Neela Rasgotra - Personal Life

Personal Life

She becomes close to Dr. Michael Gallant prior to his deployment to Iraq, especially after he took the blame of a patient's accidental death, sparing Neela's probable dismissal. During one return visit, they begin a romantic relationship, after which they maintain a regular correspondence. On completion of his tour of duty, they impulsively marry, but he soon feels compelled to return to Iraq and re-enlists. At this point, Neela was also struggling with her feelings for roommate Ray Barnett, who began to fall in love with her. Neela kept her distance from Ray when she decided to move in with Abby Lockhart instead.

In "The Gallant Hero & The Tragic Victor", Neela becomes a widow when Gallant is killed by a roadside bomb near Mosul. She pushes Ray and everyone else away when they tries to offer her some comfort. In "Twenty-One Guns" (the 12th season finale), Michael's funeral takes place, where she is accompanied by Gregory Pratt. She gets angry at Michael's father, accusing him of telling Michael to go off to war when he could have stopped him, but Pratt offers her some comfort when he says that Gallant felt he had to be in Iraq, and that Pratt now understands this due to his own experiences in Darfur. Pratt later receives a phone call from the ER; both are unaware of the shootings which have taken place there.

In "Bloodline", Neela and Pratt rush to the hospital when they find out about the shooting and help the distraught ER. Neela, then taking a surgical elective, scrubs in and operates on Jerry, who eventually recovers from his injuries. Neela reunites with paramedic Tony Gates (from "Two Ships", season 12). Still mourning her husband, she gets drunk and kisses him but she apologizes to him later on. Many feelings and tension arise between her, Gates and Barnett in an uncomfortable love triangle. Chief of Surgery Dr. Dubenko has always been fond of Neela and her talents, looking out for her and helping her get the spot in a surgical elective. She later decides to leave the ER and start over as a surgical intern. As she begins her new surgical rotation, she falls under the strict supervision of new surgical Chief Resident Dr. Dustin Crenshaw, who seems to hold her back from demonstrating her skills. Later in her elective, Neela feels pushed away and neglected from her mentor when a new med student steals all the spotlight in front of Dr. Dubenko. She later discovers that Dr. Dubenko holds feelings for her as does the (female) new med student.

During the wedding of Abby and Luka, Neela decides to end her romantic relationships with Tony and Ray for good, after built-up emotions escalate and lead to a bar fight between the guys that exposed their personal issues in front of the entire ER staff. The fight got Ray tossed out of the reception party, however Neela appeared to be in the process of settling with Ray. She called him on his cell after looking affectionately at the CD of love songs he burned for her. Initially Ray, while leaving drunk from a bar, did not answer his cell despite its vibrating. She was still upset at Ray, as well as Tony, but grew concerned when Ray wouldn't answer his calls and did not show up at work. Neela went by his apartment with no luck and later discovered he was hit by a truck and was hospitalized. With both legs amputated, a bitter Ray could not forgive Neela for hurting him and left Chicago to be cared for by his mother back home, and Ray's love interest Katey blamed Neela for Ray's injuries. This further upsets Neela who has been torn apart by the two men. In the 13th season finale, Neela attends an anti-war rally and soon finds herself in danger as a mass panic ensues in the crowd. Tony who was looking for her tries to come to her aid as the crowd tramples her.

In the early part of season 14, she recovers from her accident and stays with Abby while Luka is away in Croatia. She also babysits Joe while Abby is at work. When Neela returns to work, Gates inquires about Ray and we learn that Ray has been writing to Neela. Katey and Neela have another altercation when Katey argues with Neela's directions during a trauma, but Katey ends up looking stupid as Neela's decisions save the patient's life. Neela then tells Katey she's finished taking Katey's anger about Ray's accident and Neela tells her that she will not take the blame for what happened to Ray because "I didn't make him get piss-drunk and wander in front of a truck". She also reveals that Ray himself doesn't blame her for the accident. Some months later, Neela and Abby engage in an argument after Neela finds out that Abby is an alcoholic. During the heated exchange, Abby says that Neela should not be lecturing her on love because Ray is probably wishing he never met Neela. While Neela does not directly address her feelings about Ray, from the hurt on her face it is evident that she is still not completely over what happened to him. Neela gets very upset after Abby's comments and kicks her out of the apartment. Abby and Neela make up some time later after Abby returns from rehab.

After doing an orthopedic surgery rotation where it became obvious all the surgical departments wanted her on their teams for the long haul, she returns to working for Dr. Dubenko. However, Neela has faced some professional and personal setbacks since that return: a wiz-kid surgical resident decided surgery wasn't for him and left for Pediatrics despite her efforts to convince him he could be a successful surgeon; she noted her sparse personal life on her birthday (which nobody but Tony Gates remembered); and she became close to a patient played by Aida Turturro who developed an infection that led to her death, sending Neela into the doldrums once again.