All language subtitles for G C M S01E05 1080p HDTV H264-CBFM (1)_track3_[eng]

WOMAN: Ambulance.
What's the emergency?

MAN: It's a shark attack.
OK.

Yeah.
OK.

NARRATOR: The Gold Coast,

where the lights burn bright
and the sunshine never ends.

While many Aussies call it home...

every year, 12 million tourists
come to play

on this stretch of golden coastline.

MAN: We received a call.

There's a man who's been shot
in the abdomen.

The bullet has hit
a number of big veins.

(SIREN WAILS)

But the good times
can often turn ugly...

Steve, where are you at the moment,
mate?

..and when they do...
Can you feel me tickling your thumb?

..these are the people
you want on your side.

It looks bad to me,
but you just have to trust.

He's a brave little thing.

Whether you're just visiting
or you live here...

My baby's life is going to be
cut shorter because of this.

I'm just worried about
my two children.

She can't be replaced.

..these are the real stories...

He was gonna kill me.

..of the cutting-edge
medical teams...

MAN: 51-year-old fellow
bitten by a shark.

Had a massive bite to his thigh.

..who pick you up...

Go and cheer Mummy up and then
I'll come for a cuddle soon.

..patch you up...

Superpower!

The fairy dust's very magical
and it fixes all sorts of things.

..and put you back in paradise.

Where else would you rather be?
(LAUGHS)

WOMAN: Someone's just been stabbed.

Tonight on Gold Coast Medical...

MAN: Did you see the knife,
by any chance?

..a love affair where the first cut
really is the deepest.

You've got a deep cut,
possibly going into your liver.

A dream holiday
turns into a nightmare.

MAN: Oh!
(SCREAMING)

So you got attacked by a buffalo?

But these patients have Nurse Katie
to help them forget their troubles.

We'll try and get you
some hot nurses.

Yeah, yeah.

So inappropriate. (LAUGHS)

A miracle procedure to insert
an extremely rare and expensive metal

inside a man's brain.

Big challenge for us is to
get safely into that vein

and we may not be able to get there.

♪ Everybody get up

♪ Whoo!

♪ Everybody Hey, hey, hey

♪ Hey, hey, hey Uh

♪ Hey, hey, hey
Whoo! ♪

When Dr Claire Roche finished
medical school in England,

she made a beeline
for the Gold Coast

to make the most of the lifestyle.

I've always had a little love affair
with Australia,

ever since I was a little kid.

I had pictures of Ayers Rock
on my wall

with lightning bolts behind it

and it was always like this
fairyland which was unobtainable

for somebody who lived so far away.

I've moved over here
with a 20-kilo bag

and slept on someone's sofa
I never met before,

so these are the journeys we have.

Now Claire's journey has brought her

to the hospital's
emergency department,

where she must deal with
whoever comes through the door.

On the Gold Coast, we see
a lot of violence and stabbing

and gunshot wounds isn't something
which is a surprise,

come into the emergency department.

I've probably seen at least
ten stabbings of varying degrees.

Today, Claire will see number 11.

MAN: (ON PHONE) What's the town
or suburb there, Nancy?

WOMAN: (ON PHONE) Surfers Paradise.

Right. Tell me what's happened.

Someone's just been stabbed.

Is the knife still in him or not?

No.

And it's only the one stab wound?
Yeah.

And do you know the name of
the person that did it to him?

No.

50-year-old male, extracted from
a unit in Surfers.

Said to have had a large penetration
blade to the right upper quadrant.

The attack happened
at the victim's home,

where he'd spent all day drinking.

MAN: Did you see the knife,
by any chance?

No, didn't see it at all.

He claims he was entertaining
a lady friend

who turned on him with a knife.

Do you know how big the knife was?

MAN: Oh...

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

She was French?

I think there's definitely

probably some illicit substances
on board there.

What exactly he's taken,

I'd say it's probably
a little bit of cannabis,

possibly something else.

First, an ultrasound

to make sure the bloke's windpipe
is not filling with blood.

In and out. Take a deep breath
for me a second.

I think we'll probably start with
chest a X-ray,

get a fast scan and then CT.

Yep.

What we're gonna do, we're gonna do
an X-ray of your chest, alright?

So we need to make sure that
your lungs are all inflated.

If the knife punctured his lung,
he will need emergency surgery.

Alright?

