It’s “oldies but goodies” in the next episode of ’24 Hours in A&E’
Look away it’s a spoiler! The next episode (no 16) of the ’24 Hours in A&E’ is on Wednesday, 3rd of February, at 9pm on Channel 4.
Get those tissues out, follow @StGeorgesTrust and #24HrsAE. Enjoy the show!
81-year-old cyclist Bill is brought to St George’s from Surrey after being hit by a car while crossing the road. Bill wasn’t wearing a helmet and ‘bullseyed’ the car’s windscreen. He has multiple injuries, but doctors are most worried that he may have sustained a serious head injury.
Betty, Bill’s wife of fifty years, is recovering from a stroke and worries about him cycling. “I do wish he would wear a helmet. His friend Frank swore to me that he would convince him he ought to wear a helmet,” says Betty. “He loves his bike and he thinks he’s good at it. I do worry about him, but he’s never stopped me doing anything that I wanted to do.”
Bill and Betty’s eldest son Billy was knocked over and killed by a car, on the very same road Bill was hit. “I was upset that someone as gifted as Billy, who could have been so useful to the world, was snuffed out just like that,” says Bill.
93-year-old Amy has come into A&E after a clothes airer fell on top of her while she was hanging out the washing. She’s with her 85-year-old friend Bernie. They argued about whether to call an ambulance. “When you’re doing your washing you don’t have your best clothes on,” says Amy. “So I made a cup of tea, then I put something respectable on. Then I said ‘Now the ambulance can come when it likes’.”
Amy talks about her two unhappy marriages and meeting Bernie when she was seventy-five. And she recalls how her father refused to let her sign up to serve in the WRAF during the war. Instead she volunteered for ambulance service and worked through the Blitz, bringing patients to St George’s. “If you found someone alive you were lucky,” says Amy. “That was a rare thing because, more often than not, you would find a limb of some sort.”
And 78-year-old Samuel has come to St George’s after falling over some boxes and landing on his face. He is looked after by emergency nurse practitioner Craig. “Older people tend to not want to bother you, they don’t want to be a hassle,” says Craig. “Their resilience is amazing, but sometimes they need someone to care for them. It means a lot.”
