Shocking High Speed Crashes Patients Somehow Survived |… — Transcript

Air ambulance has arrived from country Victoria with a critically injured council worker. Thanks for coming down.

Emergency doctor Michael Dunn gathers a large trauma team. Okay, well I'll do the FAST if you like. And yep.

Even calling in the experienced hands of the director of the emergency department, Dr. Mark Putland.

In the badly injured patient, there are a few immediate life threats that we can make a difference to. [music] Um, really in the first few minutes of care. But that requires a huge team able to descend on the patient and all act together.

Okay, team. Guys, just be quiet for a second. He's coming down the corridor.

I'm very worried the noise will be loud here, so I don't want you talking unless it's absolutely necessary, okay? Uh, trauma, are you going to do our primary? Going to do our FAST scan? Gavin's taking the airway and then we'll get x-rays and check vital signs, okay? So I want silence during the handover if possible, so we all hear the story of what's going on.

Hi guys. Any change since you called through? I don't know. He's still... He's been persistently tachycardic. He's got a pulse that's always 150.

Okay, so he's stable. You're happy to transfer? Yeah. Then the handover, yeah? Okay. Okay.

The patient is 42-year-old Bradley, a husband and father of five young children. I'd just get a dedicated person to the leg as well on the transfer over.

Without warning, his truck careened off the road and slammed into trees. The really big immediate life threats are loss of airway, injuries inside the chest causing leakage of air or blood from the lung that eventually can crush the lungs and crush the heart. Hey. You happy to do the handover? Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. This is Bradley. He's been driving, restrained driver of a semi-trailer. Driving along a 100 km/h road. Other motorists have seen him swerve and then he's gone through a barricade down the front of a ditch about and into a whole bunch of trees. He says he blacked out, can't remember any of the incident. And looks like he's got a right femur fracture.

Okay, thank you. One of the commonest things that causes someone to black out is an arrhythmia of the heart, where the heart stops beating as it normally should do.

Um, so he had a good view? We're looking for signs and hints of something more serious.

Take a deep breath for me. Bleeding into the chest is Dr. Mark's immediate concern.

Uh, there's a rib there. And the tummy and the heart. Yeah, that's good. Negative, good.

It's hard. Push on it. Yeah, good on that side. Yeah, good. Left lung's clear. Good, done.

E-FAST negative? Yes, E-FAST is negative. Excellent. So, let's get bloods including police blood. On top of the trauma bloods, let's get a troponin as well.

My biggest concern with Bradley is why did he pass out in the first place?

There's something wrong with his brain or heart that's causing this, and that's the unknown.

Now, I'm just going to quickly ask you, do you remember moments before you crashed? Do you remember in any way feeling unwell?

Yeah, I... Well, this morning I thought I may have had a bit of a cold.

Yeah. And when you were driving, did you feel dizzy or did you feel... No, I just blacked out. Like blacked out.

So, you weren't feeling... You felt perfectly fine? Yeah. And then suddenly, next thing you remember you're in the... Someone talking to you.

Okay. But you weren't confused for a long period of time? No. Okay. Let's get some portable X-rays, and then we'll log roll, and then we can go to CT afterwards.

How would you breathe for me? X-ray. When we factor in the time to get here into how sick he is, I mean, the fact he's been 2 hours stuck in that truck, there may be injuries that haven't been treated for some time. So, we just have to be a little careful and take our time.

So, he's got a fracture through the middle here of the fibula and the femur, and also a chip here.

Yeah, it's a pretty bad break. Anything that involves your weight-bearing bones is going to be serious and likely need an operation.

We're going to roll you to one side. The team need to check Bradley for spinal injuries.

I'm going to poke down your back and I want you to tell me if it hurts.

Now we're going to check the sensation just near your butt cheeks as well. Okay team, we're going to roll on three.

1, 2, 3. Okay, that's good. Pain here where I'm pressing? Yes. What? Here where I'm pressing? Yep. Here?

Yep. Here? Yep. Here? Yes. Oh, here and no, sorry. Okay, we're going to check your leg then, sorry.

I know. On the back where we're pressing, is the back sore? No. Posterior thighs are okay.

Sorry, I was getting confused then. No, no, you're doing well. Okay, we're going to roll back on three. 1, 2, 3.

Stay still for me, mate. Here, stay still. How's your pain right now out of 10?

Your leg's freaking sore. Do you want some painkillers? Yes, please. Yeah. We're going to put some local anesthetic into the around the groin area. So, numb up that right leg for you, okay?

Okay. You've broken the thigh bone midway through. That will need to be fixed. They'll put a rod through that to fix that, okay?

But this will keep you numb for about 12 hours. So, you're out of pain. All right?

Just get in here and make the man comfy. Good day. My name is Mark, one of the many doctors.

All right. Thank you. Is it just me or is there a lot of Irish doctors?

Uh, Irish, English, all sorts here. Hi, it's Michael here in Trauma 1. How are you guys going from my CT perspective for our trauma guy?

5 minutes, sharp. Cool, thanks. 5 minutes. How are you feeling? You okay? Yeah, not bad, mate.

We're going to get you around for a CT scan. Obviously, we've got the leg injury.

Yeah. And we've got the wrist injury. They'll both have to be looked at. Um, but the other thing we're going to be doing while you're here is working out what happened that caused you to pass out and crash.

Yeah. That's going to be part of your workup as well. Yeah. I know it's probably... You said you don't remember anything. Wasn't an intentional thing, was it?

