Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH

Triage sorts through bike accidents, severed fingers, a patient who has fallen off a mountain and one who barely needs a bandage. No case, large or small, is turned away by the emergency department of Vancouver General Hospital… and it’s taking its toll.

Mondays are the worst in the emergency department, with staff tackling a wide range of medical emergencies. Meanwhile, patients from the overflowing psychiatric assessment unit have filled up the beds and some are literally fighting to get out.

The staff faces overwhelming traffic from elderly patients suffering a range of medical issues. Doctors and nurses struggle with the conflicting issues of “living long” versus “living well.”

Summer hits the ER and the air conditioning is down. From a nail in a boot, to an agonizing escharotomy following a severe burn, everybody is feeling the heat. An ER resident winds up in treatment after a head - injury on the water.

It's last days at VGH for Jo - Anne, the matriarch/charge nurse of the ER. Despite being surrounded by pain and suffering on a daily basis, most nurses love the challenge and share their secrets to surviving in “Emerge”.

In an episode that’s full of life - saving technology, remarkable treatments and heart - warming recoveries, we witness ER staff, patients and family members confront the limitations of medicine and face the truth of their own mortality.