Dr. Abby Lockhart is a fictional medical doctor on the ER television series. She is portrayed by Maura Tierney.

Background

Born Abigail Marjorie Wyczenski, Abby's life has always been very difficult. Her mother, Margaret (Maggie) Wyczenski, suffers from manic depressive disorder, and she was constantly going off her medication, causing her to act erratically. Abby had to raise her younger brother, Eric, until they were both old enough to live on their own. While Eric went to the Air Force, Abby got married to Richard Lockhart. Both agreed to pay each other's medical studies. After Richard finished medical school, the troubles in marriage began. Abby filed for divorce, but decided to keep her new last name, Lockhart. Abby started medical school in 1997.

Abby worked at Cook County General Hospital as an obstetrics nurse to obtain the money for medical school. There, she met Carol Hathaway , who became her friend and guided her through her ER rotation.

At the beginning of their last year of medical school, Abby found out that former husband, Richard, stopped paying for her medical studies, and couldn't finish medical school. She decided to continue working at the hospital as a nurse.

Abby has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Dr. John Carter for much of their time on the show together. Near the end of the relationship, Carter was going to ask Abby to marry him, but she made it clear that marriage wasn't in their future. The final break-up came while Carter was in Africa.

In 2003, Abby tried to convince Richard to pay for the rest of her medical studies, but he refused. Just after this, she found out that Dr. Carter had paid the rest of her tuition, allowing her to finish her schooling, eight years after starting it. She is now an ER doctor.