hey, it’s been a hot minute but tonight’s casualty really hit hard
I was a student in A&E the week before the uk lockdown and they really managed to show what it was really like to be there; working in the craziest, busiest and scariest time a lot of us had ever experienced. We had hourly updates on new policies and procedures, protocols changed multiple times a shift. I got pulled from placement when lockdown happened but even when I finally got to go back and help in September there was still uncertainty, changes to PPE policies so frequently it was almost impossible to keep up.
I’ve been to patients dying from COVID. I’ve done all I can and handed them over hoping they will survive. I know people who have died. I know people who, months after contracting COVID from a patient they were helping, are still experiencing long term symptoms. Hospitals are overwhelmed and there is no space. I’ve sat outside a hospital waiting for a bed for over an hour, I know many who have waited far longer.
So many moments tonight hit me.
Ethan calling the families to give them updates on their dying relatives. I’ve told families they can’t come with us to hospital; that they should say goodbye, just in case. George Rainsford, you captured the truely harrowing task of that conversation.
Jade struggling to communicate with the masks. So many people, health care professionals, patients, families have all struggled with this and good for casualty for raising awareness of this issue.
Finally, spoilers! Noel’s death. A paramedic turned doctor in the A&E I was in, he died from COVID in the hospital he worked in for years, where his children worked. He was 52, for and healthy. His death was felt massively through the department and really brought home the horror of COVID even more so than anything.
I hope tonight’s casualty gave those who haven’t been exposed to the truly brutal side of COVID some idea of what the amazing NHS staff have been going through these past few months.
Don’t be stupid, this virus is not a joke. Stay home, only go out if you need to and follow the rules. Even if you don’t think you’re at risk, you are, you can be a carrier and infect those you love.
I haven’t watched casualty properly for years, catching the odd episode every now and then so I didn’t really get the individual characters stories but I don’t think I needed to. What an episode.