(MAN GROANS)

♪ All hands on deck

♪ All in the front, all in the back
just like that, like that

♪ I'ma blow your mind,
take it out on the floor... ♪

He may look like he's about to spend
the day at the beach

but Dr Hal Rice
is actually going to spend it

tinkering inside people's heads.

♪ I'ma blow your mind like that. ♪

I'm a diagnostic and interventional
neuroradiologist,

which is a specialist who treats
problems in the brain.

Dr Laetitia de Villiers
is a former student of Hal's

who's now his right-hand radiologist.

Can we do a road map?
Just a normal map.

AP lateral for the carotid.

Yeah, I just want to get the guide
up a little higher.

I kind of always knew I was gonna be
a doctor from about the age of six.

I have no recollection of actually
thinking "That's what I wanna do."

I just always knew
that's what I was gonna do.

The pair use high-tech gear
to look inside people's heads

as they send tiny tools
in through their arteries.

Monitored for a while...
It looks good.

Just about there.
Mm-hm.

OK.

DR RICE: The equipment we use
is state-of-the-art

and every 6-12 months, there's
new devices, new technology

that comes out.

We're just coming up with
the micro-catheter now...

I think, at the end of the day,
it's really benefiting patients

who come in with what are
life-threatening, very severe,

debilitating illnesses

and we're able to make
a major difference in their lives.

And every day brings patients
with critical problems,

like 32-year-old financier Julian.

Julian has a time bomb in his head.

His brain is leaking, causing
a massive build-up of pressure

behind his eyes.

If it's not fixed, he could die.

JULIAN: There appears to be
multiple leaks in the brain.

The doctors say it's
not gonna fix itself.

It's gonna get worse unless
I get this procedure done.

This just came out of nowhere.
I mean, I had no injuries.

And this affects me pretty much
90%-95% of my day

doing my everyday things -
work, you know, watching TV, eating.

It just makes life
a bit more challenging.

DR RICE: This is Julian's angiogram.

In the back of Julian's brain here,
behind his left eye,

we've got multiple abnormal
connections from the arteries

which are dumping high-pressure
blood into the veins

right behind his eye.

In medical speak,
it's called a fistula

and it's also affecting
his ability to see.

Veins are not meant to take
high pressure

and a fistula is
an abnormal connection

between a high-pressure artery
and a low-pressure vein.

So it just seems really...

Laetitia and Hal will try to repair
the fistula

by clogging the leak with metal coils

fed into Julian's head
through an artery in his groin.

Big challenge for us is to get
safely into that vein

and we may not be able to get there.

Reaching the leak in Julian's brain
will mean pushing the wire tools

in through a maze of thin-walled
blood vessels.

But like all surgery,
there are risks.

They say anywhere from 5%-15%
chances of having a stroke

and potentially going blind.

But the risk of not operating
could also be life-threatening.

Paramedic Michael Kerr has been
on the job for over 20 years

and he remains enthusiastic
and passionate about his work.

It's nice, after a while in a job,

to actually be able to do
some advanced interventions

on your patient and treat them.

You're always up for
the next challenge

and to advance your practice,
so it's a big driver.

It's a life-long career
built on expecting the unexpected...

MAN: (ON PHONE) Ambulance. What is
the town or suburb of the emergency?

MAN: (ON PHONE)
It's Varsity Lakes, Queensland.

Tell me exactly what happened.

He had his dog sleeping with him
last night

and it looks like his thumb's gone.

..and today is no exception.

OK, so he's not responding to you
at all?

No, mate. No.
OK. Alright.

Not waking up.
I have the ambulance on its way...

Michael is part of
the Queensland Ambulance Trauma Team.

He's specially trained and equipped
to do more than a regular paramedic.

Probably just thinking about

what's actually caused
the patient to be unconscious

in a 64-year-old male.

Could be cardiac
or could be neurological.

That'd the two main things going
through my head at the moment.

Righto. Here we are.

Looks like they may
already have the patient

in the back of the ambulance there.

He might not know exactly what scene
he's about to walk into

but he does know the patient must be
in a critical condition,

otherwise he wouldn't have been
called in for back-up.

Hey, guys.

Hi. Hi, I'm Michael.
Hey, Ricky, how are ya?

What's happened to him, man?
Is it a trauma or...?

We don't know, mate.
There's not much information.

This gentleman arrived home
last night

and we don't know how his hand
got like that.

Heart rate on. Let's get...

Immediately, Michael can see
the man is struggling to breathe

and something has caused
a catastrophic injury to his hand.

