Episode 2

Catch up on episode 2 via All4 here.

28-year-old Danilo remains in intensive care at St Mary’s Major Trauma Centre after life-saving surgery to repair his ruptured aorta – the main blood vessel from his heart – after a serious motorbike crash. Now surgeons must fix his other potentially life changing injuries starting with his shattered pelvis.

Orthopaedic Surgeon Chris leads the team as they try to rebuild his pelvis and acknowledges, “there’s a high risk Danilo won’t ever fully recover”. This is one of many surgeries for Danilo and his partner Giulia is worried about the physical and mental impact, “I’m just scared to death. I don’t know what’s gonna happen and how he’s gonna handle it.”

Meanwhile, 12-year-old Lily arrives at St George’s having been hit by a car on a main road whilst on her way home from her local park. She was treated by emergency doctors at the scene and placed in an induced coma. CT scans reveal a skull fracture, broken pelvis and hip and Consultant Melissa has to relay the bad news to Lily’s parents, “It must be absolutely horrendous for parents not knowing if their little girl’s going to have a brain injury.”

Lily is taken to intensive care and after a sleepless night for her parents, she now faces major surgery to fix a rare and complicated hip fracture. Orthopaedic Surgeon Emmett explains they need to carefully realign the hip bones in the correct angle and avoid any potential shortening of her leg to give her the best chance of walking normally again.

Also at St George’s, it’s been 24 hours since 58-year-old Peter had major surgery to repair his pelvis with screws and plates after he was crushed by a crate at work. Today Physiotherapist Stephen will begin the process of getting him back on his feet “he needs to learn to trust the metalwork in his body”. It’s the big first step that will tell them if he’s ready for the long road of intensive physical and mental rehabilitation.

78-year-old, ex-Royal Marine Wesley is also at St Mary’s after he fell off a chair watching television and exacerbated an on-going spinal problem that resulted in a seriously unstable neck, “one false move and his head could fall off his neck”. Now Wesley’s underlying infection has cleared, he is fit enough to undergo the complex operation using screws, metal plates and rods to connect his skull to his neck. Consultant Spinal Neurosurgeon Cheong knows that the good news comes with a layer of anxiety, “if the surgery is not successful he could be paralysed from the neck down”.