herself to be an assertive, experienced, and talented nurse throughout the episode, though she loses her professionalism a bit when she discovers Dr. Luka Kovač's unknowing part in her son Alex's diabetic fit while he befriends the boy.

In the episode "Death and Taxes", she took Dr. Robert Romano's mechanical hand after the ER Chief touched her inappropriately with the device.

Unexpectedly, Alex's father, Steve (played by Cole Hauser), returns and attempts to push Luka out of their lives.

At the end of season 11, Alex runs away to find Steve (now played by Garret Dillahunt), by hitchhiking after a confrontation with Sam.

Sam and Luka finally find an exhausted but stable Alex at a Canyon City hospital, where he claims he's okay and that he knows how to take care of himself.

She met and immediately befriended Dr. John Carter upon his return from Africa, happy to "put a face to the name".

Later in season 12, a wealthy patient named Richard Elliot (played by Armand Assante) enters the ER.

She denies at first, but upon discovering that Alex cannot be in the tutoring program due to lack of funds, she visits Elliot's home and asks if the offer still stands.

Sam immediately gets in the van after seeing Alex, and later, Steve tells her that God spoke to him, and told him he had to get his family back together.

Tired and panicked from her ordeal, she contacts Richard Elliot, who gets her an attorney, and instructs Sam to tell everyone she was raped by Steve and later killed him in self-defense.

Sam reluctantly sends Alex to a school for at-risk youth, and reports to her ER colleagues that he is doing better every day.

The Season 15 opener, "Life after Death", revealed that Dr. Greg Pratt was in the ambulance and later died from injuries sustained in the blast.

Sam sees her mother for the first time in 15 years in the episode "T Minus 6", but Mary Taggart does not recognise her daughter.

In the Season 15 episode "Old Times", Sam accompanies Neela to Seattle to pick up a kidney for a transplant in Chicago.

When she and Tony witness a husband losing his wife (and the description of his daughter about how he never lost his love for her despite her very negative and critical ways clearly resonates with Sam), they hold each other's hands, hinting that they might rekindle their relationship.