24 Hours in A&E

10 May 2011

'Everybody should walk through an Emergency Room at least once in their life because it makes you realise what your priorities are. It's not the 'rush rush rush' and the 'money money money', it's the people you love and the fact that one minute they might be there and one minute they might be gone" - Liz Hobbs, King's A&E Consultant

‘You don't have to watch the television to see what's going on in Britain.  Right here at King's, it takes place right before your eyes' - Brian Campbell, King's A&E porter

We're all just one wrong step, one sudden illness, one unlucky break away from A&E. It's a place where dramatic human stories of love and hope, as well as life and death, unfold every day.

With 70 cameras filming round the clock, this ambitious new series offers unprecedented access to one of Britain's busiest A&E departments, at King's College Hospital in London.

The series captures the joy and heartache faced by patients and their families, as well as the hard work and professionalism of the A&E staff.  From life-threatening traumas to cuts and bumps, 24 Hours in A&E is an intimate, powerful and sometimes comic insight into life - and death - on the frontline of the NHS.

From critically-injured patients rushed in by helicopter and ambulance, to others biding their time in the waiting room, and from Resus to discharge, the series follows the reality of A&E like never before.

These are often emotional stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

For consultant Jacqui Butler, working in A&E makes you appreciate life all the more: ‘I think there are days when what happens will bring tears to your eyes,' she says.

‘You're faced with people that are facing life-threatening events every day and on some level it must make you appreciate what you have and what you are capable of doing. You would have to be mad not to take the opportunities life has, one day you could be crossing the road and it could all be over.

 

Episode 1

In the first programme of the series, senior consultant Malcolm Tunnicliff and his team face a battle to save a ‘Code Red' - a patient with potentially fatal injuries - brought into A&E by helicopter.

Tunnicliff has just minutes to keep the patient alive, find out what's wrong and work out how to save him.

33-year-old student Theodore Chatziapostolou was dragged under a bus while crossing the road at Elephant and Castle.  Trapped, he was literally folded in two with his ‘nose touching his toes'.

Hovering between life and death, he has multiple serious injuries, including ‘the worst pelvic injury I've ever seen; it is in bits'.

Tunnicliff reveals the A&E team's greatest fear - losing a patient:  ‘If a patient does die you just go through it in your head. Have I done the right thing?'

 

Meanwhile, 78-year-old Tom Gibbs - who fell head-first off a ladder while painting his daughter's landing (‘at least I done the awkward bits') receives treatment, as does a confused cyclist with a severe head injury.

The series is made by The Garden Productions. Series Producers/Directors are Amy Flanagan (The Hospital, Feltham Sings) and Anthony Philipson (Coppers, Ross Kemp on Gangs) and the Executive Producers are Nick Curwin and Magnus Temple (One Born Every Minute, The Family)

'The A&E department at King's College Hospital is an incredible place and a real privilege to experience first hand,' says series producer and director Anthony Philipson. ‘The rig allowed us to film amazingly intimate and heartwarming stories of real courage, love and dedication that captured our imagination. The drama which unfolded before us every day was far more powerful than any work of hospital fiction could hope to be.'

Episode 2

The second programme of the series reveals the stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

The ‘red phone' from the ambulance service rings, signalling the imminent arrival of a seriously-ill patient. 31-year-old Brendan has had a head-on collision between his motorbike and a car, ‘bulls-eyeing' the windscreen.

‘They're in a completely alien environment,' says Senior Nurse Sharon. ‘One minute they're riding their motorcycle, the next they're strapped down to a bed, lying stark naked with about eight people around them.'

Brendan's broken both his wrists, but he's most worried about injuries to his testicles - so bruised that his penis looks like a ‘purple carrot'.  And he's decided to hang up his bike keys.

‘I could be brown bread, I've got to thank my lucky stars,' he says. ‘I think it's someone trying to tell me something.  There's only so many lives you've got and reckon that today I've used a bloody good chunk of them.'

Teenager Alex may have learnt a lesson to. He turns up with nasty injuries to his hand after punching through a window.  Like many of his generation, he's got little sense of his own mortality.

