The Handover
Our partner organisations, the emergency helicopter service (HEMS) and the London Ambulance service feature heavily in this episode and show just how important they are to us and our patients. They provide a first class, quality service and their concern for our patients is always at the top of their list. We are indebted to them.71-year-old Tony is rushed to St George’s by air ambulance after falling head first onto a tiled floor while doing some DIY in his kitchen. He was talking when the ambulance crew arrived, but soon became unresponsive. Scans reveal that Tony has a severe bleed on his brain and requires immediate life-saving surgery.
While his family wait on tenterhooks for news, Tony’s wife Sue talks about the challenges life with her husband, who worked on helicopters for the RAF. “When I married Tony I knew what the military life was, I didn’t enter it blind,” says Sue. “We moved around, we’ve had to mould together as a family, you have to rely on each other. He missed the family dreadfully when he was away.”
23-year-old Charlie has come to A&E with facial injuries after being assaulted on his way home from a night out. Doctors suspect he may have a broken jaw and send him for x rays.
“Charlie as a little boy, he was very adventurous and fearless I’d say,” says dad Mark. “From the time he was probably five or six, Charlie would generally be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was just really inquisitive.”
“We’ve had a really up and down journey. Lots of times when I wondered if he would come out the other side and just not be there one day,” says Mark. “That didn’t really change until he met his partner. And then having a child made him realise that he needed to grow up.”
Meanwhile 10-year-old Lucy is in A&E after having seizures for the past 48 hours. Her parents first realised something wasn’t quite right when she was four or five and they haven’t been able to find out what is wrong with her.
“There has never been a week where she’s been completely seizure free,” says Lucy’s mum Zoe. “It’s just devastating, because I just want to be able to take it away and everything be all right, but we still don’t know what’s wrong.”