Absolutely not. No. Good. Have to ask. Have to ask. It can sometimes be a bit confronting asking someone in a car crash whether it was intentional or not. And that's something that you'd often think about, but we do see [music] it from time to time as a form of a suicide attempt. And I think it's important that [music] we don't ignore the uncomfortable questions because they are uncomfortable and that we're treating whatever condition he's treating, be it physical or mental.

Do you have any family that know you're here or want to know that you're here?

I should probably here. What's her name? Chrissy. Chrissy. Uh, we had a 16-year wedding anniversary last week.

So yeah, married me childhood sweetheart. We had a baby girl since I was 16, so 100% the worst call I've had.

We have a very [music] busy household. We have five children, so you know, that how quickly that could have [music] been taken away from us.

Bradley's work future is uncertain. Your brother is a driver by trade, but I need to figure out why he's collapsing in the first place and is that going to happen again? And if he has something like a seizure or if he's had a funny rhythm of the heart, that might prevent him from working again. And then we need to do some tests to figure [music] out why he passed out in the first place.

Because that happened, unless we have a very clear-cut cause, you probably won't be able to drive for a while.

Yeah. So look, we'll get you around, we'll get the scans, and then we need to do some tests to figure out why you passed out in the first place.

I just can't believe I'm here and I can't believe it happened. I was a bit sort of off camera.

But yeah, next thing I'm bloody bloody trees and power lines and a truck. Now, we're going to bring you around to our CT scanner, okay?

They're going to give you some contrast, which is basically dye that they inject in the veins so that they see the blood vessels.

It

Because that happened, unless we have a very clear-cut cause, you probably won't be able to drive for a while.

Yeah. So look, we'll get you around, we'll get the scans, and then we need to do some tests to figure out why you passed out in the first place.

I just can't believe I'm here and I can't believe it happened. I was a bit sort of off camera.

But yeah, next thing I'm bloody bloody trees and power lines and a truck. Now, we're going to bring you around to our CT scanner, okay?

They're going to give you some contrast, which is basically dye that they inject in the veins so that they see the blood vessels.

It gives you a really warm flushed feeling and makes you feel like you you've just weed yourself, okay?

I'd rather that actually lead. [laughter] A scan of his brain may solve the mystery of why he lost consciousness.

It's very interesting hospital. You're in Royal Melbourne Hospital, it's top of the CBD in Melbourne.

We're not only looking for traumatic injuries from the the crash, but we're looking for causes of him to collapse in the first [music] place as well. What I really don't want to see for Bradley is injury to the blood vessel leaving the

heart and [music] in particular no bleeding in the brain. Oh, hey, it's Michael here in the emergency. We have a a trauma patient who's he's actually no recall of the event and we're concerned about a seizure. His brain scan looks

fine to us. While the brain scan is clear, Dr. Michael still needs to find out why Bradley blacked out.

It's more I I I don't want to be postponed and then it's so far from the event that it's not accurate.

And given the impact it's going to have on him, um but I I like it done.

If a seizure is considered to be a possibility as to why he actually crashed the truck, it can have pretty profound impact on his life. Like someone drives a truck for example, you can be years without being allowed

behind the wheel. Who's your next of kin? Christie. She's a hairdresser, but she was at work today, so uh someone would have my car for a haircut, I'm sure.

Christie, Bradley's wife, can finally hold her husband. Hi, how are you? I'm Michael, one of the emergency doctors looking after Bradley.

You okay? Yeah, hi. Yeah. The other thing we need to figure out is why he passed out in the first place, and that's going to be a separate line of investigation, looking for things like seizures or funny rhythms of the heart, and those

sort of things. But, that's what I think will be the plan. All right. But, look, uh I'll keep I can keep you updated, all right?

Bradley's got a bit of a course ahead of him. He's got to recover from his his leg injury. But, on top of that, it won't just be about physical rehab.

We're going to be trying to figure out what caused the crash in the first place. He can go home safe knowing that it's not going to happen again.

Okay, team. He's coming down the corridor. Husband and father of five, Bradley, was rushed to emergency with a serious leg injury after he crashed his truck into a tree.

Did you feel dizzy, or did you feel anything? No, I just blacked out. Blacked Blacked out.

Dr. Michael was worried he may have had a seizure. I want you to do some tests to figure out why you passed out in the first place.

[music] After two operations on his leg [music] and a month in hospital, Refreshment? Thanks, Chris.

Bradley is recovering at [music] home. Kids will be stoked. They know they're hungry little buggers.

With his childhood sweetheart, Christie, and his young family. I can fully weight bear now on that leg.

The metal work's all healing well, and everything seems to be going okay. [music] I still haven't worked out why I blacked out. So, I've still got to see some specialists.

I don't eat quite food. Yeah, so I am back at work in the office a bit at the moment. Yeah, just generally trying to get back into the swing of things.

Honestly, just well, glad I'm Yeah, I didn't die, obviously, but I'm I'll just be glad that Yeah, when I can actually walk. It'll be nice to be able to do just simple things.

Her BP was 70 systolic initially. [music] Her sats are pretty poor and her heart rate's up, so everything's wrong with her.

It's a critically injured driver. She's been involved in a [music] really bad car accident and been trapped for some time.

Huh. Sounds like trouble. Yes. Uh Femur, pelvis, right and left hip pain. Yes. Whenever people have a blood pressure of 70, which is about half of what it should be, and a heart rate of 120 or 130, which is about double what it

should be, there's a high chance that they'll die and they won't make it. The 28-year-old was trapped in her vehicle for an hour, taking most of the high-speed impact to her lower body.

All right, guys. Patient is here. All right. Hi, guys. Welcome. I'm Michelle. I'm team leading.