♪ Surf City Surf City

♪ Surf City Surf City

♪ Surf City Surf City

♪ Yeah. ♪

Dr Claire Roche is dealing with
a 50-year-old man

who was stabbed with a kitchen knife.

You've got a deep cut.

He claims his lady friend
attacked him

when their drinking date
turned to disaster.

An X-ray shows the man's lungs
have escaped damage.

MAN: So am I alright?
You're fine.

Alright?

You're not bad.

You've got a deep cut in your side.

I know. I know.

I'd say it's possibly
going into your liver, OK,

so we need to do some scans.

The only way to tell if his liver has
been knifed is with an MRI scan.

Now, I know that it's not
an ideal situation.

There's just this blush here
that we need to consider,

whether it's something
we need to intervene

or whether it's something that might
settle down on its own accord.

Amazingly, the blade just scratched
Andrew's liver

without causing any serious damage.

The surgeons have had
a thorough look at him

and we're happy that we can close up
the wounds.

Now Dr Claire has the difficult task
of stitching him up.

DR ROCHE: Oi, keep that hand down.

Keep it down for me just a tick.

Just don't want that wire
coming over there, yeah,

otherwise I'll sew your arm
to your side.

Oh. You were so nice
when I first met ya.

So, yeah, it was a little bit
difficult on a moving target.

May I say that the staff here
are absolutely fantastic?

I'd buy them all...

If I was put in here,
I'd get more than Mentos.

He retained his sense of humour.
He seems a happy punter.

So... (LAUGHS)

All done.
Oh, really?

Not bad for a moving target.

With his stab wounds stitched up,

Andrew will spend a night
under observation.

When we see stabbings
or gunshot wounds,

we're obliged to report that
to the police,

obviously, for safety to the public.

He didn't want to pursue this
any further.

That usually means that it's
a personal altercation.

I did ask him,

did he feel that this person was
a threat to the rest of the public.

He said no.

Either/or, I would still report it
to the police

and the police will come and take
some further details on that matter.

Trauma paramedic Michael Kerr
has been called to a mystery case.

Hey, guys.

What's happened to him, man?

Is it a trauma or...?

We don't know, mate.
There's not much information.

We don't know how his hand
got like that.

He was found in his bed this morning
unconscious by his room-mate there.

They are hoping his housemate Tony
will shed some light on the matter.

He come off on an electric scooter
on Wednesday.

He was alright. He had no problems
with his head or nothing.

He was alright.
He just had a bit of skin...

He went to bed at 8:00 last night

and this morning he was
a bit unresponsive.

I moved the blankets
and everything off

and I seen, like, his thumb missin'.

I freaked out when I moved
the blanket and it was gone.

I thought it was just all blood
until I had a good look

and it nearly made me sick, yeah.

So I think the dog might've done it,
you know, like...

PARAMEDIC: Can I have that in there?

Does he have a cardiac history?

MAN: We don't know where he's been,
what he's done.

All we know, he's come off his bike
two days ago.

He was fine. He came home.

The guy said he didn't see
any head injuries.

He was fine. He just had some
abrasions on his right hand.

I'm not sure if the dog was chewing
on his hand or not.

OK.

Let's get the cardiac monitor on,
see what's going on with that.

He's got a low blood pressure. Let's
give him some ketamine as well.

So we're just drawing up some drugs.

We're gonna do an intubation,
just to get his airway under control

and then we'll have to
transport him to hospital.

This guy's pretty high-risk.

He's probably gonna de-sat
pretty quickly, hey?

We're gonna get his sats up to 85.

By inserting a breathing tube,
paramedics can take over his airways

and increase his chances of survival.

Yeah, you got the bougie.

Excellent.

See the cords?

MAN: See the cords.

OK. You got bougie?
Yep.

OK. Mindful... just going through
to the...

That's it. OK.
Just going through.

Take my syringe.

I'm happy. OK, can we tie
the tube off? Can you...

We're gonna... Plan is,
open that fluid up

and then off to hospital
and I'll do a scan on the way.

♪ Na-na-na-na-na
Na-na, na-na-na-na

♪ Na-na-na-na-na
Na-na, na-na-na-na-na

♪ Na-na-na-na-na... ♪

Neuro-interventional radiologists
Hal and Laetitia

have just started one of the most
difficult and dangerous

brain procedures they ever faced.

The risk of treatment is much less
than the risk of doing nothing

and that's what keeps us going.

32-year-old Julian has a fistula
deep in his head.

It's a leaking artery
that could be fatal.

DR DE VILLIERS:
It's a nasty fistula.

