Original subtitles

WOMAN: Ambulance. What's the emergency?

WOMAN: Quickly. We're at Southport. 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.

WOMAN: He was surfing, when he got bitten on both legs by a shark.

I don't think I'm going in the sea again.

But the good times can often turn ugly...

MAN: I want the pelvic binder on him, OK?

..and when they do... She's not breathing.

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

Nothing that we can't fix, sweetheart, alright?

MAN: I know. (BABY CRIES)

I'm still very concerned about this man.

There's nothing like Ebola.

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

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

They don't want to see me die.

She can't be replaced.

..these are the real stories...

Hey, I love you too, buddy.

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

WOMAN: Do not move your head.

We need to go in and get that clot out straight away.

Good work, guys.

..who pick you up...

MAN: OK, let's get moving.

Best job I've done anyway nailing things.

..patch you up... Superpower.

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

..and put you back in paradise.

Tonight on Gold Coast Medical, a deadly one-punch attack.

WOMAN: If this guy doesn't die,

there's a good chance he's gonna end up with a horrible brain injury.

The wake-up call which changes lives.

MAN: Now, to cut a long story short,

it may be that you've had a heart attack.

The race to save Darryl's dying heart with a balloon.

When it comes to a heart attack, time, time, time.

You may get some chest pain. We're inflating the balloon now.

And a very special sperm donor...

She's biting me. ..delivers a miracle.

(WOMAN YELPS)

♪ We are always running for the thrill of it, thrill of it

♪ Always pushing up the hill Searching for the thrill of it

♪ On and on and on... ♪

I've got one intubated patient coming in.

The emergency department can be frenetic

at any time of the day or night.

Have you guys been sorted?

Just find out the patient's name

and we can find out what ward they're on.

Keeping it running smoothly is the job of nurse team leader

Simone Stephens.

This is pretty nice for me.

Hectic is when the phone doesn't stop ringing

and I haven't weed and it's just chaos.

I've always been very loud... (LAUGHS) and I laugh a lot.

Mr Young. Mr Young. How are you, darling?

If you can be the happy leader that people feel comfortable to come to,

then you are gonna have happy, productive staff.

You know, it doesn't matter who you are, you know,

I've got a couple of minutes for you to say, "Hey, how are you?"

and a smile and a hug and I think that's what makes my shifts,

I don't know, probably hopefully more enjoyable for staff.

I like anything from the Big Banana.

(BOTH LAUGH)

I was voted the most promising to go to NIDA and be an actress

when I was in high school.

I don't know how I became a nurse. (LAUGHS)

My nickname is 'The Shit Magnet'.

I've had that for quite a few years now.

Let me just see if I can...

People joke about it all the time,

including the ambulance, the police, the staff, everyone.

They will walk in and go, "Oh, my god."

(HELICOPTER WHIRRS)

And true to form, Simone's day just got a whole lot busier.

Emergency. Simone speaking.

A rescue chopper is inbound, carrying a critically ill patient.

There's a chopper about to land with an intubated patient.

The chopper that's coming in is a 41-year-old male

who was cowardly punched last night,

went back, whacked the back of his head.

We see this all the time. Usually there's a bleed.

The one-punch attack happened in a Northern New South Wales town,

where the man has spent the night in the local hospital.

He's been stable overnight.

This morning, he's started having seizures

and he is not talking - he's confused,

he has obviously got some kind of head injury.

They have put him on life support to get him up here safely.

The man's seizure could have been caused by a bleed in his brain.

The resulting build-up of pressure inside his skull

may be restricting blood flow to vital brain tissue.

I'm Rahul. Hi.

MAN: G'day. How you going? Quiet, please.

He'd been drinking heavily, was hit in the back of the head.

He had a seizure this morning around 8:00,

was given about a total of 15mg Midazolam

with no termination of the seizure.

We've put a collar on after he's become unconscious.

So we're thinking head injury. Thank you.

No worries.

The emergency team, led by Dr Rahul Deshpande,

start from scratch to make sure they know everything there is to know

about this bloke's injuries.