‘They think that we can just put them back together brand new,' says Nurse Kim. ‘That we've got spare parts in the drawer.'

But Alex says he won't be smashing anything again. ‘There's been times since when I've got angry and I can't even clench my fist and I know the reason is because I got angry in the first place.'

Meanwhile, sisters Pat and Alice are concerned about when they can get a sandwich from mobile catering operator, Pritpal.  And, after the Resus team struggle to revive two patients in their eighties, they discuss what they would want done for them in a similar situation.

Epiosde 3

In this week's programme, 11-year-old Kofi is rushed into Resus, critically injured after being hit by a van.  His father, Wayne, sits by Kofi's bedside praying for his recovery: ‘I remember when Kofi was born I counted all his fingers and toes and held him in the air'.

Meanwhile, 73-year-old Roger Jackson is coming to terms with his own mortality.  A member of The Tornados, the first British group to top the US chart in the Sixties, Roger confesses that, despite having cancer, he wouldn't give up his rock ‘n' roll fame for his health.

Back in Resus, senior consultant Chris Lacy is tested to the limit when three trauma patients arrive in quick succession: one has been shot in the face, another has been stabbed in the chest and a third has been knifed in the head.

'The majority of people that we get coming in having been stabbed or shot are under twenty,' says Senior Sister, Sharon Dickson. 'It's incredibly scary that they're so young and that that's the way they deal with their problems. They've got their whole lives to live ahead of them, but they're putting themselves in a position where they could be killed or they could kill someone else.  It's so sad.  The youngest victim of gun crime we've had in the department is a five-year-old child, which is just unbelievably shocking and it's scary to think that's the way things are going.'

As armed police arrive and a gang gathers outside A&E, tempers flare and Chris calls for calm as Kofi fights for his life.

Episode 1

In the first programme of the series, senior consultant Malcolm Tunnicliff and his team face a battle to save a ‘Code Red' - a patient with potentially fatal injuries - brought into A&E by helicopter.

Tunnicliff has just minutes to keep the patient alive, find out what's wrong and work out how to save him.

33-year-old student Theodore Chatziapostolou was dragged under a bus while crossing the road at Elephant and Castle.  Trapped, he was literally folded in two with his ‘nose touching his toes'.

Hovering between life and death, he has multiple serious injuries, including ‘the worst pelvic injury I've ever seen; it is in bits'.

Tunnicliff reveals the A&E team's greatest fear - losing a patient:  ‘If a patient does die you just go through it in your head. Have I done the right thing?'

 

24 Hours in A&E, Wednesdays from 11 May 2011, 9pm, Channel 4.

'Everybody should walk through an Emergency Room at least once in their life because it makes you realise what your priorities are. It's not the 'rush rush rush' and the 'money money money', it's the people you love and the fact that one minute they might be there and one minute they might be gone" - Liz Hobbs, King's A&E Consultant

‘You don't have to watch the television to see what's going on in Britain.  Right here at King's, it takes place right before your eyes' - Brian Campbell, King's A&E porter

We're all just one wrong step, one sudden illness, one unlucky break away from A&E. It's a place where dramatic human stories of love and hope, as well as life and death, unfold every day.

With 70 cameras filming round the clock, this ambitious new series offers unprecedented access to one of Britain's busiest A&E departments, at King's College Hospital in London.

The series captures the joy and heartache faced by patients and their families, as well as the hard work and professionalism of the A&E staff.  From life-threatening traumas to cuts and bumps, 24 Hours in A&E is an intimate, powerful and sometimes comic insight into life - and death - on the frontline of the NHS.

From critically-injured patients rushed in by helicopter and ambulance, to others biding their time in the waiting room, and from Resus to discharge, the series follows the reality of A&E like never before.

These are often emotional stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

For consultant Jacqui Butler, working in A&E makes you appreciate life all the more: ‘I think there are days when what happens will bring tears to your eyes,' she says.

‘You're faced with people that are facing life-threatening events every day and on some level it must make you appreciate what you have and what you are capable of doing. You would have to be mad not to take the opportunities life has, one day you could be crossing the road and it could all be over.