I'm LWAY. This is LWAY. From what we've been told, anything and everything could be wrong with her. We have to prepare ourselves for the worst.

I'll take the list. This is LWAY, the sole occupant driver of a small car involved in a head-on with a truck who's come across a median strip on the opposite side of the road in a 100 km/h zone. Significant impact,

wearing traction belt. Pelvis, her legs were shortened and right tied upon extrication out of the car with significant pain.

When somebody's legs shorter compared to the other leg and the foot is pointing outwards instead of forward, it's a pretty good indication that they've broken a bone, usually in the hip or in the thigh. The bones overlap and causes

one leg to be shorter than the other. Somebody check the first unit of blood and put up, please. We know that she's [music] critically ill. She's likely broken her leg. She's bleeding from somewhere. It's just a matter of

prioritizing what needs to be done first. There's no fluid in the right upper quadrant.

None in the right, good. We're doing an ultrasound to have a look at the internal organs to see where there's blood in the wrong place.

She's got free fluid in the pelvis. Yeah. Tons of fluid in the pelvis. It's positive. Boom.

We need to be in the operating theater. She's got internal bleeding. She looks terrible. She looks shocked.

Now I know what the big risk is to her life. Well, let's try and make her respond.

She's not really that responsive. In Trauma One, a terrible accident has nearly cost Eloise her life. She has multiple broken bones and internal injuries.

Dr. Michelle and Dr. Jonathan are not sure she'll make it. She certainly looks shocked.

It's a really precarious situation. She's still critically unwell. It's touch and [music] go. Okay, she's feeling nauseous. Did Did she get that Maxolon?

She has injuries to her leg. First blood pressure was in the 80s. It's reading now and going pretty low.

We also fear that she has internal injuries to her organs, bleeding from somewhere, maybe the bowel or her spleen or her liver. And we won't know for sure until she has surgery.

She could be bleeding from multiple places. The 28-year-old's internal bleeding has put her into shock. The team must get her to theater.

Maybe we'll step that up into a Rick line. [music] Let's do that. A Rick line is a rapid infusion catheter. It's a way of giving blood really quickly.

I've got a Rick We want to resuscitate Eloise as well as we can, and that Rick line will enable us to do it. We fill her up with blood so that we can overcome the shock.

With a young nursing student's life in danger, Dr. Michelle calls Eloise's mom. Hi, Don. I'm calling about Eloise.

Is that your daughter? Yes, she has. Did you get a call from someone? It's really difficult, no matter how many times you do it, to call a family member to let them know that their loved one is in hospital and has been in a

horrific accident. She's okay in terms that she's she's alive. I want her mother to be able to come to hospital and get here safely and not be overly distracted or worried as she's driving in. [music] So, take your time. Don't don't rush in

here. We want you to get here safely. I could feel what she's going through.

I too have a daughter and worry about her all the time. Okay, welcome. Bye-bye.

Wow. So, that was her mom who heard, I think on the news, that there's been a bad accident.

And she heard the helicopters, tried [music] to contact her daughter, and didn't get an answer, and she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Mother's intuition, I guess.

It was the call Eloise's mom, Donna, was dreading. I knew myself [music] that she'd been in an accident, that gut feeling. But then, when the doctor [music] started telling me, um, she's got quite severe injuries, that's when it really hit me, and I just

fell [music] to pieces. I'm determined to look after her daughter and do the best I can for [music] her.

Are you sore in the tummy? No. No, it's not sore. Looks like you got a lot of bleeding in there.

In trauma one, nursing student Eloise is in a critical condition after her small car and a truck collided.

Look, the leg's short. See? It's short. So, why not a dislocated hip? Very possible. So, we'll see on the x-ray.

Dr. Michelle and Dr. Jonathan believe she's bleeding internally as a result of the severe injuries to her lower body.

Just palpate all the Palpable definite to the left. Good. All right. It is a precarious situation. She has lost a lot of blood and at any time [music] she could have an arrest because of this blood loss. So, it's really

important we identify the necessary injuries quickly and treat her as quickly as possible. All right.

Are we ready for x-ray? All right. Are you all set? set. It's possible the bleeding is from a broken pelvis or hip. A very serious injury for the 28-year-old who's hoping to start a physically demanding career [music] as a nurse.

It's really difficult to know if she'll be able to get back into nursing. It may not be exactly the way she had dreamed or planned.

The whole pelvis looks off to the side on the right. So, whether it's the hip or whether it's In the joint.

Okay guys, so there's no obvious dislocation of the hip. We just leave the binder inside you and we need to get her ready for transport. We're going to be going to theater.

While Eloise's hip isn't dislocated, the x-ray has confirmed it's broken. But, it's internal bleeding that's threatening her life.

We're going to take you to the operating theater cuz she's bleeding internally, all right? We're just going to have to have a look and fix that. You've got a broken hip. That's why it hurts so much.

All right? Eloise's mom is still on her way, but the team can't wait. They've got to get her to the She might be bleeding from her liver or a spleen because there's something bleeding there.

If the bleeding isn't stopped, Eloise is in grave danger. She may well bleed to death.

Right, we're going to theater. All right. Thanks, guys. Let's take the blood and I need that.

She's got free fluid in the pelvis. Tons of fluid in the pelvis. 28-year-old nursing student Eloise was critically injured when a truck plowed into her car.

She looks terrible. She looks shocked. She could be bleeding from multiple places. Dr. Michelle and Dr. Jonathan were worried she may bleed to death from her internal injuries.

I'm calling about Eloise. Is that your daughter? I still don't know [music] how I survived. And other people have been in much less serious situations and they didn't survive.

