24 Hours in A&E

31 year old Aaron is rushed to St George’s after overturning his car onto metal railings during a high speed collision. His twin brother Alvin was at home when the accident happened “I jumped in the car and during the entire time, I was thinking about the worst.” As the medical team prepare for his arrival, nurse Anna talks about the potential for life threatening injuries in a car crash “that patient could have. a possible head injury, bones being fractured, all of their organs inside you’re worried about, their heart, their lungs. Time is crucial to the whole thing.” Aaron arrives in Resus with a serious laceration to his face where he landed one of the metal spiked railings, narrowly missing his eye socket. During his initial assessment it becomes apparent that Aaron’s memory has been affected as he struggles to remember the day of the week and has no recollection of the accident. Doctors suspect a brain injury and as he’s taken to CT, Aaron’s brother Alvin talks about life growing up as a twin “we had our own language, so we didn’t actually really speak properly until quite late in life. That’s really common amongst twins, once you’ve already got your friend there, you don’t want to hang out with anyone else.” Doctors are also concerned that the impact may have caused serious internal injuries and send Aaron’s CT scans to radiologists for further assessment. As Alvin and his girlfriend Aneta arrive at St George’s, Alvin talks about Aaron’s single life and his hopes for the future. “I think he’s unlucky in love, he hasn’t met someone who truly appreciates him.” The initial scan results show a small laceration to his spleen and doctors decide to admit him a ward for further observation. 65 year old Fiona is rushed to St George’s after falling over in a restaurant and cutting her knee during her friend Evelyn’s birthday party “it was my 70th birthday and we went to this restaurant… we had a wonderful time and everybody was leaving and she tripped off two steps.” The impact caused a deep wound to her knee and doctors are concerned that she may have damaged a major artery. As doctors work to stem the bleeding from her laceration, Evelyn talks about how they met over 40 years ago as air hostesses and reminisces about their adventures together “I remember being in Bugis Street in Singapore… all the lady boys were there, we had to dress up because they sometimes looked prettier and in nicer frocks than we looked!” As Fiona is taken to X-ray to check for fractures to her knee, she talks about how their lives took different paths after Fiona left her job to start a family and Evelyn continued her single life as a stewardess. Fiona explains how in more recent years however, Evelyn has supported her through a divorce and they are now enjoying a new lease of life together. 37 year old superyacht Marketing Consultant Caroline is in A&E after falling on rocks on a beach in Spain and hurting her ankle. As nurse practitioner Craig assesses her injury, Caroline talks about her life as a single woman and her pursuit of love.