24 Hours in A&E

34 year old Niki is airlifted to St George’s after crashing into another rider during a charity bike ride between London and Brighton. He was found unconscious and unresponsive by race volunteers, his friend Chris was ahead of him in the race when the accident happened “when I got to one of the stopping points…I heard about the accident…I was thinking this has got to be one of the worst things that could possibly ever happen, he was unconscious and he’d been airlifted off to hospital.” As Niki travels to St George’s by air ambulance, Consultant Paul prepares the team and talks about what they expect when a patient is airlifted to them “if you hear that a HEMS call is coming in, you know that this is going to be one of the most sick patients you are going to see.” As doctors quickly assess Niki’s injuries, it becomes obvious that his memory has been affected by the impact as he struggles to recall details of the crash, Paul explains “if [patient’s] have lost part of their memory, that suggests that their brain has taken a big impact and that immediately alerts you.” As Doctors conduct his CT scans, the staff at St George’s are still trying to contact Niki’s wife Phil, who is almost 300 miles away at their home in the North-East of England. As radiologist assess Niki’s brain for signs of permanent damage, Phil talks about how her and Niki bonded over a mutual love of Monty Python after a night out in Redcar “he was just really easy to get along with, we sat and talked about nerd stuff all night.” Phil explains how losing her parents at a young age meant she moved to Redcar to live with her Grandmother “if anything had have happened differently I wouldn’t have met Niki. I wouldn’t change anything, because I’d rather have him than what I could have had”. As doctors wait for the results of his CT scan, Phil talks about how Niki’s size had always been part of his identity but in recent years he had struggled with his weight “he’d be really depressed for days…and then cheer himself up by eating cake.” It was only after their son James was born and Niki went to the doctors for a routine check up and was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes that he decided to change his lifestyle and set about losing weight once and for all. Phil explains “it took Niki 10 years to put the weight on, and one year to take it off… he went from 26 stone to 13 stone.” 90 year old Peter is rushed to A&E with severe blood poisoning. He had been undergoing treatment at a local hospital but his condition had deteriorated so much doctors decided to transfer him to St George’s. As he arrives at hospital his daughter Vivian recalls how the family had enjoyed a day out only a day before “we went to his favourite watering hole where he had a roast with the family...it had been a really good fun day…I had that sense of well at least the last day was a good one.” As doctors conduct tests to determine whether or not Peter has any damage to his internal organs, Vivian reflects on his time in the RAF during World War II and the bond between him and her Mother, Edna, 21 year old Guiseppina comes to A&E with her Mum after falling down stairs and hurting her foot. With a long awaited weekend away approaching, she hopes a broken foot won’t get in the way of her plans.