Doctors found that [music] Eloise had a ruptured spleen as well as bleeding lungs, fractures in her back, her right leg, [music] and both her feet.

Look at them. They're so good this [music] year. Look at that art. Beautiful ones.

It's been a long, tough road. But after eight weeks in hospital and several operations, Eloise is back at home being looked after by her mom.

We're so happy [music] that she's back. She's in our arms. We can cuddle her again.

Eloise [music] is determined to make a full recovery and to complete her nursing training.

My dream is to [music] go back to a nursing full-time, live how I was, no walking issues, no mobility issues, having no surgeries, just a pain-free [music] future so I can help other people who are in the same

situation that I was in. On the rooftop, air ambulance is bringing in a man involved in an horrific accident.

Roll number six, see you soon. So, it's on on time. As the team prepares the trauma bay, nurse Dana Ormond is expecting the worst based on what she's hearing.

So, we know it's a 54-year-old gentleman and [music] he's rolled his car multiple times. We always have strict roles that we play when a trauma patient comes in.

So, mine today is to support the anesthetist or the airway doctor to manage the patient's airway in [music] case he needs to be intubated and put on a ventilator.

Who's team leading? Leading the team is emergency doctor Ali Majidzadeh. I was born and raised in Iran. I grew up in a family of doctors.

Is it trauma code, right? Uh yes. So, the trauma team is here. Of course, from I'm from the region that are lots of wars every year. That probably uh motivated me to join medicine and especially emergency medicine.

So, we have the myth pack ready in case we have to give any blood.

I'm going to look after you with the team here, okay? We just going to move you across to our bed and then we go ahead with that, okay?

Okay. I'm 100% deaf on my left side. Okay. So, we're going to use the right ear then.

We're going to have to roll you to get you across, mate. Yeah, yeah. And that's going to hurt, so I'll get you some medicine.

All right. On three, 1 2 3. Well done. 54 years old, he had a seizure while he was driving around 100 K and then he just deviated and called rolled couple of times. His daughter was was also in

the car as a passenger, but she's fine. She was able to get out of the car.

I think John is really lucky to survive this accident. Having a seizure behind the wheel is really concerning because [music] there is no protective mechanism. Patient can't control, can't protect the head. But more than that, because of the seizure activity, because

of all those movements that we may have with the seizure, they may actually press on the pedal even harder. So, they may they may go faster than what they were driving before the seizure, and that's really concerning.

Do you know where you are at the moment, John? Royal Melbourne. Perfect. Good job.

John is a former war cameraman who's had many close calls. But today is different because his daughter Lillian was involved.

Yeah, it was very scary. [music] He was completely fine, and I was just talking to him like normal until I look at him and suddenly his eyes are rolled back into his head, and he's like choking like he swerved off the road in um into

a farmlands through a fence, and then finally just stops. I just get out of the car as quickly as I can, screaming for help like arms in the air going like, "Help me. Help me. Help us. My dad's in there. I don't know if he's

dead or not." Hey, John. My name's Jenna. I'm one of the nurses. I'm going to look after you.

How are you feeling? You got that pain in your back? Yeah, it's pretty bad.

Yeah, I bet. Yeah. John's shocked. He's trembling. So, I think at this point John needs reassurance that everything is okay. The car might be a bit wrecked, but that's okay. We can get a new car, but the fact

that he's alive, he's talking to us, I think that's the message that we need to relay to him.

[music] So, can we do a chest x-ray and pelvis for now? Rolling his car during a seizure could have left John paralyzed.

Looks like that John has serious injuries, and there's a chance that he broke his back.

Pelvic x-ray looks fine as well. So, let's go for a CT. Across the corridor, former war cameraman John is lucky to be alive after a serious car accident.

I basically had a seizure and blacked out while I was [music] driving. And the car went off the road and um rolled a couple of times and my daughter, who's 16, she got out.

And then these two guys helped her get me out. And they just put me on the ground and I was next thing you know, I knew I woke up and I was in a the back of a I am

an ambulance going to the helicopter. Dr. Ali is concerned John is in a lot of pain and may have serious injuries to his spine.

Okay, let's go. He needs to be scanned immediately. How's your pain rate? Oh, look, it's super high. I mean, it's agonizing really.

We need to have that CT scan urgently to find out what are the damages and what we're dealing with.

Oh, man. You okay? Yeah, I'm okay. The former war cameraman's life has been on the line many times, but this accident has left him shaken.

I'm I'm just sick of it. Mhm. Thinking about what happened? It's usually like that. When you have an accident, it's just a fraction of seconds, so you don't actually remember anything.

Yes. So, the seizure? You're a bit shaky in your right hand. Is that normal?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. How about we have some diazepam ready as well? If John has a seizure, that fracture can move and result in more damage to the spinal cord.

Give me 2 minutes and then we'll come back. He seems to have a lot of pain.

Mhm. He's got some thoracic spine fracture. Can we see that? That. When it looked like it was in lots of little pieces.

Which level is that? It's kidney and so it's L1 L2. L1 L2 Oh. Oh, it's so nasty.

Yeah, that's what we were concerned about, isn't it? I'm looking at the CT [music] scan. I see what I was hoping to not see. There is a fracture in the spine.

The fracture is [music] pretty serious and uh it puts some pressure on the spinal cord that might result in paralysis uh if you don't manage it quick.

For now, we need to make sure that he's [music] not moving. Uh so even moving from uh the CT bed to our bed is very important now. There's a chance that he might damage the spinal cord. Okay.