What other injuries has he got, you know.

Has he, you know, got a fracture in his spine? Is there anything else?

MAN: Got two scratch marks to his upper left back.

It's like a detective game.

The only thing that's in his pockets - $1.10.

So let's get a chest X-ray.

There are no injuries on the man's body.

That looks OK. Thanks, guys.

But with one-punch attacks,

often the only trauma is a haemorrhage at the back of the brain.

Alright.

We keep telling people, "One punch can kill"

and it's not the punch that kills you, it's the fall

and usually you end up with a bleed.

If this guy doesn't die,

there's a good chance he's gonna end up

with a horrible brain injury.

And that's it. That's... You know, he's 41.

That's not old.

Friday afternoon on the Gold Coast.

Sun-lovers everywhere are getting ready to kick their heels up

for another awesome weekend.

(PEOPLE EXCLAIM)

♪ I've been needing somebody to lean on... ♪

But on the other side of town,

critical care paramedics have just received an urgent call.

MAN: Ambulance. Tell me what's happened.

MAN: There's one driver trapped, conscious and breathing.

The other driver is out.

There's been a major head-on collision between two cars

travelling at high speed.

A driver has fallen asleep at the wheel

and ploughed directly into oncoming traffic.

Joining the chaotic scene

is Gold Coast born and bred critical care paramedic Jay Newton.

We've got three patients -

one elderly lady who's still in the car at the moment.

She's got multiple injuries.

So we're just working on stabilising her

and getting her ready to be extricated.

We've got two other patients, one with some minor injuries

and the other one, who we'll just take up

to the hospital for assessment.

The lady trapped inside is 57-year-old Elaine.

The other driver and his passenger have minor injuries

but can see Elaine is not in a good way.

Yeah, she's in really good hands, OK? Alright?

Hey, mate. Jay, from the Trauma Response team.

Yes, mate. We want to get her out this side.

She's got multiple injuries.

She's got a chest injury,

can't feel her foot, so that's our main concern,

that she's possibly done quite a significant injury there.

We'll just get some access and some pain management.

We'll probably sedate her and pull her out.

Elaine has no feeling in her foot. Time is more critical than ever.

We're ready.

Firefighters use the jaws-of-life to tear through the car doors.

(METAL CREAKS)

Considering the carnage,

the fact that Elaine is conscious and talking is astonishing.

Hello. How are you feeling at the moment? How's your pain?

How bad is it out of ten?

And where does it hurt the most?

From what Jay can see,

she has severe lower-limb and possible abdominal injuries.

We're gonna give you some really strong painkillers now, OK?

To help Elaine deal with the pain, they are giving her

the disassociative pain relief drug ketamine.

It will give her an out-of-body-like experience

to help her forget the trauma.

We're just gonna knock her out.

Elaine? Elaine?

As the rescue team pull her out of the car,

the severity of her leg injuries becomes apparent.

It doesn't look good.

And then her husband arrives on the scene.

Come on, Gino.

Becoming a mum has been a big dream for 29-year-old Carly

ever since she was a little girl.

But her journey, she knew, would always be a difficult one.

CARLY: I found out when I was in my early 20s that I was infertile,

so I knew that if I was ever gonna have a child,

it was gonna be a long process and I'd have to do IVF.

But that wasn't the only problem.

I've got endometriosis

and I've also got a couple of other fertility issues as well.

♪ Come back to bed Singing 'Georgia On My Mind'

♪ And I... ♪

Heartbreakingly, the odds seemed stacked against her.

So they did a test called an AMH test,

which basically looks at your egg reserve

and mine came back and it was very, very low.

Well, he said at the time I had about 12 months left of eggs.

Being told that I only had 12 months

and then being told I'm gonna need minimum $10,000

was obviously a bit of a shock.

It was an especially tough time

and a lot of pressure on a brand-new relationship.

We'd been together officially for about two months

and I said, "Well, I'm gonna be doing this.

"If you wanna stay with me, that's OK.

"If you don't wanna be around, I completely understand.

"We've only been together a couple of months."