 

'Everybody should walk through an Emergency Room at least once in their life because it makes you realise what your priorities are. It's not the 'rush rush rush' and the 'money money money', it's the people you love and the fact that one minute they might be there and one minute they might be gone" - Liz Hobbs, King's A&E Consultant

‘You don't have to watch the television to see what's going on in Britain.  Right here at King's, it takes place right before your eyes' - Brian Campbell, King's A&E porter

We're all just one wrong step, one sudden illness, one unlucky break away from A&E. It's a place where dramatic human stories of love and hope, as well as life and death, unfold every day.

With 70 cameras filming round the clock, this ambitious new series offers unprecedented access to one of Britain's busiest A&E departments, at King's College Hospital in London.

The series captures the joy and heartache faced by patients and their families, as well as the hard work and professionalism of the A&E staff.  From life-threatening traumas to cuts and bumps, 24 Hours in A&E is an intimate, powerful and sometimes comic insight into life - and death - on the frontline of the NHS.

From critically-injured patients rushed in by helicopter and ambulance, to others biding their time in the waiting room, and from Resus to discharge, the series follows the reality of A&E like never before.

These are often emotional stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

For consultant Jacqui Butler, working in A&E makes you appreciate life all the more: ‘I think there are days when what happens will bring tears to your eyes,' she says.

‘You're faced with people that are facing life-threatening events every day and on some level it must make you appreciate what you have and what you are capable of doing. You would have to be mad not to take the opportunities life has, one day you could be crossing the road and it could all be over.

 

Episode 1

In the first programme of the series, senior consultant Malcolm Tunnicliff and his team face a battle to save a ‘Code Red' - a patient with potentially fatal injuries - brought into A&E by helicopter.

Tunnicliff has just minutes to keep the patient alive, find out what's wrong and work out how to save him.

33-year-old student Theodore Chatziapostolou was dragged under a bus while crossing the road at Elephant and Castle.  Trapped, he was literally folded in two with his ‘nose touching his toes'.

Hovering between life and death, he has multiple serious injuries, including ‘the worst pelvic injury I've ever seen; it is in bits'.

Tunnicliff reveals the A&E team's greatest fear - losing a patient:  ‘If a patient does die you just go through it in your head. Have I done the right thing?'

 

Meanwhile, 78-year-old Tom Gibbs - who fell head-first off a ladder while painting his daughter's landing (‘at least I done the awkward bits') receives treatment, as does a confused cyclist with a severe head injury.

The series is made by The Garden Productions. Series Producers/Directors are Amy Flanagan (The Hospital, Feltham Sings) and Anthony Philipson (Coppers, Ross Kemp on Gangs) and the Executive Producers are Nick Curwin and Magnus Temple (One Born Every Minute, The Family)

'The A&E department at King's College Hospital is an incredible place and a real privilege to experience first hand,' says series producer and director Anthony Philipson. ‘The rig allowed us to film amazingly intimate and heartwarming stories of real courage, love and dedication that captured our imagination. The drama which unfolded before us every day was far more powerful than any work of hospital fiction could hope to be.'

Episode 2

The second programme of the series reveals the stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

The ‘red phone' from the ambulance service rings, signalling the imminent arrival of a seriously-ill patient. 31-year-old Brendan has had a head-on collision between his motorbike and a car, ‘bulls-eyeing' the windscreen.

‘They're in a completely alien environment,' says Senior Nurse Sharon. ‘One minute they're riding their motorcycle, the next they're strapped down to a bed, lying stark naked with about eight people around them.'

Brendan's broken both his wrists, but he's most worried about injuries to his testicles - so bruised that his penis looks like a ‘purple carrot'.  And he's decided to hang up his bike keys.

‘I could be brown bread, I've got to thank my lucky stars,' he says. ‘I think it's someone trying to tell me something.  There's only so many lives you've got and reckon that today I've used a bloody good chunk of them.'

Teenager Alex may have learnt a lesson to. He turns up with nasty injuries to his hand after punching through a window.  Like many of his generation, he's got little sense of his own mortality.

‘They think that we can just put them back together brand new,' says Nurse Kim. ‘That we've got spare parts in the drawer.'