Dr. Ali gives the father of three the bad news. Initial result of your scan showed fractures in your spine. It's a little bit [music] concerning because it's at the area that your spinal cord is still there. So, we need to make sure that you

remain still like this Yeah. Yeah. uh to prevent the risk of damage. And the main concern now is the spine, obviously.

Okay. Okay. There's a chance [music] that your spinal cord get damaged and that may result in problem with your legs not being able to move them.

[music] It's a fracture of the spine. Yeah, they got to operate on so hopefully I'll still be able to walk.

I've got to go cuz uh um the doctor wants to talk to me. I'll call you back again.

Former war cameraman John is waiting for the results of his CT scans. So, your daughter was with you in the accident, isn't it?

Yeah, I was just talking to her. Is she fine? Yes, she's okay. But she's the one who told me the whole story, basically. Yeah, I'm so glad she wasn't hurt. I would have felt terrible.

John had a seizure at the wheel and he tells Dr. Ali he's had [music] other seizures.

I was in the hospital in Hobart in 2011 for meningitis. Okay. Which is what I got in Afghanistan.

Okay. Um What were you doing in Afghanistan? Yeah, I was Australia's official war zone I was talking about.

Oh my god. That must be really exciting and scary at the same time, isn't it?

In Afghanistan I was I was in a helicopter. Okay. And I sat under the engine without hearing protection.

Okay. Cuz I was filming. So it burst my eardrum. Oh. And then that got infected and I picked up the meningitis in Afghanistan.

Okay, so that that was Yeah, that's why I'm fully deaf in that Okay. And ever since then I've had um I've probably had about six seizures like this.

There's a chance that he has another seizure in similar situation. So we need to make sure that we the seizure is under control before we can let him drive again.

Dr. Ali and the trauma surgeons take a closer look at John's CT images. They discover the fracture in his vertebrae isn't putting pressure on the actual spinal cord as they first feared.

John's fracture is at the second lumbar spine bone which is uh a little bit above the [music] pelvis top and just below the level that the spinal cord is finished.

If his fracture was only a few centimeter above that, he could have become a paraplegic.

I think you've been lucky. Obviously there's a fracture, you're going to need a surgery for that, but it could be much worse. Hopefully when you have your surgery, we expect a full recovery after that.

Okay, all the best. It's better news than the war veteran was expecting. [music] I should be able to make a recovery, so yeah.

All of these are complications, aren't they? I was going to put some socks on you.

Okay. I'm glad they brought me in. So, your daughter was with you in the accident, isn't it?

Yeah, I was just talking about it. Is she fine? Yes, she's okay. Former war cameraman John had a seizure while driving and crashed his car. Dr.

Ali feared he would never walk again. We need to make sure that you remain still like this.

A closer look showed the fracture just missed his spinal cord with John avoiding paralysis.

I think you've been lucky. Obviously, there's a fracture. You're going to need a surgery for that, but it could be much worse.

Back home, John knows how lucky he is. I think if it wasn't for the quick action of the staff of the emergency department, um [music] I would have either been dead or I wouldn't be able to walk now.

You were jammed pretty [music] tight underneath the wheel. Right. That's where you were sitting. They pulled you out [music] of that front door.

Both John and his daughter Lillian are trying to put the accident behind them and get on with life.

But, I'll see you tomorrow morning. All right. I'll be back. I'll be here. Okay, bye. Love you.

Love you, too. John is expecting to make a full recovery. Look, I've had injuries before and you just have [music] to push through and you know, the old one foot in front of the other and you know, [music]

carry on. From up and go ahead. I have a patient, 66-year-old female. She was traveling along a stretch of a 100K zone, when she was impacted with an embankment. Injury pattern, a finger avulsion and just pain in her right

ankle. BP last one was 83 over 37. Dr. Chung's peanut butter and jam sandwich will have to wait.

All right, Chung speaking. As he gets news of his next patient. Sounds like she was involved in a very high speed accident. She's complaining of chest pains and pain in the hand, pain in the foot.

Blood pressure of 80 and falling. 100 K car crash. Oh god. The team prepare the trauma bay for all possible injuries.

Oh, she's here. Paramedics arrive with 66-year-old Rosalind, a mother of three, who failed to see a T intersection and crashed into an embankment. [music] Hello there. I'm Sarah, one of the nurses.

Hi. She was driving to help her son Michael, who got a puncture on the bicycle he was riding.

We're going to do everything for you, okay, Rosalind? You're very safe. Oh. Not yet, no.

just move my finger? Yep. You ready? On three. One, two, three. Good job. Emergency nurse Sarah Thomas wants to make sure Rosalind is as comfortable as possible.

There's going to be people coming at you from all different angles, okay? Yeah, I just got a just get a cramp in my back, so In your back?

Whereabouts? Oh, I think it's just my upper right. It's Now, my love, we're just going to get all of these stuff off you, okay? And get you connected [music] to our monitor. Is that okay?

Yeah. Yeah. I had lymph nodes taken out of that arm. So, nothing in that arm.

Yeah, that's it. Nothing on this side. When Rosalind tells me that she's had lymph nodes removed [music] from her arm, my mind jumps to the fact that she's probably had breast cancer or or some kind of metastatic cancer [music]

um recently. It's incredibly frightening when people have something that happens that brings them to us. It's probably one of the worst days of their life.

Good night, Robert. You are Rosalind. You were traveling on a stretch of road approximately 100 K's an hour. She um careened into a dirt mound embankment. Air bags have deployed and she's self-extricated out of the vehicle.

