‘Did you happen to chat to anyone called Kerry? A junior doctor, pretty. Kerry Palmer. Or she might be known as Smith, her maiden name. Probably working in surgery.’

The researcher shakes her head. ‘No one on our hotlist, but let me check my notes . . . yes, I’ve got a Dr Smith.’ She holds up a photocopy of an ID badge: in the mugshot, Kerry is unsmiling. ‘Here we are, she’s an F2.’

Her maiden name. I try not to read too much into it.

‘That’s the one. Did you chat to her?’

The researcher pulls a face. ‘Yeah. Apparently, she’s very bright. But she said no straight away. Told me she didn’t agree with cameras in the hospital, that it was a waste of resources. When I mentioned it to her consultant later, she wasn’t surprised. Apparently Dr Smith doesn’t really suffer fools. And there’s even some doubt about whether she’ll pass her second foundation year.’

‘Why?’

She takes back the print-out. ‘She’s had a few run-ins with management. Not the best idea when you’re at the bottom of the doctor pile.’

‘All right, reset, everyone,’ the floor manager calls out. ‘Ready for the slot on not to make a nuisance of yourself in A & E on New Year’s Eve. That’s with you, Joel, all right?’

I position myself in front of the camera, shake the consultant’s hand and wait for the countdown from the director. Why has Kerry changed so much? I hate the idea that she’s struggling. She was always there for me.

The set is quiet except for the director in my ear. Fixing Kerry will have to wait.

‘Coming to you in five, four, three, two . . . cue Joel!’

‘In a couple of minutes, Mum will be leading a group of hospital volunteers in a “Gangnam Style” dance-off. But first, as fantastic as the casualty teams are, the very last place any of us want to be as the clock strikes midnight is here. So how can you avoid being a party-pooper? Let’s hear it from the doctor in charge . . .’

A Guide to the Chain of Survival: Part 4

You’ve done all you can:
the experts will take it from here.

OK, so this is where it gets personal.

It can take many shocks from a defibrillator for the heart to start again. In my case, it took two. The medics call it ‘return of spontaneous circulation’.

This is a huge step forward, but the patient isn’t out of the woods yet. They may still need help with breathing, and until doctors can work out why the heart stopped, it could happen again at any moment.

Your job as a first-aider is done now – the paramedics or emergency doctors need to get the patient stable and transfer him or her to a specialist centre, to diagnose and treat whatever has gone wrong.