24 Hours In A&E

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. The same day, 13 other emergency cases were treated in Resus, including 78-year-old Tom Gibbs, who fell head-first off a ladder while painting his daughter's landing and a confused cyclist with a severe head injury.

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. Meanwhile, as the Resus team struggle to revive two patients in their eighties, they discuss what they would want to be done in the same situation.

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. Meanwhile, 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 Emergency Department is besieged with Saturday night drunks. 39-year-old Sean has had one too many, tripped over a clothes horse, fallen and broken his neck. Andrew, 26, has been arrested after a day of heavy drinking. The police have brought him to King's because he's put his hand through a window and cut it.

King's is a specialist Stroke Centre, treating on average three cases a day. Today in A&E is 89-year-old Peggy Pierce. Her husband Derek woke to find her slumped semi-conscious over the bed and she's been rushed into King's with a suspected stroke. Meanwhile, in the waiting room, Sally is comforted by ex-boyfriend Ben while she awaits treatment for a cut finger.

During the night shift, Colin Richards is rushed in by ambulance with knife injuries to his lung, arm and liver. He's accompanied by his girlfriend, Esther, who was lying in bed next to him when they were awoken at gunpoint. And in Minors, former international lawyer Robert Knutson is patched up after collapsing on the street, drunk.