But Alex says he won't be smashing anything again. ‘There's been times since when I've got angry and I can't even clench my fist and I know the reason is because I got angry in the first place.'

Meanwhile, sisters Pat and Alice are concerned about when they can get a sandwich from mobile catering operator, Pritpal.  And, after the Resus team struggle to revive two patients in their eighties, they discuss what they would want done for them in a similar situation.

Epiosde 3

In this week's programme, 11-year-old Kofi is rushed into Resus, critically injured after being hit by a van.  His father, Wayne, sits by Kofi's bedside praying for his recovery: ‘I remember when Kofi was born I counted all his fingers and toes and held him in the air'.

Meanwhile, 73-year-old Roger Jackson is coming to terms with his own mortality.  A member of The Tornados, the first British group to top the US chart in the Sixties, Roger confesses that, despite having cancer, he wouldn't give up his rock ‘n' roll fame for his health.

Back in Resus, senior consultant Chris Lacy is tested to the limit when three trauma patients arrive in quick succession: one has been shot in the face, another has been stabbed in the chest and a third has been knifed in the head.

'The majority of people that we get coming in having been stabbed or shot are under twenty,' says Senior Sister, Sharon Dickson. 'It's incredibly scary that they're so young and that that's the way they deal with their problems. They've got their whole lives to live ahead of them, but they're putting themselves in a position where they could be killed or they could kill someone else.  It's so sad.  The youngest victim of gun crime we've had in the department is a five-year-old child, which is just unbelievably shocking and it's scary to think that's the way things are going.'

As armed police arrive and a gang gathers outside A&E, tempers flare and Chris calls for calm as Kofi fights for his life.

Episode 1

In the first programme of the series, senior consultant Malcolm Tunnicliff and his team face a battle to save a ‘Code Red' - a patient with potentially fatal injuries - brought into A&E by helicopter.

Tunnicliff has just minutes to keep the patient alive, find out what's wrong and work out how to save him.

33-year-old student Theodore Chatziapostolou was dragged under a bus while crossing the road at Elephant and Castle.  Trapped, he was literally folded in two with his ‘nose touching his toes'.

Hovering between life and death, he has multiple serious injuries, including ‘the worst pelvic injury I've ever seen; it is in bits'.

Tunnicliff reveals the A&E team's greatest fear - losing a patient:  ‘If a patient does die you just go through it in your head. Have I done the right thing?'

 

24 Hours in A&E, Wednesdays from 11 May 2011, 9pm, Channel 4.

'Everybody should walk through an Emergency Room at least once in their life because it makes you realise what your priorities are. It's not the 'rush rush rush' and the 'money money money', it's the people you love and the fact that one minute they might be there and one minute they might be gone" - Liz Hobbs, King's A&E Consultant

‘You don't have to watch the television to see what's going on in Britain.  Right here at King's, it takes place right before your eyes' - Brian Campbell, King's A&E porter

We're all just one wrong step, one sudden illness, one unlucky break away from A&E. It's a place where dramatic human stories of love and hope, as well as life and death, unfold every day.

With 70 cameras filming round the clock, this ambitious new series offers unprecedented access to one of Britain's busiest A&E departments, at King's College Hospital in London.

The series captures the joy and heartache faced by patients and their families, as well as the hard work and professionalism of the A&E staff.  From life-threatening traumas to cuts and bumps, 24 Hours in A&E is an intimate, powerful and sometimes comic insight into life - and death - on the frontline of the NHS.

From critically-injured patients rushed in by helicopter and ambulance, to others biding their time in the waiting room, and from Resus to discharge, the series follows the reality of A&E like never before.

These are often emotional stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

For consultant Jacqui Butler, working in A&E makes you appreciate life all the more: ‘I think there are days when what happens will bring tears to your eyes,' she says.

‘You're faced with people that are facing life-threatening events every day and on some level it must make you appreciate what you have and what you are capable of doing. You would have to be mad not to take the opportunities life has, one day you could be crossing the road and it could all be over.