And it's lucky, 'cause it took us a couple of years

to get where we are.

Where they are is happily 36 weeks' pregnant,

expecting an ever-so-precious baby boy.

I'm Alee Jane. I tattoo.

I'm lucky enough to date Carly.

♪ Hey, ho, let's go Hey, ho, let's go... ♪

People look at us differently.

People say things, whether it's to us or to each other -

but you can hear them.

The best part is getting ultrasounds and they assume I'm...

They're, like, "Are you the sister or the friend?"

But when they ask, they're, like, "Are you l..."

Lesbians. Yes, they are.

♪ Hey, ho, let's go... ♪

Blissfully in love, after a whirlwind romance,

done the modern way.

Alee actually tattooed one of my friends

and I really admired her work.

And she said, "Oh, add her on Facebook"

and the rest is history, really.

She ignored me for ages, actually.

I messaged her a lot and commented on a whole lot of posts

and she just ignored me but eventually she realised I was there.

♪ Hey, ho, let's go. ♪

For Alee Jane, it's been an equally tumultuous few years.

Telling my family was hard.

That takes too long.

They didn't understand why I wanted a kid so quick

and it was so hard to explain that it's a ticking time bomb.

Emotionally, that really hit a 27-year-old really hard,

knowing you only have 12 months left,

and the funds you need for IVF, the emotional support...

And I think it did us really well, though,

because we've had those, I think...

How many times did we do it? Four?

All up? Yeah.

..and each time I think we just got closer.

The mums-to-be have had to go through four rounds of IVF

at a private clinic,

each time experiencing greater disappointment and sadness.

They found that I had what's called a lupus anticoagulant antigen,

so that can cause miscarriages.

Your body doesn't recognise...

It sort of thinks of the baby as, I guess, like a foreign body.

In essence, Carly own body was fighting and ultimately killing off

her fertilised eggs.

The last minute, we said, "No, let's give it one more go."

It was the day of the scan and we were just not excited at all.

I couldn't even look at the screen.

I was just looking at Alee and I just said to her,

"Tell me when you see a heartbeat."

And I saw her face and it was happy, so I knew something was good.

And here we are.

Do you like it? Distinctly...

Carly, act happier.

Strong, healthy, really good heartbeat. We're very lucky.

I think it's cute. It is cute. It's very cute.

I'm in a low-risk, normal, boring pregnancy, which is what we want.

One thing this couple doesn't do is boring...

♪ Uh-huh, all the girls that be feeling like this... ♪

..so when it came to choosing the sperm donor, they didn't disappoint.

(LAUGHS)

In Seven News

SIMONE: We keep telling people, "One punch can kill."

It's not the punch that kills you, it's the fall

and usually you end up with a bleed way too often.

Yeah. (PHONE RINGS)

Excuse me.

Emergency. Simone speaking.

It's a busy morning in the emergency department,

where the team is dealing with the victim of a one-punch drunken attack.

The man's head hit the pavement

and hours later he suffered a seizure.

Glucose is 7.3.

Bicarb is 20 points, so that's acceptable.

When he was first admitted to hospital,

doctors had to sedate the man

because he was drunk and aggressive with staff.

His pulse is negative.

Unfortunately, patients that have been cowardly punched

are often really intoxicated,

so we need to scan their head to see, are they just intoxicated

and acting like idiots

or are they actually agitated because of a bleed in their head?

Are you guys using contrast as well?

MAN: No. No.

So, obviously we're worried about a head injury,

maybe a fractured skull or bleeding inside the brain

which may need urgent surgery.

So we don't know, actually, what the cause is

but given the fact that he's fallen onto concrete,

we're worried about these couple of things.

Everyone happy? Yep? Alright.

It could potentially be damage for life from this one injury.

So let's see the head and then go.

(MACHINE TRILLS)

OK. Cool.

Cleared of a brain injury,

the team suspect the seizure may have been caused by excessive alcohol.

That's probably good news for him.

Right.

So we'll just take him back to Emergency.