Um she's degloved her right middle finger and um, painful on the right ankle. Emergency registrar Andrew Wallace quickly steps in to ultrasound looking for any internal bleeding.

Um. Uh oh. What's What's sore? Sorry, that was on there. That's just the ultrasound probe pushing down on your chest. Is that what's hurting?

Uh, yeah. Where were you driving to? [music] I was going to pick my son up because he was riding his push bike and got a flat tire.

Yeah. How old is he? In his 40s. Okay. Good Good old mom will come and get me.

Even when I'm 40. Mom is really very stoic. She always puts herself last a lot of the time and making sure everybody's else looked after first.

It's been a tough couple of years for Roslyn. She lost her beloved husband Ross to cancer and survived a battle with the disease herself.

Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer just after dad had been diagnosed. She [music] hid from dad that she found a lump.

And then mom finally finished her treatment and that's when dad got worse. Unfortunately, he didn't make it.

Um. We looked after [music] him until the end. E fast is negative. No pneumothorax.

The ultrasound confirms that Roslyn doesn't have a punctured lung or internal bleeding, but her finger is a concern.

Do you know where we bleeding from? Roslyn's finger is in a bad way. My main concern is that the injury is very serious and we may have no option or the plastic surgeons may have no option but to amputate the uh the the tip of the

finger. Nice big breath in there, Roslyn. Hold it there. Breathe away. 66-year-old Roslyn is having an x-ray to look for fractures after she crashed her car into an embankment on a country road.

Anything on it? There might be a fracture on the left side pelvis. There's a lot of problems with a fractured pelvis, particularly for somebody of Roslyn's age. It's extremely dangerous.

Just going to get one x-ray of your ankle while you're there, okay? X-ray. My ankle feels like a lead weight.

Is it broken? Doesn't look like it. Yeah. Roslyn's ankle x-ray doesn't show very much.

Uh everything looks okay, [music] but given the amount of pain that she that she's in um we I strongly suspect there may be something broken inside.

We're going to take you to the CT scanner and get some pictures. Yep. Don't forget to smile.

I'm kidding. It doesn't take a photo of you smiling. There we go. I got a little laugh.

Are we ready to go? Yep. Excuse us. We need to do a CT scan pretty quickly to check [music] for any kind of injuries that we might be missing and to check the extent of any injuries that we

have picked up. Back on three. One, two, [music] three. We're going to get you Close your eyes, Roslyn. Yeah.

Just watching her. Her blood pressure's dropping a little bit. The danger when when Roslyn's blood pressure drops and us being in a CT scanner is that I don't have any of the equipment that I need um in case she has

a cardiac arrest or she bleeds out. With Roslyn's blood pressure unstable, I'm watching her like a hawk. It would be really difficult to treat her if this becomes an emergency situation, but this is what we do. This is what we're

trained for. [music] We do very extraordinary thing things with very limited means sometimes, but obviously our preference would be that we're in an environment that is a bit more controllable.

Well done. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Nurse Sierra wants to get Roslyn back to the trauma bay as quickly as possible.

Hi. Her son, Michael, is waiting to talk to his mom. Have a chat to him.

Yeah, hi Michael. And I'm all right. They're just They're doing all the tests and they're They're looking after me well, and I don't want you worrying about what happened, okay?

Family means everything to Roslyn. They're good. Yeah, I love you, too. [music] Bye. When they found I was dying, it was during COVID.

And of course, if he'd gone to the hospital, we wouldn't have been able to see him.

So, the kids all moved home, and they helped look after their dad. Aw. Yeah.

Be there. That time is very precious. Yeah. Dr. Chong now has all the information he needs.

Roslyn's CT of her pelvis is is good. There's no evidence of a fracture, which is great news.

She's got a broken breast plate. With her broken sternum, unfortunately, she will be in pain, possibly for 6 to 12 weeks before it heals up completely. The CT scan of her ankle, unfortunately, show quite a few injuries. There are three

different [music] breaks in the bones to the ankle. She's going to need surgery on the ankle, probably pins.

And there's more bad news. The X-ray of her finger confirms my worst fear. The [music] X-ray shows complete destruction of the end of the finger.

The tip of the third finger is completely smashed. It's completely smashed. There is no bone left. So, it's all in pieces. I'm going to refer her to the plastic surgeons.

[music] But my my biggest fear is that they're going to have to amputate the tip of her finger.

[music] Roslyn has a long recovery ahead. Given that she was traveling at that speed, although these injuries are [music] significant, they could be a whole lot worse. So, she's she's extremely lucky.

Michael's going to bring you some clothes in. Oh, okay. Okay. Probably won't sleep for a while cuz I'll lie awake and thinking how how did I let that happen? I consider myself a safe driver.

And obviously I I messed up. There's going to be people coming at you [music] from all different angles, okay?

66-year-old Roslyn was driving to help her son Michael when she went through a T intersection, crashing down an embankment.

What's that what's on your chest? CT scans revealed multiple fractures, and Dr. Chong was concerned her finger would need to be amputated.

The tip of the third finger is completely smashed. There is no bone left. Look at you and Dad when you were young.

[sighs] Memories. Mhm. When I look back at the accident, I count my lucky stars that I'm still breathing, but more that it was only me hurt.

Roslyn spent 13 days in hospital after successful surgery [music] to fix her broken ankle. And miraculously, plastic surgeons were able to save her finger.

I was really pleased with how my finger is. I can't see where [music] he stitched, so I think he did a pretty good job.

And you Kelly? Mhm. It's a baby. Yeah, it's a long time ago. My recovery is going good. I can walk around. When I go out, I take my walker only because I don't want to have any falls or anything.

