List of family members and friends in ER

This partial list of fictional characters in the medical drama ER encompasses the notable family members and friends of the main characters of the series.

Family and friends of Peter Benton

Jackie Robbins

Jackie Robbins (née Benton), portrayed by Khandi Alexander, is the daughter of Mae Benton. Her husband Walt Robbins (portrayed by Ving Rhames) is a mechanic.

In season 3, Peter reunites with his old girlfriend, Carla Reese, at a barbecue at Jackie's house. Their ill-fated relationship leads to the birth of Reese Benton. Jackie is often seen over the next several seasons as helping her brother look after Reese and in supporting him in his various conflicts with Carla. In the season 7 episode "Benton Backwards", Jackie's son Jesse gets in a fight and is brought in by her to the ER. He is having problems at school and at home which causes Jackie to ask Peter to talk to him. Jessie, however, continues to be involved with the wrong crowd and ultimately gets shot and brought into the ER where he dies. Peter hears Malucci refer to his late nephew as a "banger" and Benton beats him.

Family and friends of Susan Lewis

Chloe Lewis

Chloe Lewis, portrayed by Kathleen Wilhoite, is the older sister of ER physician Susan Lewis. She first appears in Episode 6 where it is revealed that she has had consistent personal problems over a number of years with substance abuse, inappropriate relationships with men, and the inability to maintain a steady job or support herself. Broke and homeless, Chloe is invited to stay with Susan at her apartment with great reluctance. Later, Susan is not surprised to find Chloe gone and her TV and VCR stolen when she returns home.

In the following episode, "Another Perfect Day", Chloe makes another unexpected entrance into Susan's life by showing up at the ER drunk on her birthday with a bunch of her wild friends. The sisters get into an argument which results in Chloe injuring herself when she smashes her hand and arm through a glass window. This ruins Susan's dinner plans with her boyfriend, psychiatrist Dr. Div Cvetic. Div, with some reluctance, evaluates Chloe per Susan's request.

In Episode 9, "ER Confidential", Susan, exasperated with her sister but also compassionate, tries to outreach to Chloe by inviting her and her boyfriend to Thanksgiving dinner at her apartment. Div, who is suffering from depression, skips out on the meal which leaves Susan alone with Chloe and her boyfriend. To make matters worse, Chloe has undercooked the turkey.

In Episode 11, "The Gift" Chloe announces to Susan that she is pregnant. Susan is understandably highly skeptical about Chloe's ability to look after a child and urges her to have an abortion. Chloe, however, is convinced that she can not only be a great mother but that having the child will be a strong motivation for her to get her life together. In the following episode, Chloe informs Susan that she is moving to Texas with her boyfriend. Susan, urges her to stay, but Chloe leaves after Susan gives her some money and her winter coat. Susan later admits to Mark Greene that she thinks Chloe left because she urged her to have an abortion.

Chloe once again pops back into Susan's life at the end of Episode 19 "House of Cards", looking like she has been homeless and is in the late stages of pregnancy. Susan lets her in only after Chloe promises to do what Susan tells her to this time. In the following episode, Susan is seen taking over all the responsibilities of preparing for the coming baby, including making sure Chloe and the baby are healthy. Chloe sees an OB, Dr. Janet Coburn, and we learn that the baby is going to be a girl. She tells Chloe that she needs to watch her diet and Susan tells her that she needs to quit smoking. Chloe tells Susan that she knew she was going to have a girl and that she is going to name her Susan. Susan buys lots of supplies and even contacts her mother, Cookie Lewis, about helping out financially.

In Episode 23 "Love Among the Ruins", Susan catches Chloe smoking in her apartment after she had promised she would quit. Angry that Chloe is not holding up to her end of the bargain and that she could do something that she knows can hurt the baby, Susan tells Chloe that she is going to have to move out. Chloe doesn't know where she can go and Susan reluctantly lets her stay.

In Episode 24 "Motherhood" Chloe wakes Susan up and tells her that it is time for the baby; her contractions are only 2 minutes apart. Chloe wants Susan to put on "Blackbird" while she is in labor. It is 4:30 am and Susan calls Dr. Colburn to come, but Susan ends up delivering the baby herself. A nurse named Chuny Marquez assists her. Chloe names the baby Suzy after Susan. Cookie, Susan and Chloe's mom, arrives to see the baby. Susan had initially assumed that her mother would help Chloe raise her niece, but Cookie tells Susan that she has already raised her girls and does not want to raise another one. Susan now realizes that she is going to have to take care of Chloe and little Suzy herself.

At the beginning of Season 2 Chloe and the baby are living with Susan. Susan is intent on getting Chloe to get a steady job to help with finances. Things appear to be going well when Chloe starts attending school; although Chloe's school schedule now requires that Susan look after the baby herself more. Fortunately, County General's day care allows Suzy to join. Later, Chloe leaves her daughter with Susan at the apartment because she is running late for class; throwing a kink in Susan's own work day. Susan later finds out that Chloe has been skipping classes and has dropped out. This causes further friction between the sisters. In Episode 028 "Do One, Teach One, Kill One", Chloe, evidently high again with a strange man, informs Susan that she is leaving to go out of state to work at a flea market. Susan begs her not to leave her with the baby, but Chloe drives off.

