Dr. Sara Tancredi

Intelligent, kind, passionate and beautiful, Dr. Sara Tancredi seems to have it all. However, as you dig beneath the surface, you realise that Sara's life isn't all that. As a child, her father was mostly absent from her life, she tells Michael that her father has been present for only a few birthdays out of the 29 she has had and only sends her flowers when he is absent. Her father is Illinois Governor "Frontier Justice" Frank Tancredi, but Sara is hesitant to claim him as her father when Michael asks her.

Sara is his only daughter and due to his prolonged absences when she was a child and her mother's resentment towards him, she has a more than cool relationship with her father.

Sara Tancredi had chosen her profession from a young age. However, growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, she assumed that she would be situated in a nice, sheltered private practice or hospital. But during her freshman year in Northwestern, her life was turned around by the one and only Mahatma Gandhi. "Be the change you want to see in the world." Sara then decided to follow a more humanitarian path. However, she abused her privileges as a doctor by stealing morphine and needles for herself and her other drug addict boyfriends. During this time, her father had to use his authority to keep her and her boyfriends out of prison, which is something he still seems to resent when Sara asks him to look over Lincoln's case.

Three years prior to Michael's arrest, Sara was walking down the street with one of her boyfriends, clearly under the influence of morphine. Right before her eyes, a young boy is hit. Witnesses try in vain to help him, when Sara's hospital ID is noticed and she is asked to help. However, she couldn't because of the morphine she had taken. Clearly shocked and shattered, Sara takes the reins in both hands and steers her life in the other direction. She stops taking drugs and decides to return back to her high school quote, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

At a recovering addicts meeting, she meets Captain Bellick who tells her of the job vacancy at Fox River and asks her out to dinner. She declines politely but goes for the job.

Dr. Sara Tancredi is one of the few doctors in Fox River; therefore she has an immense load on her shoulders. She is responsible for everything from administering medication to performing minor surgery. Sara's job at Fox River is a constant annoyance to her father, as he is always worried about what may happen to her. This happened especially after Sara was almost raped and hurt by the inmates in Sick Bay during the riot. Despite this incident, Sara returns to work the next day, showing that she had the courage and fortitude to do what she believes in.

From the moment they met, Sara realised that there was something different with Michael. In fact, they realise that they might have even met at parties during university, this does not regularly occur between a doctor and an inmate. She finds herself drawn to Michael, firstly to find out why such an intelligent, successful man who doesn't seem to be at all violent end up in a prison like Fox River. Sara searches for answers, and isn't quite sure what to make out from the bits and pieces she finds. Being a logical, smart woman, her mind is telling her that Michael is an inmate, he can't be trusted, but her heart says something else.

Sara finds herself falling for Michael and is utterly shocked and extremely jealous when she sees Michael coming out of the conjugal room with his "wife" Nika. She tries to give him the cold shoulder and hide her feelings for him, but after a while Sara lets down her barrier and shares a kiss with Michael in the infirmary.

Sara agrees to help Michael out when he asks her to go to her father. Despite her almost non-existent relationship with her father, she tries to get her father to reconsider Lincoln's case. However, her efforts are all in vain when things turn for a worst and she ends up having a disagreement with her father and he calls her a thief, cheat and a liar.

The magnitude of her love for Michael is shown when he tells her about his escape and asks her to leave the infirmary door open that night. After much deliberation, Sara goes back and unlocks the door for Michael. She then returns home and overdoses on morphine because she is overwhelmed with what she has done. Her fate is currently unknown.