I'm looking forward to be able to drive again. If Michael calls me again to say that he's got a flat tire on his push bike, that will mean that I am driving again and I'll be very happy to be able to do

that. There's a serious trauma coming in. She's T-boned [music] a truck. Yeah. Air ambulance is on the way with a badly injured pregnant woman from country Victoria.

9:45 it's chopper. On hand is emergency doctor Scott Taylor. I'll take it. Yep. We're expecting a lady who's been involved in a very high-speed car accident. We have to expect the worst that this patient is unstable, uh may have some life or limb

threatening injuries. With two lives that may need saving, Dr. Scott calls on the experience of Dr.

Jonathan. I need an extra set of hands. Would you like to help? No worries. All right, thanks. Bye.

Oh my god. Okay, 24-year-old 9:45. And early pregnancy as well. Looks like we've got a bad car crash and a pregnant woman. And those two things are a bad combination.

On the rooftop, air ambulance touches down with a 24-year-old who was driving to work when her car collided with a truck at high speed.

She's suffering multiple injuries and in excruciating pain. Has that extra pain relief kicked in?

Uh not really. Feel more sick than anything. Okay. With such a badly injured patient, it's all hands on deck with Dr. Scott taking the lead.

Caitlin, I'm Scott, one of the emergency specialists. We've got Jonathan, another one of the emergency specialists as well. He's going to do a quick ultrasound. There's going to be lots of voices, lots of loud voices, and lots of

people, and lots of things happening. So, stop us at any point if you have any questions or things are a bit overwhelming okay?

All right. You're 9 weeks pregnant, is that right? Have you had an ultrasound? Yeah, I had one yesterday.

Okay, and everything Everything was fine. Okay. Caitlin, I'm Ebony. You okay? Yeah. Good stuff.

She's pregnant, which struck a bit of a chord with me being pregnant myself. You don't just think about one patient, there's also another patient involved, and that's the baby.

So, it's a very serious situation. One, two, three. Oh. Emergency nurse Ebony Lee Butterworth is protecting [music] Caitlin's neck in case she has spinal injuries.

Across on three. One, two, three. Oh. Good job. There we are. [music] At half past 7:00 this morning, she's driving a late-model SUV-type vehicle on a 110 km/h freeway.

A truck had pulled out into her, and she ploughed into the truck without having the chance to do much braking.

And so, She T-boned the truck. T-boned the truck. Significant damage to the front of her car has essentially been destroyed.

Terrified, Caitlin managed to drag herself from her mangled car before emergency services arrived. She's got general soreness across her tummy and some nasty abrasions from the seatbelt, obvious swelling and deformity through her right femur with some shortening and rotation of her right

leg. She's got a nasty black to her left knee, and an obvious closed fracture to her right wrist.

She doesn't look good, and she's in pain. So, what's happened inside? That's the thing. She might be bleeding internally, and that's what I'm worried about.

Dr. Jonathan quickly scans for any internal injuries that may be a risk to Caitlin's life and the life of her unborn baby.

Are you sore on this side of the chest? Yeah. Yeah. Sorry if it hurts. I'm just checking okay.

Just checking to make sure you haven't got a punctured lung. So, there's blood everywhere.

It's not much. Yeah, but there But there is, and she's got the huge seatbelt sign.

Yeah. And there's the fetal business. I can see blood inside her abdomen where it shouldn't be, and that means trouble.

It means she's going to have some injuries in her abdomen, and that may have some implications on Caitlin's baby as well.

Sorry, that's sore. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. Can you see any more detail? Both Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Scott keep scanning, anxious to see any signs that the baby is still alive.

All right. Can you see anything going on there? I'm trying to find the fetal heartbeat.

The pressure's really on. I've got a bad feeling about this. There. There. That's it.

So, a tiny little pup pup pup It's like a moving target. Seeing that heartbeat was such a relief for for us and also [music] for Caitlin.

We can see your little baby in there. Yeah. Yeah, but that's all I can You know, you've had a nasty blow there. You've got a little bit of fluid in your tummy.

It means you've got some bruising and stuff going on in there. And we're going to see where that's coming from.

Tiny little baby in there in a nice big bag of fluid and inside her uterus or womb.

We'd need to worry more about her other organs than the [music] baby. Do you have any other kids?

Um, no. This is your first bub? Yeah. It's very exciting. Yeah. As Caitlin's car crashed into the truck, her first thoughts were of her fiance Riley, who is now on his way.

When she had the incident, she actually rang me. I answered, and she's screaming my name, "Help." Got there, and it was real daunting seeing the car, and immediately thought the worst.

She wasn't going to be there. She wasn't going to be with us. Okay, so team, we're ready for some x-rays. Em, do you need a little bit longer there?

it. Um, I'll just pause and come back. Caitlin urgently needs x-rays [music] and a scan to see what other injuries she has, and to find the source of her internal bleeding.

So, she's early pregnancy, we have to scan her anyway. Yeah, that's the bottom line.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not ideal, but it's um, what we have to do. We treat mom like she's not pregnant.

We're looking for a number of life-threatening injuries. Those injuries will hurt the baby way more than any x-ray we give the baby.

X-ray. 24-year-old pregnant Caitlin has multiple injuries after a horrifying car crash. The team managed to see the baby's heart beating, but x-rays have everyone concerned.

There's blood everywhere. It's actually more around the spleen than around the liver. There's no pneumothorax on the right. It's just whether there's a little bit of fluid on the right lung.

Okay. She's got some internal bleeding, and it turns out she's got a an injury to her spleen. The spleen has been shaken around, and it's bled a little bit around.

