An Hour to Save Your Life
I saw this program first last week - I suppose it's the BBC's answer to 24 Hours in A&E.
You just have to marvel at the service and treatments carried out by the NHS. This week's episode concerned two girls, one of whom had been hit by a car and one travelling in a car, and a chap who had been run over by a fork-lift truck.
The girl hit by the car was particularly harrowing as it was feared she may have severe brain damage through oxygen starvation at the scene of the accident. The medics on the scene had to paralyse her with drugs so as to place a tube directly into her lungs to give her much-needed oxygen. She was transferred to hospital and after an MRI scan revealed bleeding to her brain, they drilled a hole in her skull to relieve the pressure. After two days the pressure inside her skull was still too high so they finished up taken a large section of her skull away so that her brain may expand to remove the pressure.
The other girl had severe facial injuries, her nose and eye sockets having been caved in. Miraculously she didn't have any bleeding in her brain so as a temporary measure, they sewed up a huge gash on her forehead to prevent infection. When they got her stabilised after a few days, she was taken to a maxillofacial specialist who peeled back her face and scalp and reconstructed her skull with metal plates and screws before replacing her face.
The girl hit by the car is doing well having poor short-term memory but is slowly recovering enough for her to play her piano once more and the girl with the facial injury just has a forehead scar to remind her of her ordeal. The scar should heal up more over the next few years.
Bloody marvellous what they can do.
The chap run over by the fork-lift just had a broken femur which is a miracle in itself as fork-lifts are extremely heavy.