I'd say he'll probably stay intubated at least most of today

and then they'll just assess him a little bit later

and see what he's like.

(PHONE RINGS) Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Emergency. Simone speaking.

He made a lucky escape from a serious head injury

and 48 hours later, miraculously, he walked out of the hospital

and back into his life.

Must be you. Those are not my lips.

First-time mums Carly and Alee

have been looking forward to having a baby together for a long time.

We've had different donors for each cycle.

Most Australians actually stipulate

that they don't want their sperm going to same-sex couples,

so that ruled most of them out anyway.

Looks like he's yelling. He's got the pout on.

I don't reckon you can tell what they look like.

All we know, he's got big lips and fat cheeks.

We knew what we wanted straight away.

We wanted African-American,

so obviously that wasn't going to be an Australian anyway.

So they especially ordered an African-American sperm donor in

for us.

Do you want to see your brother?

You won't be the favourite anymore.

Doesn't care.

Working in foster care, I've seen a lot of mixed-race babies

and they're just beautiful.

It's been a tough journey

after four devastating, failed IVF attempts.

We were really scared because every time we got to the 6-8 week mark,

a miscarriage happened,

so we were like, "OK, we'll just make it to 12 weeks."

And every week, we were like, "We'll just make it to the next one.

"We'll just make it to the next one."

And we were so scared of losing him that we couldn't get happy.

Like, you just can't. Mmm.

And... Oh, it was really hard.

But in the early hours of this morning, things finally got real.

Their African-American baby boy is on his way -

a few weeks early, just to keep them on their toes.

She woke up with pains and then 3:30 she woke me up

and she was 5cm dilated, like, pretty quick, like, within an hour.

The tattoos were a build-up to this baby.

(LAUGHS)

I'm not sure that will do it justice, hey?

No. No.

I think she's realising that.

Yeah, this is different altogether. Mmm.

As well as Alee Jane,

Carly has called in her mum to be by her side.

WOMAN: At, like, 3:00, she rung me up.

But I lay back in bed for half an hour

and then, within half an hour, I got another phone call

to say, "I think it's gonna be quick.

"You better get to the hospital."

So, yeah, grabbed the Macca's coffee on the way

and... (LAUGHS)

and here I am.

This moment has been a long time in the making,

so Carly has already got a clear vision of the birth.

CARLY: I want it very calm in there, so I want dark lighting.

I'm hoping to be in the birth pool

and just be able to pretty much birth him myself

while the midwives stand by.

I don't want any yelling, which comes down to me, I suppose.

I would like a DJ...

(LAUGHS)

..playing my favourite hits.

Either way, they're in good hands, with midwife Ellen McLean.

To see a woman who is just working with her body

to get through all that

and to listen to it...

And sometimes women have that on their own

and sometimes I know they have it because I'm there with them.

(LOW-LEVEL CONVERSATION)

They're proud of themselves

and you do, you feel like a warrior queen.

(LOW-LEVEL CONVERSATION)

With every contraction that passes,

the mums-to-be get closer to meeting the baby of their dreams.

What's his name?

Oakland.

Oakland. Yeah.

That's different. Oaky-Oaky.

OK.

I like the name Oakland and I proposed it to Carly

and then she said, because I got the first name,

she has to choose the middle name, which is...

Vance. Why is it Vance?

Because I guess we have a song

which is by Vance Joy

and so we wanted Vance in his name because that's very special to us.

And corny. Very corny.

(BOTH LAUGH)

We're those mums. Yep.

♪ Lady, running down to the riptide... ♪

Certainly everything and everyone is ready for baby Oakland's arrival.

But it appears maybe he isn't just yet.

Next thing I'll have something in my vagina...

That's me. All I can think of is...

(LAUGHTER)

Not this time.

Critical care paramedics are rescuing Elaine

from her mangled car

moments after she collided head on with another driver.

MAN: She's got multiple lower-leg fractures.

You can see her bone sort of sticking out.

And just as they get Elaine safely onto the trolley,

her worried husband arrives to be by her side.

Elaine's legs are not in a good way.