After not hearing anything from Chloe in several months, Susan receives a money package of thirty 100 dollar bills from her. At this point Susan is in the midst of attempting to adopt Little Suzy as her own child. A few months later, in Episode 041 "The Healers", Chloe returns greatly altered. Over the next few episodes it is revealed that she has been clean of drugs for five months, has maintained a great job for several months, and has a fiance, Joe, a cop and excellent man whom she met while she was in rehab. It appears that Chloe has finally gotten her life together. Chloe informs Susan that she wants to be a mother to her daughter. Susan, still skeptical and in love with little Suzy, tells her that is too bad. Chloe sues Susan for custody of her child and wins. Chloe, Joe and Little Suzy move away. Susan eventually moves there as well in Season 3.

In the Season 8 episode 176 "Brothers and Sisters", Susan receives a frightening phone message from Suzy in which she says that her mom is really sick and she can't get her to wake up. Suzy says that they are in a hotel but doesn't say where. Susan calls the police and learns that Suzy's call came from a cell phone in New York City. Susan catches an 11:30 flight out to New York intent on finding them. Chloe is found, strung out on drugs, with the help of the Third Watch officers. Suzy is unharmed, but Susan is concerned for her safety if she continues to live with Chloe. As it turns out, Joe had wanted to leave Chloe, who discovered he was having an affair. Chloe's reaction led to her relapse and little Suzy's kidnap by a man posing as a member of neighborhood watch. After she's found by the NYPD, Chloe takes Suzie and leaves the hospital without saying anything but a post-note goodbye to Susan via a clerk, and she was never seen again.

In the episode after,The Letter, it was explained by Susan that Chloe and Suzy were staying in a hotel in uptown New York having learned the information from Joe because he was charged with the bill for the hotel room suggesting that Chloe has his credit card in her possession. Later in the episode Susan receives a call from Chloe Revealing that Joe took her back and that she is in an out patient program for drug addiction and Suzy will stay with Joe in the meantime.

Family and friends of Abby Lockhart

Maggie Wyczenski

Maggie Wyczenski is the mother of Dr Abby Lockhart. Maggie suffers from bipolar disorder, and her uncontrolled mental illness had a negative impact on her ability to parent Abby and her younger brother, Eric, who is also bipolar. Abby did much of the parenting of her brother and has also taken care of Maggie herself-she recalled one incident where Maggie went into a rage and chased her through the house with a knife. Because of this, Abby is extremely cynical towards all efforts to rein in or improve her mother's condition, as she believes Maggie will inevitably suffer a breakdown, leave and eventually return. Abby had an abortion while married to Richard because she feared that the baby would inherit Maggie's disease; she hid this from everyone until she told Maggie about it in the 7th season. When Abby became pregnant a second time after resuming her relationship with Dr Luka Kovač, she considered abortion again, but decided to keep the baby with Luka and eventually informed her mother when she was about three months along.

Maggie made her first appearance during the sixth episode of season 7. She is first found in the doctors' lounge by Kerry Weaver, who told her that patients are not allowed in the lounge. Maggie replied that she was not a patient, but that a member of the staff is her daughter. After realizing that her mother had unexpectedly arrived to the County General Hospital, Abby first denied that Maggie was her mother, thus Kerry told Frank to call psych. When Kerry told Maggie that Abby said she was not her mother, Maggie became extremely agitated and began shouting for Abby all around the ER until Abby herself appeared and calmed Maggie down. During a long time, Maggie had not been taking her medication and Kim Legaspi told her to take some new medications and Maggie finally agrees. Later, Abby gave Maggie some money so that she could go home but Maggie told her she had no place to go as Eric did not want to see her again. Maggie applied for a job interview in a store but did not last long and the owner wanted Maggie to be arrested after causing an accident. Back in the ER, Maggie argues again with Abby and is threatened with an injection of Haldol. After being examined by Dr Legaspi again, Maggie ran away.

Several months later, Richard told Abby that Maggie is holed up in a motel room in Oklahoma and gave Abby a phone number to call her. Abby and Carter looked for Maggie and found her in a bad state. Abby gave her a bath and some food, and returned with her to Chicago. During the way back to Chicago, Maggie takes an entire box of sleeping pills and falls unconscious; she is rushed to the ER barely breathing and is treated by Luka, Carter and Abby. She seizes on the trauma table and a devastated Abby is forced to watch. For attempting to kill herself with the pills, which she stole from a gas station, Maggie was due in court for a competency hearing, but in the end made her way out of being committed. Towards the end of the season, Maggie had had some sessions with Dr Lesgaspi and appeared to be better off. Finally, Maggie decided to return to her original home in Minnesota. Abby had a more heart-to-heart conversation with Maggie before her departure, with Maggie encouraging her to embrace her own life and stop coming to Maggie's rescue; she was going to try harder to make it on her own.

In recent years, Maggie's illness has indeed been better controlled with medication. Maggie and Abby found in each other some support after Eric's crisis during Season 8. After Abby informed her mother she was pregnant in Season 12, Maggie sent her a Bible given to her by her own mother with a message on the inside cover: "Dear Abby, you will love your child like nothing else. Love, Maggie" At the start of Season 13, she was also responsible for saving the life of Abby and Luka's premature baby Joe, as she took control of the situation while Luka and Abby were struggling with their own problems after the rampage. Maggie, knitting beside her grandson's isolette, demanded that the neonatal nurse summon a doctor when monitors began to beep. Abby thought that Joe would not make it, but it was Maggie's support that made her change her mind. When it came time for Joe to leave the hospital with his parents, for once Abby was reluctant to see her mother go home- indicating that she has forgiven Maggie.

Sally Field has portrayed Maggie in several guest appearances. In 2000, Field was nominated for Outstanding Actress in the Screen Actors Guild awards.

References