S15 E9 (28 Oct 00) : No More Mr Nice Guy by Chris Jury
Episode Summary
Dan comes down into A&E, looking for Charlie. Colette tells him that Charlie’s phoned in to say he can’t come to work as Louis’s childminder has come down with chickenpox. Dan asks for Duffy, but Colette says it’s her day off and asks if she can help. Dan says no. He tells Colette that Broadway A&E will be closed for six months for refurbishment. The department is extremely short-staffed with Charlie away, as they still don’t have a replacement for Adam, so Dan stays to help out.
Patrick is out with Josh and Finlay. They arrive at a house where Louise Sutton is injured after falling down a flight of stairs, and putting her arm through the glass panel of a door. Jenny Atkinson is with her but Louise doesn’t want her there, and refuses to let her in the ambulance. Louise is taken to Holby A&E; Patrick tries to tell Holly what to do before he goes. Jenny turns up in A&E; she says she’s Louise’s mother. Louise wants nothing to do with her. She tells Holly that her mother is an alcoholic; when she was still a child Jenny locked her in the house while she went on a two-week bender; it was only when a neighbour heard her crying that help arrived for her. When Louise is ready to go, Jenny comes up to her in reception and asks if she can do anything to help. Louise tells her it’s too late. Jenny is looking ill, and puts her hand on the wall to keep herself from falling ; Louise, thinking Jenny is trying to touch her, pushes her away and Jenny keels over on the floor. She is rushed into resusc, and they find out she is dying from cirrhosis of the liver; she has been seeing a consultant about it for months. Holly tells Louise, and persuades her to go to see her mother. Jenny tells Louise she didn’t want her to find out like this – she didn’t want to emotionally blackmail her. She says she’s been dry for a year now and has a good chance of dying sober. Jenny is taken up to a ward. Louise is asked if she wants to go with her but she says she wants to go home, to think things over. Jenny agrees that it’s a good idea but says that maybe they’ll see each other again. They hug. Jenny tells Holly that she’s not used to being happy.
Dan tells Chloe that her bank manager has called; she looks worried. Barney, looking a little nervous, tells Chloe that he’s been thinking about the ‘E’ grade post, and can’t afford to miss it. He seems upset by the fact that they will have to compete for the same job. Chloe does little to reassure him; Barney tells her that he doesn’t think he’ll get the job. Chloe replies rather coldly that he hasn’t a chance with her in the running, and walks away. Dan, looking concerned, asks Barney if he and Chloe have fallen out. Barney replies sadly that it’s just some healthy career rivalry.
Chris Thomas has cut his finger with a stanley knife and is complaining about the amount of time he’s been kept waiting. He is in a rush to catch a plane to get to a meeting. When he complains to Dan, Dan reminds him that it’s his own fault in the first place that he cut his finger. Eventually, Colette is about to stitch it up when Dan comes to the door of the treatment room to have a word with her. She goes to the door, leaving the side of the trolley down. Chris sits up; he gives the tip of his finger, which is virtually sliced off, a poke, and faints at what he sees. He falls off the trolley, cracking his head on the floor. He is knocked out briefly but when he comes round, he threatens to sue the hospital. As he is taken to X-ray to check his skull, he shouts out to everyone in reception, “I came in here with a cut finger; now I’ve got a fractured skull!” When they X-rays come back they show no fracture, but Max spots a pituitary tumour. They go and break the news to Chris, telling him that if it wasn’t for the skull X-ray, it might have been months before the tumour was spotted, by which time it would be too late to treat it – as it is, it’s operable. Chris is not pacified, and is still threatening to sue.
Josh, Finlay and Patrick arrive at the scene of an RTA. George Bryant is stuck in his car, and the fire brigade are unable to get him out until the pile of steel girders on top of his car have been removed one by one. Patrick, sitting with George when he hears the news, shouts to Josh that by that time it will be too late. Josh takes Patrick to one side and tells him it won’t do George any good to know that. He tells Patrick to go and talk to him until they can get him out. Patrick sits with George, and George talks to him about his work as an engineer, before he retired. He says he was promoted off the shop floor and hated it; the stress gave him a heart attack. Patrick asks why he didn’t tell him about his heart before. “You didn’t ask,” is George’s reply. George carries on, saying that the heart attack made him realise that the most important thing in his life was his wife, so he gave up work to spend more time with her. He says that they’d had a silly row the night before and he’d been out to buy her some chocolates to apologise. As Patrick is about to leave George so he can be cut out of the car, George makes him take the chocolates and promise to give them to his wife, saying that he was sorry and that she had been right. Patrick agrees to this, after protesting that it won’t be necessary. George is cut out and is taken to Holby A&E. He deteriorates on the way. In resusc, they attempt to resuscitate him but they are making no progress. Max says he thinks they should stop, and asks if everyone agrees. Patrick, doing CPR, says no, and carries on. Josh gently places a hand on Patrick’s arm, and he stops. Max says he’ll go to tell George’s wife, but Patrick says he wants to do it, as he was with George to the end. Max says, “I thought you didn’t do the talking to the relatives thing” Patrick replies “I do today, okay?” He goes out of resusc and into the relatives room. Josh follows, and watches through the window as Patrick sits down, talking, and gives George’s wife the chocolates. She starts to cry. Patrick locks eyes with Josh briefly before looking away.
Patients
– Chris Thomas, a busy businessman that comes in with a cut finger, but also proves to have a brain tumour
– Alex, a drunkard
– George Bryant, an older man that gets trapped in a car crash and dies
– Louise Sutton, cuts in her arm
– Jenny Atkinson, Louise’s mother who she has not met for 17 years, cirrhosis
First Scene/words
Ambulance control: 3026, respond to 17 A Montague Avenue. Female patient, falling injuries. Patient conscious and breathing.
Josh: 3026 all received. Over.
Last Scene/
[Through the window to the relative’s room Josh watches how Patrick gives the chocolate box to George Bryant’s wife. Patrick sits down next to her and comforts her, before looking at Josh through the window. Patrick then continues talking to her and Josh slowly walks away.]
Guide by Alison and Karin.
UK Viewing Figures
8.77m