Critical Condition

Forty-two-year-old Robert is rushed into Royal Stoke after a cardiac arrest at home. While paramedics have re-started his heart, it's his crippling stomach pain that worries Trauma Team Leader Richard Hall the most. Learning that his patient has had the pain for nearly a month, Richard rushes him to the scanner where the team discover a perforated bowel is leaking faecal matter into Robert's body. Without emergency surgery, Robert's leaking bowel will poison him to death. Now the race is on to get him to theatre for an emergency operation – before it's too late.

A severe pain in the abdomen is also the concern for Matthew. He has been slammed into his BMX's handlebars after a high-speed accident. As Matthew's pain levels soar, Trauma Team Leader Julie Norton suspects that Matthew has significant internal injuries. But it's only when she sees the extent of the damage to his spleen after a scan that she realises just how seriously injured her patient is. Living without a spleen would mean a lifetime of powerful antibiotics and risk of infection.

When Mario is rushed into resus, his injuries are obvious. His legs have taken the full impact of an explosion from a gas canister and now doctors must open his wounds to remove dozens of dangerous clots before the circulation is severely compromised. Unless they act quickly, the risk is that Mario could lose his leg.

Finally, Jean is admitted after a fall down her stairs at home. She has excruciating pain in her back, but that's not what worries the medical staff the most. Each time they take her off oxygen, Jean's blood pressure drops dangerously and now the race is on to find the cause before her condition deteriorates further.

Trauma Team Leader Diane Adamson is put on high alert when a call comes in about a builder who has had a terrifying 25-foot fall through a roof. When Tomasz is rushed in, he's in excruciating pain, having landed heavily on his feet – with his lower body and spine taking the full impact.

Given his spiralling pain levels and knowing that builders only come to hospital when they really have to, Diane has major concerns about the potential damage to Tomasz's spine. Rushing her patient to the scanner, she confirms her worst fears: Tomasz has three spinal fractures – injuries which if not treated properly and immediately could leave him paralysed in a wheelchair for life.

Meanwhile, for 19-year-old Anya, there's not a moment to lose. Gasping for air, Anya is having a full-blown acute asthma attack, which is putting her young body under massive strain. Despite the paramedic's best efforts, Anya's condition has deteriorated rapidly on the way into the hospital and Registrar Sunday Ekaidem needs to act fast before her body shuts down completely.

Across the hospital, Melissa prepares for a time-critical procedure that is fraught with danger. Melissa, just 17 weeks pregnant and suffering from papillary thyroid cancer, must undergo surgery to completely remove her thyroid and 30 of her lymph nodes. Already a high-risk procedure, the operation must take place in her second trimester to avoid increasing the already high chance she has of miscarrying her unborn daughter in the middle of surgery.

Back in resus, a serious fall which happened four days previously has finally caught up with 59-year-old Tim. Having passed out at the top of the stairs and plummeted downwards, Tim had been trying to manage the agonising pain, until the discovery of a high concentration of blood in his urine, lead him to call the emergency services. Now the race is on to diagnose where and why Tim is internally bleeding.

Matthew is rushed into hospital after a collision between his motorbike and a tractor. His chest has taken the full force of the impact but there could be other, hidden injuries. Trauma Team Leader Mark Poulson desperately needs to assess all the damage before Matthew's condition deteriorates further.

After plummeting 15 feet onto concrete and his head taking the full impact of the fall, a man is rushed into resus with a significant laceration to his head. Meanwhile, a 38-year-old suffers a number of life-threatening fits after a potential blackout in falling downstairs, and another patient is rushed in after being run over by his own van.