NHS documentary shows how man who had three heart attacks was brought back to ...

From the moment 70-year-old Alan arrives at hospital, there is a frantic race against time to save his life. Passers-by found him collapsed in the street with no sign of a pulse. 

Paramedics called to the scene shocked his heart back to life with a defibrillator, but it has now stopped for the third time in quick succession. Alan’s chances of survival are slim, to say the least.

But as the TV cameras roll for an extraordinary new Channel 5 series on life in a busy NHS trauma department, a remarkable rescue mission gets under way. 

A team of highly skilled staff swarm around the patient as emergency medicine specialist Dr Chris Pickering barks out quick-fire instructions.

Life-or-death situation: Alan, 70, is rushed to the Royal Stoke University Hospital having collapsed in the street – he suffered three heart attacks in quick succession. Staff perform chest compressions to save him

Life-or-death situation: Alan, 70, is rushed to the Royal Stoke University Hospital having collapsed in the street – he suffered three heart attacks in quick succession. Staff perform chest compressions to save him

Sign of hope: Having restarted his heart, emergency medics now attend to Alan’s airways and begin a series of checks. The scene forms part of a groundbreaking Channel 5 documentary series called Critical Condition, which starts this week

Sign of hope: Having restarted his heart, emergency medics now attend to Alan’s airways and begin a series of checks. The scene forms part of a groundbreaking Channel 5 documentary series called Critical Condition, which starts this week

Beating the odds: Now drugs are injected into Alan’s arm to keep him sedated while staff monitor his vital signs

Beating the odds: Now drugs are injected into Alan’s arm to keep him sedated while staff monitor his vital signs

Out of immediate danger: Staff apply a gel to Alan’s chest before they carry out an ultrasound to look at his heart

Out of immediate danger: Staff apply a gel to Alan’s chest before they carry out an ultrasound to look at his heart

Chest compressions, more electric shocks to the heart, scans and medication are all administered, all while making sure Alan keeps breathing.

Against the odds, his heart starts beating again in response to the compressions.

In a matter of minutes, he is brought back to life for a third time, stabilised and then hurriedly sent to intensive care before cardiologists decide how to manage his recovery. 

The scene forms part of a groundbreaking Channel 5 documentary series called Critical Condition, which starts this week.

Footage was captured over several months at The Royal Stoke University Hospital.

This is no glossy prime-time medical drama, nor is it a sanitised, carefully edited documentary. Instead, it is an assault on the viewer’s senses, and presents an unflinching and occasionally brutal insight into the extraordinary skill and determination of doctors and nurses on the NHS front line.

The action is raw and, at times, deeply uncomfortable, as the hard-pressed trauma team make every day the kind of life-or-death decisions most of us won’t have to face in a lifetime.

Now that Alan has been stabilised, medics prepare to move him to the intensive care unit. Film-makers were given unique access to be by patients’ sides as many stared death in the face

Now that Alan has been stabilised, medics prepare to move him to the intensive care unit. Film-makers were given unique access to be by patients’ sides as many stared death in the face

‘Many hospital-based documentaries do not properly capture the experience of a professional working in the field and the decisions they have to make,’ says Malcolm Brinkworth, from Brinkworth Productions, the company behind the series. 

‘We think it’s important that viewers understand what it’s like for staff to be caught up in the maelstrom of emergency care and why they sometimes have to make split-second decisions that can affect patients’ lives for good.’

Film-makers were given unique access to be by patients’ sides as many stared death in the face.

In one scene, a man admitted to hospital is unable to speak and is paralysed down one side – the classic signs of a stroke. A rapid CT scan shows that a clot has shut off the blood flow to his brain.

Every minute that passes, another million or so brain cells are lost, so the trauma team must act quickly to perform an emergency thrombectomy. This involves inserting a tiny wire through the groin all the way up to the skull to ‘capture’ the clot and retrieve it, restoring healthy blood flow.

In another deeply moving scene, the cameras are present to record the emotional strain doctors can encounter when telling patients that nothing can be done for them. As an elderly man called John lies weak and exhausted on his hospital bed, emergency medicine consultant Dr Rahulan Dharmarajah (pictured) leans in close to break the news of his diagnosis

In another deeply moving scene, the cameras are present to record the emotional

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