See how she goes with that.

WOMAN: Oh...

OK. Hang on. It's not enough.

She has multiple open-wound fractures and severe pain in her chest

from the impact of the crash.

Critical care paramedics must get her to the hospital immediately,

where a major trauma call has gone out.

A team of specialist doctors is on standby for Elaine's arrival.

She's stable at this stage. We'll be there probably about ten minutes.

(SIREN WAILS)

Orthopaedics, intensive care and a surgical trauma team

will all work together on Elaine.

MAN: Any pain here at all?

ELAINE: No.

Do you have some pain in the knee?

Oh, yeah... Yes.

She has two injuries which are quite significant,

being that they're open injuries,

meaning that there's bone protruding from the skin, patella

and around the left ankle,

so it's something that we have to manage fairly quickly.

The fact that she has bones protruding through her skin...

Ow!

..means the risk of infection is high.

WOMAN: Is that a little bit better? Is your leg sore?

The antibiotics...

Elaine is pumped with antibiotics.

Two grams of penicillin.

This will buy them enough time to do CT scans

to determine what injuries she has.

♪ Darling, darling you know that we are sold out

♪ This is fading But the band plays on now

♪ We're crying, crying... ♪

57-year-old Elaine has been involved in a head-on car crash.

She has two injuries which are quite significant,

being that they're open injuries,

meaning that there's bone protruding from the skin.

X-rays reveal the extent of the fractures

in Elaine's middle and lower leg.

Elaine is raced to theatre for surgery.

What we need to do is put it into a good position

and then we can mainly deal with the soft tissue injuries as well.

So there's quite a big laceration over the front there.

Chris's quick thinking

already has saved Elaine from losing her leg entirely.

When she presented at ED, she had no pulse in the foot.

The foot was cold and deformed.

So what he did was to reposition the foot, realign it

and therefore restore profusion to the foot,

after which she has had a pulse,

so therefore she has a viable leg.

So that's the urgent intervention.

The surgical team has a big job on their hands

putting all the pieces of Elaine's bones together again,

so they will only concentrate on her most high-risk injuries tonight,

which are her knee and ankle.

So the wound at the shin level is through the fat

and he's just sewing to the layer of the deep tissue,

which Mike is doing now.

We're gonna get a good result there, hopefully, without infection.

The team will need to reconstruct her patella entirely,

salvaging what bone they can

and securing it with a combination of wires and screws.

At the top end, you can see the knee wound.

Now Chris has opened up the knee.

I think the fate was sealed at the time of injury.

I don't think she will have normal kneecap function

as she knew it prior to injury

but I think we will try to give her the best chance for it to heal up.

(SIREN WAILS)

In the hospital's coronary care unit,

miracles are a daily responsibility for Dr Atifur Rahman.

DR RAHMAN: When I was very young, I wanted to be a doctor

and when I became a doctor, I always wanted to be a cardiologist.

In the world, besides my family, there is two things -

cardiology and, spare time, cricket.

Nothing else.

Can I have a pair of gloves, please?

An interventional cardiologist,

he specialises in using catheter lines

inserted into patients' arteries to access their beating hearts.

That's the hot flush coming.

We are a very busy centre

but we are very fortunate in Gold Coast

we have such a wonderful facility

and we have such a wonderful service.

Up to ten times a day, Dr Rahman repairs damaged hearts

while his patients are wide awake.

So the tube is in.

You shouldn't get any more pain or discomfort from now.

We got quite a few more patients remaining.

It continues rest of the day probably until 5:00, 6:00, 7:00

and we'll try to do as many as we can.

Maria, we put the stent in. I'm very pleased with the result.

Thank you.

Most of the days, I am busy normally

but fortunately we haven't had a STEMI yet,

so if we get a STEMI, then it interrupts the days badly.

STEMI is medical speak for the most serious kind of heart attack.

This is the medical emergency when the artery is totally occluded

and we need to open those arteries very quickly.

If a STEMI comes, we just prioritise whoever needs to be done first.

Just as Dr Rahman knocks off for the day,

a call to 000 rearranges his plans for the evening.