 

'Everybody should walk through an Emergency Room at least once in their life because it makes you realise what your priorities are. It's not the 'rush rush rush' and the 'money money money', it's the people you love and the fact that one minute they might be there and one minute they might be gone" - Liz Hobbs, King's A&E Consultant

‘You don't have to watch the television to see what's going on in Britain.  Right here at King's, it takes place right before your eyes' - Brian Campbell, King's A&E porter

We're all just one wrong step, one sudden illness, one unlucky break away from A&E. It's a place where dramatic human stories of love and hope, as well as life and death, unfold every day.

With 70 cameras filming round the clock, this ambitious new series offers unprecedented access to one of Britain's busiest A&E departments, at King's College Hospital in London.

The series captures the joy and heartache faced by patients and their families, as well as the hard work and professionalism of the A&E staff.  From life-threatening traumas to cuts and bumps, 24 Hours in A&E is an intimate, powerful and sometimes comic insight into life - and death - on the frontline of the NHS.

From critically-injured patients rushed in by helicopter and ambulance, to others biding their time in the waiting room, and from Resus to discharge, the series follows the reality of A&E like never before.

These are often emotional stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

For consultant Jacqui Butler, working in A&E makes you appreciate life all the more: ‘I think there are days when what happens will bring tears to your eyes,' she says.

‘You're faced with people that are facing life-threatening events every day and on some level it must make you appreciate what you have and what you are capable of doing. You would have to be mad not to take the opportunities life has, one day you could be crossing the road and it could all be over.

 

Episode 1

In the first programme of the series, senior consultant Malcolm Tunnicliff and his team face a battle to save a ‘Code Red' - a patient with potentially fatal injuries - brought into A&E by helicopter.

Tunnicliff has just minutes to keep the patient alive, find out what's wrong and work out how to save him.

33-year-old student Theodore Chatziapostolou was dragged under a bus while crossing the road at Elephant and Castle.  Trapped, he was literally folded in two with his ‘nose touching his toes'.

Hovering between life and death, he has multiple serious injuries, including ‘the worst pelvic injury I've ever seen; it is in bits'.

Tunnicliff reveals the A&E team's greatest fear - losing a patient:  ‘If a patient does die you just go through it in your head. Have I done the right thing?'

 

Meanwhile, 78-year-old Tom Gibbs - who fell head-first off a ladder while painting his daughter's landing (‘at least I done the awkward bits') receives treatment, as does a confused cyclist with a severe head injury.

The series is made by The Garden Productions. Series Producers/Directors are Amy Flanagan (The Hospital, Feltham Sings) and Anthony Philipson (Coppers, Ross Kemp on Gangs) and the Executive Producers are Nick Curwin and Magnus Temple (One Born Every Minute, The Family)

'The A&E department at King's College Hospital is an incredible place and a real privilege to experience first hand,' says series producer and director Anthony Philipson. ‘The rig allowed us to film amazingly intimate and heartwarming stories of real courage, love and dedication that captured our imagination. The drama which unfolded before us every day was far more powerful than any work of hospital fiction could hope to be.'

Episode 2

The second programme of the series reveals the stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

The ‘red phone' from the ambulance service rings, signalling the imminent arrival of a seriously-ill patient. 31-year-old Brendan has had a head-on collision between his motorbike and a car, ‘bulls-eyeing' the windscreen.

‘They're in a completely alien environment,' says Senior Nurse Sharon. ‘One minute they're riding their motorcycle, the next they're strapped down to a bed, lying stark naked with about eight people around them.'

Brendan's broken both his wrists, but he's most worried about injuries to his testicles - so bruised that his penis looks like a ‘purple carrot'.  And he's decided to hang up his bike keys.

‘I could be brown bread, I've got to thank my lucky stars,' he says. ‘I think it's someone trying to tell me something.  There's only so many lives you've got and reckon that today I've used a bloody good chunk of them.'

Teenager Alex may have learnt a lesson to. He turns up with nasty injuries to his hand after punching through a window.  Like many of his generation, he's got little sense of his own mortality.

‘They think that we can just put them back together brand new,' says Nurse Kim. ‘That we've got spare parts in the drawer.'