As more x-rays are taken, nurse Ebony lightens the moment. Excuse me. Yeah, okay. Huh?

I said, "Are you all right there?" Hiccups. Okay. Take a big breath. Okay. Big breath and hold it.

Me? Yes. Oh, I just have these spontaneous hiccups all the time. Big breath and hold it.

Stand on your head. Can think of her upside down. [laughter] We see so much awfulness all the time that any moment you can make [music] light of the situation, we'll we'll we'll take the opportunity to do so. It

relieve some of the pent-up stress that builds up in our job. Help. Excuse me.

X-ray results give Dr. Jonathan the information he needs. He's definitely got a broken leg from what we're thinking.

Yeah. That'll need an operation. Yeah. And you may yet need an operation on your tummy, depending on what we see there. Yeah, cuz you do have some blood in there. We'll see what that looks like with [snorts] the scanner.

We've got a pregnant trauma in trauma two at the moment. We're hoping to get round for CT pan scan ASAP.

We've made a decision that given that Caitlyn's currently stable, to put her through a CT scanner to figure out what exactly her internal injuries are. I'll be there shortly.

Was your forearm, was it all bent out of place? My wrist was bent. It was bent inwards.

Yeah, you've probably broken both the bones in your arm, I think. Yeah. It definitely hurts along with like all of my palm.

I am sure. We can fix that though. I keep looking at Caitlyn and thinking, "Gosh, this girl is like so incredible.

She's so brave and so stoic coping with such a horrendous and scary situation." It's a bit of a shitty day. Yeah. You're dealing with it very well though.

Thanks. Caitlyn's fiance, Riley, is still traveling to be with her. It's a lot for Caitlyn to deal with on her own.

Did Jonathan talk to you any more about the ultrasound and your baby? Uh no.

Okay, he thinks he can see a heartbeat there. We'll have a proper look a little bit later on. There's not much we can do at the moment.

The best thing we can do is look after you properly. 100%. All right, and then that will give baby the best chance of of being okay.

Yeah. All right, we're ready, are we? Yes, we're ready. So, we still don't know what's happening at this stage, and it's really important that we get to CTA SAP so that we can ensure that there's nothing sinister happening

inside. All right, just be mindful we've got a femur fracture on the right. We're going to roll on three, 1 2 3.

24-year-old car crash victim Caitlyn is about to be scanned for multiple injuries after her car smashed into a truck.

Is that petrol? Yeah. The pregnant woman managed to pull herself from the smoking wreckage before help arrived.

She is covered in petrol. I notice that she's wet, and I get this overwhelming smell of fumes.

2 3 Oh my god, this situation is not only so bad that she's had this car accident, but this car could have burst into flames. That's left me in absolute shock.

Dr. Scott is hoping the scans will rule out any serious internal injuries. And we'll have a chat about your scans when we get back. We'll just have a closer look. All right, thanks everybody.

It's an anxious time for Caitlyn waiting to know what other injuries she might have.

You all right? You're feeling sick? [music] No. Good. Her chest looks okay. She's got contained hematoma in her spleen.

We're looking for any major injuries that may not be picked up on that first ultrasound scan. Oh, yeah. Following that, we're looking at an X-ray of her right thigh, which shows that she's got a pretty extensive multi-part fracture

of her femur. Dr. Scott now has the full picture of Caitlyn's injuries. Had a few things kind of happening around you. Um, there's a bit of bruising around your spleen. We can't see anything that's actively bleeding at the moment.

Yeah. Your wrist is broken in a couple of places. Yeah. And we'll need to straighten that out.

Your thigh bone broken in a few pieces. Yeah. That'll need a um a rod Yeah.

put through it. That wound on your left knee seems [music] to go into the joint.

Yeah. So, that'll need a skin graft or a special kind of dressing over the top.

As the full extent of her injuries sink in, Caitlyn's mom, Sally, and fiance, Riley, finally arrive.

Did they tell you this? Fine. Fine. How was this fine? Uh, so happy. Cool.

Yeah. Yeah. How are you feeling? I'm work. I got hit by a truck. a truck.

[music] Is she okay? But yeah, as soon as I hit it, You hit the fuel tank of the truck?

Yeah, I know. Yeah, she was covered in She was covered in diesel, wasn't she?

But then the car caught fire. So, I got myself out. How have you been handling Yeah, so I undid my seatbelt and I opened the car and I fell out the car.

Ugh. And I didn't get moved till the paramedics [music] came. All right. It could have been so much worse.

Oh, yeah. I could have been very lucky that I've only done damage on not you know, not my vital but definitely could have been so much worse.

It could have just killed me. Caitlyn's got a pretty big journey ahead of her.

She's got lots of broken bones that are going to need extensive surgeries. We also don't know how this pregnancy's going to work out. It's going to be a a journey of weeks and months, I fear.

9 weeks pregnant, Caitlyn badly fractured her leg [music] and wrist after a high-speed car accident. Doctors feared the 24-year-old may lose her baby.

So, there's blood everywhere. As Caitlyn was taken to surgery to fix her broken bones, there was no guarantee her baby would survive.

Caitlyn had an operation to put a pin in her leg and set her broken arm.

It actually looks better than what it did before. Now, 6 weeks later, [music] she's back home being cared for by her mom and fiance, Riley, happily looking forward to the birth of their baby.

[music] Thankfully, at my 13-week scan, baby was more than okay. We could not even tell we were in an accident, which was very [music] great to hear.

I think it could have been so much worse. I think we're both extremely lucky to [music] be alive.

I need you to save me, now.