WOMAN: (ON PHONE) Ambulance. What's the town or suburb of the emergency?

MAN: (ON PHONE) Sussex Inlet.

Can you tell me exactly what's happened?

I've got, like, chest pains

that feels like something's stabbing in my chest.

OK. I'm gonna get you some help there, OK?

Did you say that your wife's just there with you?

Yeah, my wife and son. Yes.

OK. Perfect. Now, we are coming to you at the moment.

A 57-year-old man is showing all the typical signs

of a STEMI heart attack.

This is Darryl.

He's experienced some retrosternal pain,

radiating down his left arm... since about 2:45 this afternoon.

Described as a heaviness, nine out of ten.

MAN: Darryl, to cut a long story short,

it may be that you've had a heart attack.

Any dizziness, sweating?

DARRYL: No dizziness, no nausea.

Any family history...

OK, guys, we're gonna go straight upstairs, OK, please?

Darryl's wife Jenny has travelled with him to the hospital.

There's a lot for her to take in and things are moving fast.

I'll explain this upstairs... Go. Go, guys.

This is a form of heart attack... we consider it a medical emergency.

Would you like to follow us up? Yeah.

Everything is time in cardiology.

When it comes to heart attack, time, time, time. Time is massive.

If you are late in opening the artery, the muscle could die

and they can have quite serious complication from that,

so then it becomes very, very important,

go, go, go, everyone on the run,

rush and quick when you open the artery.

With her husband's life hanging in the balance,

the ride up to the cardiology operating theatre

feels like an eternity for Jenny.

Is there anything else you wanted to ask at all?

Sorry?

Anything else you wanted to ask at all?

Look, he's in the right place, OK?

These sort of things do happen

and we're in the right place to get this sorted out for him, alright?

(LOW-LEVEL CONVERSATION)

It's very likely that the artery is totally blocked there

so we're quickly going to do an angiograph

to find out which artery is blocked.

And if there is a narrowing, we're going to try and put a stent there.

OK?

A stent is a permanent scaffold left inside the artery

to keep it open.

We're gonna go from the groin, so we'll try to hurry up

and speed up the process to open it up.

It's only ten minutes since Darryl was unloaded from the ambulance.

But after a kiss for luck from his wife,

the life-saving procedure must begin.

(BOTH SPEAK INDISTINCTLY)

Every moment lost, the more of Darryl's heart muscle dies.

Elaine was the innocent driver of a car involved in a head-on collision.

She's stable at this stage. We'll be there probably about ten minutes.

She suffered horrific injuries

that needed to be fixed in emergency surgery.

She has actually shattered her kneecap into many little pieces

and our job is to restore this best we can

to get things back together to where they should be.

ELAINE: I've broken my ribs, my sternum, my knee,

the ankle, the leg,

uh... and that's probably enough.

But it's not the physical pain she is necessarily wrestling with.

Despite being given heavy daily doses of morphine to combat her pain,

nothing has dulled her memory of the accident.

Every now and then, I wake up in the middle of the night

and when I can't move, I think, "I won't let them close my door."

When I was in there with so many people inside that car,

too many people in my space,

you know, I wanted to get everybody away from me

and just get up and walk away.

And I sent my sister a text

to say, "I am so happy today"

and then, within an hour, a lot of that went.

(SIREN WAILS)

Elaine has a long road to recovery in front of her.

(CRASH!)

Doctors expect it will be at least six weeks of rehab

before she will even be able to stand on her own.

But at least she'll have her sister,

who's flown in from New Zealand, by her side.

Could've painted your toenails this morning.

I know. Really, honey.

I know. When I'm walking, then I'm gonna paint them in celebration.

I reckon, eh. I know.

Another day and another new week.

Yeah. And... Yeah, it's good.

57-year-old office manager Darryl is having a major heart attack

known as a STEMI.

The blood supply to Darryl's heart is blocked

and the muscle is dying by the minute.

We're quickly going to do an angiograph

to find out which artery is blocked.