I know.
It's really bad, actually.

It's coming from everywhere.

There are multiple little abnormal
connections

from lots of small little arteries

that grow onto the side of the vein

and it can be very difficult
to treat.

But left untreated,
the vein bundle could burst,

leaving Julian with
permanent brain damage.

You can actually get access to
the arteries in the brain

from the main artery in your groin,
which is the femoral artery,

and using X-ray guidance,

you can actually navigate
along the inside of these arteries.

At the moment, we're at the level
of his chin

and we've got to navigate through
one of the big veins in his face

and then through the back
of his orbit.

Hal and Laetitia are attempting to
fill the bulging vein

with coils of very thin platinum wire

which must be twisted, turned
and pushed along their journey

into the centre of Julian's head.

Oooh, no.

But isn't that where you want to be?

Uh-huh. I think it is, but I don't
want to lose the position.

I think it's where
I want to move this. I hope...

Yeah, that's...
No, it's not in that chamber.

It's a painstaking process.

Long way there.
Crazy.

There is a risk that the wire could
puncture the wall of a vein.

If that happens
or the team can't reach the fistula,

then open-skull surgery
is Julian's only option.

What we're gonna do now is navigate
through one of the veins,

into the back of his eye.

I don't know about that.

Easier said than done, huh?
Yeah.

Doctors Hal and Laetitia are trying
to reach a leaking artery

in a young man's head

using a fine wire
pushed in from his groin.

DR RICE: What we need to do is
disconnect this high-pressure artery

from the high-pressure vein

so that then the vein can return to
low pressure.

It's taken nearly an hour of twisting
to guide the wire into position.

It's in. There we go. You're in.

Fantastic.

That's great. That's a big relief.

So you can see how tortuous
and twisty those veins are

but we're right where we need to be.

Thank you.

Now the doctors feed length after
length of the platinum wire

to fill the bulging vein
and block it off from blood flow.

Yes. Thank you.
That's where we want it to go.

Perfect.

The blood leak, known as a fistula,

was placing 32-year-old Julian
in serious danger

of a deadly brain haemorrhage.

See you later, fistula.

Each length of platinum wire
is about 50cm long

and needs detaching
once it's in place,

where it will stay forever.

Just detaching the coil.
It uses an electric current.

(MACHINE RINGS)

Says it's detached.

Next coil.

It's another one of those, please.

It's a very large fistula to block

but the good news for Julian
is that it's working well.

Really densely packed
tip bone there.

Yeah. It's looking good.
Mmm.

He's got a few metres of platinum
in his brain, then.

Maybe five or six metres.

Six metres of platinum,
so he's quite a valuable man now

with all that platinum
inside his head.

So you can see that large coil mass.

It's completely blocking off
the abnormal vein.

So it's looking like the flow's
completely stopped

and we've disconnected it
successfully.

A final set of X-rays confirm

that the vein filling
has worked perfectly.

That's good, yeah.

Look at that. It's no more...
It's closed down.

Yeah.
There's no venous filling.

No. Veins are all normal phase.
Mmm.

We can see the veins at the back of
his eyes returning to a normal size.

OK. That's a wrap.

I think when you can come to the end
of the day

and you know that you've
successfully really helped somebody

with something that's
life-threatening,

that's probably
the best part of the day.

The morning after the procedure,

the danger of a brain haemorrhage
has passed

and Julian's eye has gone from
bulging back to normal - almost.

Hey, you're looking great.
You feeling alright?

Yeah, yeah.
Good to see ya.

Your eye's looking incredible.

Yeah, I feel the noticeable
pressure's come off it.

But I haven't actually seen it
myself.

Oh, haven't they shown it?
No.

Do you want me to take a photo?
Yeah, yeah.

Let's take a little photo for you,
hey?

That's the way.
Look straight ahead there.

There you go.

Oh, yeah.
You're looking fantastic.

And it's really promising.
Alright. Wonderful.

OK? Have a good day and we'll catch
up with you a little bit later.

Six metres worth of coil,
which is hard to believe,

just in a tiny brain here

but, yeah, it's just amazing

and obviously it makes
the world of difference.

I can definitely see the
improvement, which is fantastic.

And that's all within,
you know, under 24 hours.

Long before she was a nurse in
the Minor Injuries department,

Katie was a chef

and she still uses her skills
to cook up paleo food.

KATIE: Paleo is basically what I was
brought up on - meat and three veg.

