Francis Pendleton

Pendleton surges as the shadowed patient whose atrioventricular canal repair under Abbey Bartlet's scalpel ignites a $58,000 malpractice inferno—confidential until subpoena rips it bare in Oliver Babish's crossfire. Abbey's plea deal bid paints him sympathetic: a desperate case akin to midnight pharmacy raids, mercy clashing with legal noose. His silent ordeal fractures First Lady's dual worlds, amplifying White House tremors where surgical ghosts stalk political survival.