And if there is a narrowing,

we're going to go and try to put a stent there.

Dr Rahman must find the blockage and restore blood flow

before Darryl's heart fails.

And the whole, please.

Using angiogram imaging and a catheter fed in from the groin,

it's possible to see exactly what's going on inside Darryl's heart.

Incredibly, he'll be wide awake the whole time.

It's gonna be a little bit pushing in your groin.

The tube is coming in.

You shouldn't get any pain or discomfort.

If you do, please let us know.

Straight away, Dr Rahman finds the problem.

Darryl, you don't smoke, do you?

DARRYL: No. OK.

We're about to take the picture of the right coronary artery.

There is a narrow area. Pressure, please.

Take a gentle breathe in for me, sir, and hold your breath there.

OK. Breathe normally.

It takes Dr Rahman just four minutes to make the breakthrough.

So the artery that's most critically narrow,

we'll go and try to open that artery, OK?

Darryl's heart is being starved of blood.

He could stop breathing at any moment.

This catheter wire is inside an artery that should be full of blood

and look more like this.

Dr Rahman's years of experience tells him to keep calm

but get the blood vessel opened as fast as possible.

The patient can die on the table

just from the complication of the procedure.

The patient can die

from the complication of the disease process itself.

Fully conscious, Darryl has no idea how close to death he is.

You alright there, Darryl? Yep, fine.

Can I have the tool, please? Yep.

But his life can be saved using a tiny mesh cylinder called a stent.

It's fed in through the femoral artery

on the end of a fine wire.

Can I have the rinato wire, thanks, and the introducer, thank you?

We're just gonna go a little bit further.

It's very important to keep calm and quiet during a difficult procedure

when the patient is very unwell.

We'll take a picture, please.

Thank you, yeah.

You may get some chest pain. We're inflating the balloon now.

Once it's in place, Dr Rahman inflates a balloon inside the stent.

But will it be enough to open Darryl's artery before it's too late?

57-year-old Darryl has had the classic wake-up call health scare.

You may get some chest pain. We're inflating the balloon now.

Dr Rahman has just inflated a balloon inside the stent,

opening it to the size of the artery.

If you go up there, please. WOMAN: Going up now.

Got it.

The impact is immediate -

from an empty blood vessel to a full one in seconds.

So the artery looks open now. Mm-hm.

Show me there, please.

Darryl, the artery's nicely open now.

We're just gonna do some fine-tuning.

Is there still a little bit of pain or is it gone?

Yes.

It should start to ease off very soon. Yeah.

And with that, Dr Rahman has finished another life-saving surgery -

in record time.

Everything went very well.

We did the total procedure from the time he came into the hospital

in 23 minutes,

so that's gonna save a lot of his heart muscle.

It's very rewarding to see a very sick patient coming to us

and we intervened

and straight away, they're totally different.

They feel so much better.

No. That's good.

But Darryl isn't out of the woods yet.

There is some damage in your heart muscle

we can see from the heart attack.

I always tell my patients, "We have stented your artery.

"That's not the end of the problem.

"The disease process, you have to work and improve that

"by lifestyle changes and by taking medication regularly."

♪ What if I lose my self-control?

♪ What if I choose to let it go?

♪ I wanna let you and me collide... ♪

Two months down the road, Darryl has made the changes

and is starting to enjoy the benefits.

DARRYL: And the weight I've lost is probably about 6kg. I feel great.

The change was just so easy. I had to roll with it.

I've got, you know, a ten-year-old son, my wife,

you know, I had to think of them as well

and make these changes and make it all happen.

Yeah. Eddie, you start feeding 'em.

♪ What if I lose my self-control? What if I choose to let it go? ♪

If I go back to my old ways of all the fatty foods and that,

I'm not gonna be here in five years

and that's why it's so important to keep up with your healthy eating

and your exercise, you know,

listen to what the doctors have said to me, you know,

and just carry on with it.

The end result is I'm here, made the changes

and looking forward to many years in the future.

♪ These wings were made to fly. ♪

Same-sex partners Carly and Alee Jane

never lost sight of what they wanted from day one - a family.