I like to call it meat and 25 veg,
though,

and bring a bit of variety into it.

It's really important to live
a healthy life.

However, if you don't,
it does keep me in a job.

(LAUGHS)

Hello!

Today, Katie and her friend Amanda

are playing host to Katie's parents,
who are visiting from Melbourne.

Paleo chicken skewers. I've even
hunted the chicken myself.

(LAUGHS)
Come on. Let's rock and roll.

I never thought we'd have
another nurse in the family.

No.
No.

No. I tried to not do it
for a long time.

My mum was a nurse for 36 years

and she used to come home
and tell me pretty awesome stories.

I did ask her a few times
about doing nursing.

I thought it was
a good career path

but she said she didn't want to come
home from work

looking like me after work, so I
didn't think that was gonna happen.

I think I tried to deny the fact
that nursing was for me

for a long time

'cause I didn't want to follow in
the footsteps of my mum.

I wanted to be my own person.

Alright, I know you're hungry.

We're not hungry, we're starving.

Is there kale in there?
No. Shut up, Mum.

When I went out on
my first placement as a student,

I just went, "Oh.
Yeah, this'll work. I like this."

You never know what's gonna walk
through the door.

This dude seriously got attacked
by a buffalo?

MAN: The bone's separated
from my shoulder,

so I have to get an operation
to put it all back in again.

"I was attacked by a buffalo."
(LAUGHS)

That's interesting.

So he fractured his left scapula
while he was overseas

and they didn't really do anything
about it 'cause it was so swollen

and then he was unable to get back
to Australia straight away,

so it's a bit of a delayed
presentation for an injury.

So... (LAUGHS)
So you got attacked by...

I'm really sorry to laugh.

So you got attacked by a buffalo?
Right.

I am one of those awkward people
that laughs when they're nervous,

which has not always turned out
very well for me.

So that was five weeks ago?

Katie keeps a straight face
long enough

to hear how Gold Coast local bloke
Peter got tossed by a buffalo.

I was in America about five weeks
ago in Yellowstone National Park

and I was taking a film
of a buffalo eating grass

and it suddenly attacked me.

(PEOPLE EXCLAIM AND SCREAM)

There was all little kids there.
Luckily it didn't attack them.

I was glad it sort of attacked me
and not them

'cause it would've killed them.

It was a full-grown male buffalo,
1.5 tonne.

MAN: Oh, my goodness!

Did it get that guy?

So no-one else got attacked?
It was just you?

No, just me, yeah.
Random!

Yeah.
Did you buy a Lotto ticket?

No, but I played the poker machines
in Las Vegas.

Yeah, I can imagine. (LAUGHS)

There was a buffalo poker machine.

There was a buffalo... (LAUGHS)

I won $400.
Really?

Yeah.
(LAUGHS)

What are the odds?

So what they're gonna do is see you
in Fracture Clinic.

So you get to go home today

with a proper sling on you
that's gonna be for comfort.

And yeah, good luck
with the follow-up

and stay away from buffaloes,
brother.

(LAUGHS)

With 'Buffalo Pete'
all set for surgery,

Katie can turn her attention
to the next nasty break.

He's a 57-year-old that's presented
with a painful leg

following a mechanical fall.

On a background,
he is a walking paraplegic.

Mmm. Yeah, see, I told you
it was interesting.

Trauma paramedic Michael Kerr is in
the middle of a very unusual case.

Found collapsed in bed

on a background, two days ago,
having a fall of a scooter.

Went to bed well last night.

A man is unconscious
and is missing his right thumb.

For everyone involved, exactly what
happened to this man

remains a mystery.

Ah, he's critically unwell.

As you can see, he's intubated
for airway control.

He's got low blood pressure.
He's cold.

I'm most concerned about
his low blood pressure.

He's got a blood pressure
which is 80, which is low,

so we need to correct that.

We're giving him fluids
at this stage,

we're warming him up and we're
controlling his ventilation.

So what's the cause of
the blood pressure,

whether it's a sepsis or he's got
a bleed in his stomach

or he's got a head injury
from a past fall, I'm not sure.

It's now more critical than ever
he gets seen at the hospital.

OK, nice and steady as we go.

And just watch his arms there.

OK. Here's his details...

Consultant Nathan Watkins
takes the case.

He was found 9:30 this morning
in his bed with blankets on.

Totally unstable the whole time.

He's always had a blood pressure
less than 80.

And he's also cold,
with a temperature of 32.

Let's go a fast scan. Is X-ray here?

