Junior Doctors are the front-line medics of any hospital. Every year hundreds are lured down under from the UK and Ireland. With health care systems around the world under increasing strain, Australian hospitals are in the fight to attract this next generation of doctors. But in return they must sign up for something they’ve never done before - The Emergency Department. These young doctors in training are the specialists and surgeons of tomorrow, but not until they pass their toughest test: treating life and death trauma far away from loved ones. If they thought they were coming for a holiday, they were wrong.
EPISODE 1
It’s day one in a new hospital in a new country and it’s the first time in an emergency department for the Junior Doctors. Doctor Javed is confronted by 22-year old car accident victim, Thomas. Dr Jolene’s first patient arrives by ambulance. Agitated and complaining of pain, he suffers a seizure. Dr Laura unravels the mystery of an elderly patient’s sore toe at risk of amputation. She finds the answer… but can she find her patient?
EPISODE 2
The pressure is on for Doctor Javed who must insert an intravenous line for a 75-year old patient with a partially torn aorta. Dr Natalie is tasked with sedating a patient who needs an electric jolt from a defibrillator to reset his abnormal heartbeat. Dr Caitriona examines a patient who’s cut through his thumb with a power saw.
EPISODE 3
Doctor Javed is in the deep end of the emergency department with a patient who has fallen three metres from a ladder onto a ship's steel deck. Doctor Eoin is new to the anaesthetics department, where the stakes couldn’t be higher. Can he safely put 72-year-old Rhett into a deeply unconscious state for hernia surgery? While Doctor Conor tries to figure out why a seemingly healthy 35-year-old has blacked out multiple times.
EPISODE 4
Doctor Jolene faces one of her most serious cases yet; Martika's autoimmune disease has turned a simple infection into a life-threatening emergency. Time is of the essence for Doctor Javed as he treats his first traumatic sports injury. Doctor Laura has recently stepped up to the role of junior registrar. She’s now expected to make many clinical decisions on her own. But one of her cases has no simple answers.
EPISODE 5
Doctor Caitriona is put under pressure inserting a cannula into an elderly patient in desperate need of intravenous medication to save her life. On his first day in Children’s ED, Doctor Javed is way out of his comfort zone, reassuring an 11-year-old with a phobia of needles. While Doctor Eoin must act fast to insert a breathing tube into a drug overdose patient, at risk of choking on his own vomit.
EPISODE 6
In his most urgent trauma case yet, Doctor Conor must treat a 17-year-old airlifted to hospital with suspected spinal injuries, following a quad bike accident. Irish doctor Jolene is confronted with a patient having an adverse reaction to a jellyfish sting – something she’s never seen before. And a camping trip gone wrong leaves Doctor Natalie treating an 18-year-old with a disturbing injury to his leg.
EPISODE 7
Doctor Eoin is searching for answers and stronger painkillers when a 57-year-old woman presents to ED with excruciating chest pain. Doctor Natalie is concerned her 76-year-old patient, brought in by ambulance, is suffering from a life-threatening blood clot. And Doctor Javed must work with his senior to remove a steel splinter embedded in his patient’s eye.
EPISODE 8
After 10 intense weeks, the Junior Doctors have come to the end of their rotation in the Emergency Department - but there’s no let up yet. Dr Javed witnesses a real-life example of the mind affecting the body in an ED case that baffles even the most senior doctors. Dr Jolene treats a patient whose excitable dog took her for a walk. And in a first time for Dr Natalie, she needs to sedate a child with ketamine – and deal with its confronting side effects.