The nursery's been done forever.

Everything's done. I've got my birth plan done.

The car seat's in the car.

But each IVF attempt over the past two and a half years

was met with heartache.

Took so long. It's not just nine months.

Not an accident. It's just so hard.

You just feel crap about it.

And then, when it happens, it's just insane. Insane.

Can't even explain it.

Today, Alee Jane and Carly are finally realising their dream.

Carly is in the final stages of labour.

CARLY: I was in the bath for a little while

and that kind of really slowed my contractions down.

So she got me out and as soon as I got out,

I just felt this urge to start pushing.

(MOANS)

WOMAN: Ew, that'll be a baby any time.

Holy cow.

(LAUGHS) Go, you good thing.

Oh, that is so a baby.

The rest is over there...

With things progressing rapidly,

it's time for Carly to get into a more comfortable spot

for the final push.

And the new position isn't the only change.

Ellen's shift is now over, so midwife Cassie Dulerat is stepping in.

Even if I get a mat or something for you...

Yeah, just move from here to there.

Yeah. Do you want to do that instead?

(MOANS)

(MOANS)

Yeah, almost here. You're doing so good, Carly.

At this point, all girlfriend Alee Jane can do is be there

to help her through the pain.

ALEE JANE: I thought it'd be really scary but it was calm and peaceful

and she was doing it like a pro.

I'm so proud of her.

(MOANS AND PANTS)

Oooh.

That's it, Carly. You're doing well, darl.

Your waters just broke, darl,

so things might come a little bit quicker now, OK?

Baby Oakland is on his way.

Whoop, a bit of hair there.

Yeah, got a bit of hair there, Carly, coming out.

(MOANS) Oh, my god, she's biting me.

That's it, darling. You're alright. You're doing great.

(YELPS)

Here comes his head.

(YELPS) Yes.

So, next one, the baby's gonna come out, OK, darling?

That's the hardest bit, alright?

The head's out, Carly. Yep.

After four rounds of IVF,

with her mum Sandy by her side

and clutching onto her life partner Alee Jane,

Carly's African-American baby boy Oakland comes into the world.

(YELPS)

Here he is. He's out.

(YELPS)

(BABY CRIES)

Oh!

Oh, my god! He's so cute.

Hey, gorgeous.

You did it. You're so good.

(BABY CRIES)

NARRATOR: And while it's not the water birth she hoped to have,

it's the miracle she had always wished for.

(BABY CRIES)

You alright? You did amazing, didn't ya?

Oh, my god. I love you. Thank you, darling.

You were just so amazing, weren't ya?

He's so cute. I love you.

I'm so happy with how it went.

The midwives were amazing and my mum was there the whole time.

She got to sit next to me and see him come out,

so it was special to share it with her and...

SANDY: I'm just glad Carly let me share with her this moment

because everything that they've been through, it's extra special.

So, yeah, very proud of Carly.

(LAUGHS)

Now he's crying. Get a photo. SANDY: He is dark, isn't he?

CASSIE: Yeah, he is gonna be quite dark. Aw!

His lips are huge.

OK, do youse wanna get in a bit closer together?

Carly, stop crying. Shut up!

There's something in my eye.

Oh, I look like crap.

Look at him. So you can see him looking and everything.

He's so cute.

♪ Help I have done it again

♪ I have been... ♪

I wanna hold his finger.

OK. You hold his finger.

Are you gonna hold my finger?

(HALF-LAUGHS)

He's pretty cute.

You're about a seven. (LAUGHS)

CARLY: It's been such a long time coming,

you know, two and a half years of IVF and miscarriages

and not ever knowing if I'd even become a mum.

That's... That's pretty special.

But, yeah, it's amazing.

Yeah, I'm so glad he's here.

I was freaking out.

Like, I've been having nightmares

that he was gonna be stillborn or something.

I just thought, you know, it can't possibly happen

'cause we've just... we've just had so many knockbacks

and, yeah, he's perfectly healthy.

♪ And breathe me. ♪