In aller Freundschaft - Was wirklich zählt (2011)

Dr. Roland Heilmann, chief of surgery at Leipzig’s Sachsenklinik, visits Leipzig Zoo with his family to attend an animal sponsorship celebration. The Weller family has sponsored a baby puma. At the celebration, the Heilmanns meet zoo veterinarian Dr. Susanne Mertens, who wishes them a lovely day at the zoo. However, Dr. Heilmann, who had to perform a lengthy emergency operation during his previous night shift, receives a call a little later: there appear to be complications with a patient. The chief physician sets off for the clinic, but while driving there, he has to swerve at a traffic light to avoid a distracted female pedestrian. Although the doctor manages to maneuver his car past her, the car behind him, carrying the Weller family, crashes into his car and is thrown off a bridge. The father dies of his injuries at the scene; the mother, Stefanie Weller, is taken to the Sachsenklinik with serious injuries. Dr. Heilmann insists on leading Stefanie Weller’s emergency operation, and even his colleague and friend Dr. Martin Stein cannot dissuade him. But Dr. Heilmann collapses in the operating room. Dr. Stein has to stop the operation to avoid endangering the mother’s life, and senior physician Dr. Kathrin Globisch places her in an induced coma. At the same time, ward physician Dr. Philipp Brentano and attending physician Dr. Rolf Kaminski examine the Wellers’ son, Tim. He is only slightly injured, but appears badly traumatized and to be suffering from retrograde amnesia. The public prosecutor’s office opens an investigation into the chief physician, who blames himself terribly: Tim Weller could become an orphan, since serious complications arise during an operation on his mother. Clinic director Prof. Dr. Simoni intervenes, removes his guilt-ridden chief physician from the operation, and advises him to take a few days off. Since none of the witnesses can corroborate Dr. Heilmann’s account of the accident, the public prosecutor’s office assumes that the doctor was overtired after his long night shift. He could face charges, and the press speculates about the circumstances of the accident. Dr. Heilmann visits Tim Weller’s grandmother, Sandra Weller. She has had no contact with her son for several years and did not even know she had a grandson. Meanwhile, senior physician Dr. Martin Stein has fallen in love: He is enjoying his happiness with Julia Benning, an event manager and winner of the Leipzig Innovation Award. What he does not know, however, is that his new girlfriend was the distracted pedestrian who caused the accident. When she learns from Martin Stein how serious the accident was, she decides to turn herself in. But her friend Bianca Schürer stops her, pointing out how her actions could affect her career. After such a confession, she could forget about her position as head of city marketing. Suddenly, Tim Weller disappears from the clinic. The staff assume that he wants to go to his parents. Since the doctors had not yet told him what had happened, and the boy is suffering from amnesia, he does not understand the situation he is really in. While Ingrid Rischke and Hans-Peter Brenner search the Wellers’ apartment, Dr. Heilmann looks for little Tim at the zoo. There he runs into zoo veterinarian Dr. Susanne Mertens. During their conversation, the two doctors hit upon the idea of animal-assisted therapy to help Tim overcome his amnesia. But the situation soon changes: Ingrid Rischke and Hans-Peter Brenner have found Tim and are taking him back to the clinic. When they have to brake unexpectedly because of a pedestrian, Tim’s memory suddenly returns; after a panic attack, however, he stops speaking. Then senior physician Dr. Kathrin Globisch tells the chief physician about a picture drawn by her daughter, whose kindergarten group was near the accident site. The chief physician becomes certain that he was distracted by a balloon. He asks his senior consultant, Dr. Martin Stein, to take over for him for the time being and asks Prof. Dr. Simoni to suspend him. Simoni, however, decides only to put his chief physician on leave. At the same time, Pia Heilmann goes to see Sandra Weller. She is reminded of the period after Christina Buchmann’s death, when she learned about Lisa, Roland and Christina’s illegitimate child. Now Pia wants to appeal to Tim’s grandmother’s conscience so that she will take care of the boy. While Dr. Heilmann takes Tim with Dr. Stein to see Dr. Mertens at the zoo, the chief physician’s wife manages to persuade the grandmother: She will look after her grandson. The animal-assisted therapy has also worked for Tim, and he starts speaking to the people around him again. A little later, Stefanie Weller wakes from her coma, and Dr. Roland Heilmann is about to change his statement about how the accident happened. But when he attends the balloon festival with his family, organized by Julia Bennig, everything changes again. Tim Weller and his grandmother are there too, and after Julia Benning sees the boy, she decides to tell Dr. Heilmann the truth. Suddenly, little Tim also remembers a crucial detail: He recognizes Julia Benning’s bag, which has several balloons on it, as the bag carried by the pedestrian involved in the accident. As Julia Benning prepares to go to the police, Dr. Martin Stein learns his girlfriend’s secret, and the two eventually break up. In the closing scene, Pia and Dr. Roland Heilmann are shown taking a balloon ride together.