Yeah, liver, pelvis
and a chest X-ray, thanks.

First they look for any internal
bleeding on an ultrasound.

What I'd like to do now is I want to
get his adrenaline up,

get his blood pressure up,
get that infusion of adrenaline,

then I want to package him with
a warmer, getting him into CT

so we can get some decision-making.

MAN: Yep.
OK.

Yeah, he's very unwell at
the moment, a very sick patient.

The fact that he's completely
unconscious, he's cold

and he's got a low blood pressure

means that it's a life-threatening
condition at this stage, yeah.

CT scans of his head
will be the only way to know

if there is any potentially fatal
bleeding on his brain.

(PHONE RINGS)

B6. Allison.

Senior nurse Allison Homer

has had a life-ling passion
for riding motorbikes.

Bye.

ALLISON: I've had a bike
since I was 19.

Bike-riding for me has always been
a social weekend event.

I don't tend to ride to and from
work in busy hours of traffic.

Managing the Orthopaedics ward
has made Allison all too aware

of the risks involved with her hobby.

Generally, we'd see
a motorbike injury

at least possibly once every
second day, a minimum of weekly.

Morning, Shannon.
Morning.

We've got some medication here
for your nausea.

This week's resident rider
is 26-year-old Shannon.

I came off my bike, hit a pole,
of all things,

and I managed to break both lower
tib and fib bones in my leg

just below the knee

and as well as rotate and dislocate
my knee itself.

All the rods just sort of hold
everything in place,

as the leg's still broken -
it hasn't been fixed yet.

Shannon is waiting
for orthopaedic surgery

that will hold his
leg bones together,

with metal plates, screws and rods.

So how did they put the rod
in the bone?

Just like carpentry.
The rod and a hammer and smash it...

Yeah.
..up your thigh.

And then they put a locking screw
in here

to stop it from twisting
and rotating in the bone.

Maybe I shouldn't have asked.

It's a week since Shannon's accident

and the surgery
can't come soon enough for Courtney,

at home with their two toddlers.

The kids know that something's
going on

so they're totally out of routine,
they're not settled at all.

Hey, bud, where's Dad?

In the doctor.

Were you good last night for Mum?

COURTNEY: No.
Nuh?

Shannon wasn't allowed
to get a bike.

For three years, he wanted one

and I said, "No, I don't like
road bikes. Not gonna happen."

I finally let him get one
and that lasted about eight weeks.

His mate rang me

and he said, "Oh, Shannon's been
in an accident."

And I said, "Youse are joking."

It's been a week. (LAUGHS)

Almost the longest time I've been
away from my family, so...

Yeah, it's...

hard.

As the only breadwinner
in the family,

Shannon is hoping to get back
to his job as a motor mechanic

as soon as possible.

As soon as I got to Emergency
and he was there,

he was worried about money.

As soon as... He said, "How are we
gonna work? How are we gonna live?"

It's a predicament Nurse Allison
understands very well.

ALISON: For Shannon, there's a loss
of income, a loss of wage,

a loss of confidence in the ability
to provide for his family.

Getting back to work,
having that self-esteem

has its impact on Shannon

and that can impact
on the way that he heals.

COURTNEY: (ON PHONE) When will you
hear about your surgery?

She's gonna find out about it.

She's just gonna keep asking them
how they're travelling

and let me know.

Well, hopefully it's today
or tomorrow.

I know. Today would be ideal.

Yeah, I know, but I don't wanna get
heartbroken.

Yeah.

I can't wait to get home.

I just hope the surgery's today.

So... It's been a long week.

Alright. I'm gonna try not to cut
the tackle, alright?

PETE: Oh!
(BOTH LAUGH)

In Minor Injuries,
Nurse Katie is busy

dealing with another unusual patient.

He's a 57-year-old that's presented
with a painful leg

following a mechanical fall.

On a background,
he is a walking paraplegic.

Originally from Finland, Haykey was
left a paraplegic 18 years ago

in a gliding accident.

I was told a month after my accident
I'm never gonna walk again.

And one morning I woke up in the
hospital and I could move my leg.

And that was a good day.

A very determined Haykey slowly
taught himself to stagger around

on crutches.

Can you feel me touching at all?

Three years after my accident,
I got rid of the wheelchair.

"Never again," I said.

But after losing his crutches
from under him this morning,

Haykey is in danger
of losing his mobility.

Look at the X-ray.
It's pretty impressive.

KATIE: Oh, that makes me sick.

