Doctor s Desperate Battle To Save Woman From Brain Bleeding Paramedics

Senior emergency doctor Emma West is standing by for a critically ill car crash victim being rushed in by chopper. That's fine. You can go from the helipad straight down to the corner. Okay. Try and get him to see you. Yeah. Good. Awesome. I think we're going to need to give this patient urgent, massive transfusion of blood product because blood pressure is so low. They're clearly very badly injured and they're going to need help urgently. Do we go now? Yeah. He's going up to the helicopter pad because he's unconscious, he's got chest injuries, he's got low oxygen level and his blood pressure is critically low and he's actually at risk of arresting or dying. It's pretty unusual for us to need to go up to the helipad but if there's ever a call to need to go up, this is the patient that you do it for. I'm worried that he could arrive and we may have missed our chance but hopefully not. It sounds bad, unfortunately. Hi Emma, how are you? Let me know how I can help you. Just four units of, yeah. I thought you might be empty by now. Yeah. So female or male patient? Dr Emma needs to focus on the patient's breathing and massive blood loss. It's a touch and go situation that I'm faced with, it's really very desperate. This patient has a blood pressure that's so low that their life is hanging in the balance in every moment. She's on her fifth unit of blood and she's on five of adrenaline. At the Royal Melbourne, Dr Emma West's unconscious patient has arrived by air ambulance in a critical condition. Can I get someone to hang onto the chair for me please while we go across? It's a pretty devastating car accident, head-on collision. There was such a long time for this patient to be trapped that I'm really very worried. Car involved in a high-speed head-on collision. Pupils were fixed and dilated from the outset. Through most of the flight, all I had was blood pressure around 50, that was the best I could get. The adrenaline infusion has brought it up to around 80. Thanks Tim. Airway? Airway is tense and still unkeen. Okay. Good. I can hear bilateral air entry on the jet. Okay. At the moment I'm faced with oxygen level that is critically low and so I need to put all my efforts into figuring out a way to make them better. Have we got x-ray coming in? Thanks. Okay, platelets are going in. Can someone squeeze those platelets in? And can I get the blood pressure to cycle again please? Okay, so let's get the pelvis and chest x-ray and go to CT. Every moment counts when your oxygen level is low and every moment that your blood pressure is low is extremely important. So we're doing some urgent investigations. One of them is the chest x-ray. Perfect, x-ray ready. If you don't have lead, hop out of the room. Hands off, x-ray. Ben, if you're able to just have a look at the chest and pelvis or someone from your team. Post securing this tube on the left is to continue blood and go to CT. V-sat's down to 70. Yep. Overall, this patient's really critically unwell. But my priority is to get this patient to the CT scan and figure out if there's something that we can do extremely urgently to change the outcome for her. CT, are you aware that we're coming? Yes, they are. Good, okay. What's stopping us from going to scan? Are we just fiddling with lines? You're ready? Okay, let's go to scan. I'm really worried this is potential for a bad outcome for this woman. I'm really worried for that because she had such a long time with low oxygen, low blood pressure and unconscious, so that's my worry and that's probably all of our worries. CT, are you aware that we're coming? Yes, they are. Good, okay. You're ready? Okay, let's go to scan. Back in trauma, Dr Emma West is treating a critically ill car crash victim who's unconscious. An urgent CT scan should show the extent of her internal injuries. Okay, just recapping, airway's fine and is it? Good. Just wait, just wait, just wait. Yep, good. It's coming up. Perfect. Alrighty. There's a lot of people in the room. There can be a lot of noise but that's part of my job is crowd control to keep people quiet because you need to be calm when you're making these type of life-saving decisions. Let's get the scan of the head at least. This woman, she was unconscious at the scene for such a long time. I'm very worried about a potential devastating head injury. Dr Emma has pulled together a large team of surgeons to decide if they should operate. As you can see, he's got a big subdural over the left cerebral hemisphere. The scan unfortunately shows there's a really significant head injury bleed around the brain. And so this is confirming our worst fears. A lot of neurosurgeons are looking at the scans to try and figure out what can be done to help this woman. Depending whatever we see on the abdo will probably go from here straight to theta. Not only is the brain bleed causing deep concern for Dr Emma, but the next scan reveals another serious problem. So there's splenic injury and fluid probably coming from that spleen. It's going to be very difficult to assess her. Just go for it. I don't think we're going to have a choice. This patient is bleeding internally and needs to urgently go to theta for an operation to control the bleeding. Are we going for a laparotomy? Yep, okay, good. We're going to go directly from here to theta. She's bleeding heavily from a laceration in the spleen. She needs it removed. There isn't another course of action that can save her life. Dr Emma, we're speaking. We're ready to come up for trauma laparotomy. So we'll go straight up to theta. Very, very serious unfortunately. She's in very safe hands. She's in theta. And now it's time for me to meet her family. And so my job is to let them know that we really care for her and that we will do absolutely everything to give her every chance of surviving. You know you're training it and you have to train in it because you have to do it well because this is some of the hardest news that they'll hear in their life. Certainly it does affect me. You feel extremely sad. But I have a job to do and I have to be there for them. It's them and their grief and they need to know that I really care. It's more than just a job I guess. That you're really there doing everything for their loved one. So we'll go straight up to theta. Very, very serious unfortunately. Dr Emma's car crash victim had surgery and went to intensive care. But the injuries were so critical the patient didn't survive.