But Alex says he won't be smashing anything again. ‘There's been times since when I've got angry and I can't even clench my fist and I know the reason is because I got angry in the first place.'

Meanwhile, sisters Pat and Alice are concerned about when they can get a sandwich from mobile catering operator, Pritpal.  And, after the Resus team struggle to revive two patients in their eighties, they discuss what they would want done for them in a similar situation.

Epiosde 3

In this week's programme, 11-year-old Kofi is rushed into Resus, critically injured after being hit by a van.  His father, Wayne, sits by Kofi's bedside praying for his recovery: ‘I remember when Kofi was born I counted all his fingers and toes and held him in the air'.

Meanwhile, 73-year-old Roger Jackson is coming to terms with his own mortality.  A member of The Tornados, the first British group to top the US chart in the Sixties, Roger confesses that, despite having cancer, he wouldn't give up his rock ‘n' roll fame for his health.

Back in Resus, senior consultant Chris Lacy is tested to the limit when three trauma patients arrive in quick succession: one has been shot in the face, another has been stabbed in the chest and a third has been knifed in the head.

'The majority of people that we get coming in having been stabbed or shot are under twenty,' says Senior Sister, Sharon Dickson. 'It's incredibly scary that they're so young and that that's the way they deal with their problems. They've got their whole lives to live ahead of them, but they're putting themselves in a position where they could be killed or they could kill someone else.  It's so sad.  The youngest victim of gun crime we've had in the department is a five-year-old child, which is just unbelievably shocking and it's scary to think that's the way things are going.'

As armed police arrive and a gang gathers outside A&E, tempers flare and Chris calls for calm as Kofi fights for his life.

Episode 1

In the first programme of the series, senior consultant Malcolm Tunnicliff and his team face a battle to save a ‘Code Red' - a patient with potentially fatal injuries - brought into A&E by helicopter.

Tunnicliff has just minutes to keep the patient alive, find out what's wrong and work out how to save him.

33-year-old student Theodore Chatziapostolou was dragged under a bus while crossing the road at Elephant and Castle.  Trapped, he was literally folded in two with his ‘nose touching his toes'.

Hovering between life and death, he has multiple serious injuries, including ‘the worst pelvic injury I've ever seen; it is in bits'.

Tunnicliff reveals the A&E team's greatest fear - losing a patient:  ‘If a patient does die you just go through it in your head. Have I done the right thing?'

 

24 Hours in A&E, Wednesdays from 11 May 2011, 9pm, Channel 4.

'Everybody should walk through an Emergency Room at least once in their life because it makes you realise what your priorities are. It's not the 'rush rush rush' and the 'money money money', it's the people you love and the fact that one minute they might be there and one minute they might be gone" - Liz Hobbs, King's A&E Consultant

‘You don't have to watch the television to see what's going on in Britain.  Right here at King's, it takes place right before your eyes' - Brian Campbell, King's A&E porter

We're all just one wrong step, one sudden illness, one unlucky break away from A&E. It's a place where dramatic human stories of love and hope, as well as life and death, unfold every day.

With 70 cameras filming round the clock, this ambitious new series offers unprecedented access to one of Britain's busiest A&E departments, at King's College Hospital in London.

The series captures the joy and heartache faced by patients and their families, as well as the hard work and professionalism of the A&E staff.  From life-threatening traumas to cuts and bumps, 24 Hours in A&E is an intimate, powerful and sometimes comic insight into life - and death - on the frontline of the NHS.

From critically-injured patients rushed in by helicopter and ambulance, to others biding their time in the waiting room, and from Resus to discharge, the series follows the reality of A&E like never before.

These are often emotional stories of individuals who started the day with little in common until they found themselves being treated by the King's A&E team on the same day - a day that, for many of them, would change their lives.

For consultant Jacqui Butler, working in A&E makes you appreciate life all the more: ‘I think there are days when what happens will bring tears to your eyes,' she says.

‘You're faced with people that are facing life-threatening events every day and on some level it must make you appreciate what you have and what you are capable of doing. You would have to be mad not to take the opportunities life has, one day you could be crossing the road and it could all be over.