I kind of fell down
and fell on my bum.

You have got a fracture
of that femur.

I know.
Yeah.

Not only is Haykey
a walking paraplegic,

he's also just returned to Australia
from years of overseas travel.

Living the life.
I'm living in a van, so...

Oh, are you?
..it's cheaper than I'm living now.

It is.
Much more fun.

I have a van too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't live in it, though.

How long are you meant to be staying
in Australia for?

I bought a one-way ticket.

You did? So this was the big move?

This was probably a big move...

Welcome home, son.
(BOTH LAUGH)

I immigrated to Australia first
in 1990, I immigrated to Australia.

Yeah, right.
And then went to New Zealand.

Yeah. At the time,
I had a New Zealand girlfriend...

Yep.
..sort of thing.

But there was a bit of complications
there I don't want to get into.

Right.
Yeah.

Then I thought...

There always is when
there's women involved.

Yeah, I need to find another one

but I haven't been lucky
in New Zealand,

so I'm probably coming back.

Come back to Australia
and see how you go.

Yeah.
(LAUGHS)

He had a fractured femur and he was
cracking jokes about meeting ladies.

Like... resilient man,
without a doubt.

That would've hurt.

Some Aussie sheilas.
Yeah. Aussie sheilas. That's it.

Yeah, yeah.
(BOTH LAUGH)

Haykey is staying positive

but because his crippled legs
have not been load-bearing

for so many years,

his femur may be too brittle
for plates and screws.

He's one of those lucky paraplegics

that's still able to mobilise
quite well,

so I would hate for him to be in a
wheelchair for the rest of his life.

(SIREN WAILS, EQUIPMENT BEEPS)

Gary, a 64-year-old man
found by paramedics unconscious,

with a bloodied hand
and a missing thumb,

is in a critical condition.

Dr Nathan Watkins is worried he may
have life-threatening bleeding

on his brain.

The results of his scans
are instantaneous.

That seems alright.
Nothing there.

MAN: There's no
intracranial haemorrhage.

Cool.

And thankfully the news is good.

They've imaged his head,
CT'd his head.

There was no acute changes.

There were signs of old changes
but nothing acute,

so he's not
having an intracranial bleed,

so at this stage, the thinking is
more probably a respiratory arrest.

He's got a past history of smoking,

so he's smoking,
he gets an airway disease,

he gets restriction in his lungs,
makes it hard to breathe

and it may have caused him
to collapse.

That's the way they're heading
at the moment.

Alright. Leave it with ya.

Thanks, mate.
Thanks for your time.

See you at the next one, eh?
Thanks, Doc.

It's great to know.
Normally you're very busy.

You're normally not afforded
these opportunities,

so it's nice to actually be part of
the team and follow it through

and then pass that information back
to the other ambulance officers

and paramedics on the road

and, yeah, it's good to know what's
actually wrong with your patient.

You treat them
and it's good to know.

Gary will spend the next few days
in intensive care

but until he wakes up, no-one will
know what happened to his thumb.

(BARKS)

Sergeant, what's up?
Right, come over here, guys.

Come here.

And a week later, turns out
Gary's housemate Tony was right.

TONY: I think Sergeant
might have eaten it, yeah,

'cause it was never found.

And there wasn't much blood
on the bed.

There was only a couple of drops on
the bed.

Like, it was pretty well cleaned up
and just as it happened, yeah.

Gary's beloved Staffie he's had for
15 years

was trying to wake him
and bit off his thumb.

Usually, when he wakes me up,

he licks me on the hand
or something like that

and I didn't respond.

He just kept licking and licking
and then he started pulling my hand,

I guess.

And then he chomped me.

That was it.

And life goes on without a thumb.

Starting to feel better now.
Starting to come good now.

It's been... oh, it's been a while

but it's starting to come good.

You don't know what you're missing
till it's gone, you know.

But Gazza doesn't hold any grudges.

You're famous in here,
white sock and all.

26-year-old Shannon
has had some good news.

Shannon? Yep, we'll get him ready
for theatre now.

He's been on a wait list for surgery
on his smashed-up leg

and today is the day.

SHANNON: Yeah, I feel good. I feel
good that it's getting done today.

Get home to the kids and the wife.

The dislocation and break happened

when Shannon came off
his brand-new motorbike.

It was just unlucky and the bike's
living proof -

the bike after the accident was
ridden home with a broken indicator

and three or four little scratches
on the muffler.

Once Shannon is asleep,

orthopaedic surgeon Dr Lochlin Brown
gets to work,

removing the temporary frame.

