Robert Romano

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Dr. Robert "Rocket" Patrick Romano is a fictional general surgeon on the TV series ER. He was portrayed by Paul McCrane.

Romano was a brash, insenititive man who often made racist or bigoted comments. Although he was a deliberately unpleasant and cruel character, he also frequently provided comic relief, and thus became popular with viewers as ER's "man you love to hate".

Character history

Dr. Romano first appeared in the show's fourth season as a surgical attending sponsoring Elizabeth Corday's internship in the Chicago ER. Romano was a brilliant surgeon, but did not get along with the majority of the staff, except Corday whose early quarreling and professional setbacks at Romano's hands (discontinuing her fellowship at the end of Season 4, forcing her into a demeaning Intern position for Season 5) blossomed into a respected friendship over the years. Romano was obnoxious and ambitious, and was eager to jump at the job of interim ER Chief to help weasel his way toward the top of the administrative ladder.

Dr. Romano finally got his reward when he was hired as the new Chief of Staff, much to the dismay of the entire staff, but was good news for Dr. Corday because he promoted her to Assistant Chief of Surgery. Kerry Weaver had originally backed him up for the job, backstabbing Mark Greene in the process and earning the permanent ER Chief position, but soon became disgusted with him after seeing his diabolical ways which included him suspending her in Season 6 after she treated a comatose, brain-damaged young woman without HMO approval. Over the next four years, Romano didn't do much for staff morale or take interest in many of the priorities of health care and hospital issues. When Peter Benton arranged for the surgery of a Medicare patient over Romano's objections, Romano fired Benton. Romano then blacklisted Benton throughout the community, making it almost impossible for him to find a job in Chicago. This forced Benton to come back and accept a daily call, no-benefits job from Romano. After Benton impressed Romano by keeping his mouth shut and doing the job, Romano "rewarded" him with a raise and benefits but also manipulated him into taking on a new post related to affirmative action at County (but was then outmaneuvered when Benton got a talented African-American student a previously-denied interview, and the student was then accepted into medical school).

In addition, Romano stopped at nothing to fire Dr. Legaspi, a psychiatric attending and love interest of Kerry Weaver. The two both realized that she was being discriminated against for her homosexuality by Romano and Kerry came out of the closet to Romano when announcing she would defend Kim. However, Kim left for a job in San Francisco and Romano surprisingly decided to keep Kerry's secret (she came out to her staff for separate reasons later in Season 8). Romano did, however, have a few soft spots. These include the fact that he was genuinely fond of medical student Lucy Knight, and showed grief and anger when he was unable to save her after a homicidal attack. The stern surgeon also showed a few sentimental moments after learning of the death of Dr. Mark Greene and was then driven to successfully save a young girl who had cancer.

At the beginning of the ninth season, Dr. Romano lost his left arm when he backed into the tail rotor blades of a helicopter that was evacuating a patient after a smallpox/monkeypox outbreak. Dr. Kovač was able to save Romano's life, and surgeons at another Chicago area hospital were able to reattach Romano's arm.

However, Romano found that the reattached arm was lacking in both its motor and its sensory capacities: not only was he unable to properly perform surgery, he failed to notice when the arm sustained further injuries, and - after a kitchen accident in which the arm caught fire - he had it amputated, and resorted to a mechanical prosthetic. Since the hospital's policies impeded his efforts to obtain a more suitable replacement, his career as a surgeon ended; Romano had earlier been demoted to the ER - he lost his Chief of Staff position after Dr. Anspaugh got sick of his attitude and named Kerry Weaver the new CoS - and became the permanent Chief there.

Dr. Romano became completely hostile and bitter throughout his time as ER chief. He routinely insulted and took out all his frustration on the entire staff and newcomers to the ER making him almost impossible to work with. As his arrogance continued, he managed to get himself beaten up in a bar after complaining about a strong man show and calling it "homo-erotic". He also told Dr. Pratt he was working up a file of bogus complaints until he had enough of them to get Pratt fired from County.

Romano died midway through Season 10 in the episode "Freefall" on Thanksgiving Day. After a panic attack (over the fear of helicopters) sent the doctor fleeing into the ambulance bay for air, high above the ER a helicopter was buffeted by strong winds and sidewined off the roof of the hospital. The chopper exploded as it fell down the side of the building, filling the higher floors with flames. Dr. Romano noticed fire and debris raining down and screamed as he looked up and saw the chopper plummeting down towards him. The twisted metal crashed onto Romano, causing a huge explosion in the ambulance bay. Just moments before, Romano had "fired" Pratt and caught Morris smoking pot, but his death took Morris off the hook and Dr. Anspaugh told Pratt (not knowing Romano was dead) that Romano's allegations were meritless and Anspaugh found him to be a great physician. In the following weeks, a small memorial of flowers were placed at the scene of the crash, still no one had mourned for Romano.

The only staff member to attend his memorial service was Elizabeth Corday, for whom Romano had had feelings since Corday first arrived in the fourth season, during which she rejected his amorous advances. He bequeathed a substantial amount of money to the hospital; Dr. Weaver, a lesbian who had been personally offended by Romano's homophobia, decided to ironically use the money to fund a Gay and Lesbian medical program at the hospital. A memorial plaque displaying the doctor's portrait was placed on the wall between the two main elevators, where the staff never paid it much attention. After a violent shootout in the ER in Season 12, the plaque was stored away when the department underwent restoration for the damages.

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Last updated on Thursday March 06, 2008 at 17:43:28 PST (GMT -0800)
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