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Crumlin: Season 1

1x02 Intensive Care

  • 2015-09-17T21:15:00Z on RTÉ One
  • 50m
  • Ireland
  • Documentary
LIFE IN THE BALANCE Directed by Anna Rodgers and produced by Carrie Nathan, the second documentary in the Crumlin series focuses on Intensive Care Unit in Crumlin Children's Hospital. Here, the staff look after critically ill children and have over 1,000 admissions each year. Every child presents to the team with difficult dilemmas requiring minute by minute monitoring and sometimes emergency interventions. With children's lives hanging in the balance on a daily basis, the medical care in paediatric ICU is a matter of life and death. Every parent who admits their child to ICU hopes they will recover, but at times the medical team have to consider whether it's right to carry on with treatment. Jessica Hall is a resident baby on the intensive care unit. Diagnosed with a fatal heart condition called cardiomyopathy, Jessica's only hope for life is to receive a heart transplant. She is currently on the waiting list; every child needing a heart transplant must travel to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, and we follow as Jessica receives her passport and remains on standby to travel to London at any given moment. If - or when - a heart becomes available, Jessica must be urgently transported to London within a few hours. Despite having another little toddler at home in Monaghan, we observe Elaine as she spends days, weeks and months sitting by her little girl's bedside, praying for the day she gets the phonecall that has the potential to save her daughter's life. 30% of the children admitted to ICU are neonates, often requiring surgery within the first few days of their life. One such case in this documentary is Megan Rogers, a little baby born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Her heart is effectively only operating with one chamber. We follow baby Megan on her journey from the Rotunda Hospital to Crumlin, where she faces open heart surgery in the first few days of life. Another baby arriving to Crumlin's ICU on one of their first days in the world
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