DR BROWN: We're just taking off
the frame now

that was placed on Shannon
a few days ago

when he came in with
a dislocated knee.

Cutting through the skin now.

OK, so we're down through the fat.

Now we're onto the muscles through
here and the bone's just under it.

The novice rider was only doing
30 k's

when he hit a patch of oil
on the road,

lost the bike from under him
and slid knee-first into a pole.

OK, just show me that
with the X-ray, thanks.

But Shannon's luck is changing.

Oh, I mean, that looks alright,
doesn't it, hey?

So, unfortunately for Shannon,
his injury was quite bad.

He's dislocated his knee there.

But the registrar's put an X-fix
on him initially and reduced it all.

An uncomfortable week
in an X-fix frame

has saved Shannon from
knee joint surgery.

Just gonna bloody fix it.

Hey? How does that sound?

All his leg needs is a large plate
on his tibia

and eight big screws
holding it in place.

Just like you're down at Bunnings
and working in the tool shed.

Shannon was quite lucky.

He had a pretty nasty fracture
when he came in

and we got it back into place
initially with the external fixation

and the fracture sat really nicely,

so the plate's gone on.

We haven't had to reduce
too much of the fracture

and he should do quite well.

It's a lucky break for Shannon,

who isn't bringing home a wage
while he's laid up.

We did think Shannon
had income insurance

on his super

but it turns out he doesn't.

We are unable to get super out
because we can't prove hardship,

so we're just hoping that Shannon
can get back to work

as soon as he can.

Shannon could be back at work
in six weeks

but won't know till tomorrow
if his luck continues

and he'll get to go home.

♪ Yeah, I've had enough
I just can't take anymore

♪ Everything that I believed in... ♪

A week ago, Shannon came off
his motorbike

and crashed knee-first into a pole.

♪ Life's so unpredictable... ♪

It's the morning after surgery

and Shannon's shattered leg
is on the mend.

SHANNON: First bone
I've ever broken.

I did a great job, apparently.

It's just a restricted
mobility brace.

Just stops me from moving more than
90 degrees for the first six weeks.

And... that's home.

Eight days after crashing
his motorbike at just 30km/h,

he's ready to leave hospital.

I cannot wait to be home.
It's just gonna be great.

Courtney is here to collect
her hubby.

But there's something she needs to
learn first.

This is what the needle looks like.

Shannon needs daily injections

to prevent blood clots from forming
in his leg as it's healing.

Do you want to have a dry run
onto a...

Yeah. I just want to know, like,
the pressure I have to do it.

Like, how hard.

Pretend it's kind of like a dart
and you're following through.

So, pinch the skin...

Courtney happens to be
a trainee nurse.

And a good dart motion.

She just hasn't got to the bit
where they learn injections yet.

Push down. Lovely.

But now she has.

Straight into the sharps bin.

The leg should heal up nicely

but the next six weeks of recovery
will be tough for this young family.

CHILD: Huh?
Where's that one gonna go?

Look. In the water.

The waterfall.

It's been emotionally hard
seeing Shannon in so much pain.

It's hard that he, you know,
can't do anything.

It's been really hard.

With bills to pay
and no money coming in,

one slightly damaged motorbike
and safety gear hits the market.

Shannon will not be riding again.

My theory is, if that can happen
at 30 k's, what can happen at 100?

So we're not going
down that road again.

Not that I'm afraid of the bike.

It was... just unlucky, I guess.

Haykey, the walking paraplegic,

broke his femur
while visiting the Gold Coast

looking for a girlfriend...

Yeah, I need to find another one

but I haven't been lucky
in New Zealand,

so I'm probably coming back.

Come back to Australia
and see how you go.

..and the lonely heart adventurer
is taking every opportunity

to find love with whoever comes by.

I've been living in my van
for ten years now.

In the process,
I wrote a guide book.

Oh.
'New Zealand Van Camping Guide'.

Well, I'll have to keep an eye out
for it.

To make sure paraplegic Haykey can
continue to live an independent life,

Nurse Katie has arranged to have
his leg surgically straightened

first thing in the morning.

Alright. I'll head up with him
very soon.

So, hopefully a comfortable
night's sleep.

Yeah. I should be right.

You should be right.
Yeah.

We'll try and get you
some hot nurses.

Oh...
(LAUGHS)

(BOTH LAUGH)

So, another satisfied customer
for Katie.

So inappropriate. (LAUGHS)