Dr. Lucien Dubenko is the current Chief of Surgery. He is portrayed by Leland Orser.
History[]
Dubenko was first introduced shortly before Elizabeth Corday departed, as an arrogant but obviously talented surgeon, bragging about, and then showing his ability to run the bowel with a laparoscope. Dr. Corday bitterly protests his hiring to Kerry Weaver, but presents no real reason for her hostility, leaving Kerry confused and annoyed about why Corday "is taking this so personally". Corday's anger causes her to conduct an illegal organ transplant between two HIV+ men, which leads to her being reprimanded and being forced to take a demotion. Corday eventually quits the hospital altogether, though Dubenko praises her actions in doing the transplant.
Dubenko is portrayed as a very dedicated and talented surgeon, with a keen interest in medical science, lecturing the interns on physiology. Although arrogant and awkward in social situations (partly because he talks too much about research topics, usually in medical jargon), Dubenko is a dedicated and effective teacher and shows compassion towards his patients when he can. Dubenko becomes friends with residents Abby Lockhart and Neela Rasgotra, and later seems to fall for both of them, most notably Neela after she becomes a surgical intern.
He did his trauma fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Due to his connections, he helps Tony Gates get a 13-year-old ICU patient into a clinical trial there. He has an older sister named Victoria who lives in an assisted-care facility in Evanston, IL because she was in a car crash on prom night caused by her drunken teenage boyfriend that left her with brain damage at age 17. He was 15 at the time. He mentions an ex-wife.
After he discovers he has prostate cancer in Season 12, he asks Abby to have sex with him to make sure he is fully functioning after surgery, but reacts with equanimity when she declines the offer. During Luka and Abby's wedding, he asks Luka to take care of Abby. He was involved in a "friends with benefits" relationship with new ER Chief Skye Wexler, which later ended after he lashed out at her for excluding him from her life and accused her of being promiscuous.
He later resigned in protest over the death of patient Sheryl Hawkins, when he had to leave the OR and left Dr. Rasgotra, who was a junior resident, to finish the operation, because he was the only surgical attending available in the hospital, this outburst enraged Dr. Anspaugh during the M&M. Efforts by Neela and Simon Brenner led to his return in Season 15, and he later justly criticized Neela for her dismissive attitude towards teaching surgical residents by giving her the choice of doing her job well or getting the hell out of County (she took the former path, and her leaving later that year was for unrelated personal reasons).
Trivia[]
- His favourite colour is azure.
- He supposedly can make a ‘mean lasagna’.
- In a deleted scene Dubenko says that he loves eggs.
- In Season 13 Dubenko tells a patient that he’s been a surgeon for almost 15 years and has done 10,000 surgeries.
- He likes the blues, saying that his ‘true passion is the urban blues style of the 70s’. Even saying that he knows a little blues place over by Northwestern.
- Throughout the seasons that Dubenko is in he mentions a hobby in yoga many times.
Gallery[]
