Alarming footage from a Birmingham A&E where medics treat gun and knife crime victims is being shown in the latest episode of a TV series which takes to the screen tonight. Channel 5 ’s shocking new show A&E After Dark shows how accident and emergency doctors at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Selly Oak and nurses respond to crime in what the narrator calls ‘the gun crime capital of Britain’.
He says the Second City has overtaken London ‘with firearms offences rising 86 per cent in a year’. The show gives insight into how staff at A&E respond to the most brutal crimes on Birmingham ’s streets on a daily basis.
Footage shows one medic heard describing the situation as ‘carnage’, a victim screaming out after a stabbing and another staff member saying ‘there are some guys outside with masks’. Registrar Dr Jake who is filmed running the resus department overnight, is seen saying “the department is on fire a bit” after having a ‘few big, sick traumas in’.
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He said he has a ‘full corridor with nowhere to do anything’ as he and his colleagues battle to save lives. A&E After Dark shows staff at Birmingham’s emergency department – the city’s major trauma centre – work to treat a man with a bullet lodged near his spine.
Dr Jake explains that smaller bullets can ricochet within the body, causing extensive internal damage. He said fortunately the man’s scans confirm no spinal injury, sparing the patient from potential paralysis.
Viewers are taken behind the scenes of Queen Elizabeth Hospitals hard pressed A&E department where gun and knife crime victims are regulars in 5Star show A&E After Dark
(Image: Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited)
The clip above shows the pressure the casualty staff are put under with the TV show revealing how dedicated staff at three UK A&E departments confront the relentless challenges of the night shift.
Cameras take viewers behind the scenes, offering a ‘raw and compelling look at the life-saving decisions and intense pressures these frontline heroes navigate nightly’.
The show will be available on Channel 5’s free-to-air sister channel, 5Star, at 9pm on Thursday (January 9) on Freeview, cable and satellite services.