Island Medics

Brian, an engineer on an oil rig, is airlifted by helicopter to the hospital with suspected serious neck injuries. It is an urgent case for Dr Lalla and his team in accident and emergency because, aside from his injury, Brian has a worryingly low heart rate which requires thorough investigation. Coastguard and lifeboat teams are scrambled to the aid of a pleasure boat whose propeller has been fowled just feet from Shetland's jagged rocks. The ambulance team race to the aid of a former nurse with a suspected stroke. Back in the hospital, one of Europe's strongest men comes in with an injury that has come about because of his incredible strength.

An oil worker with a severely injured back is helicoptered off his rig miles off shore and brought to the hospital. The team have to use all their skills and resources to stabilise and diagnose him before deciding if he can be treated on Shetland or if he will need an air ambulance transfer to the mainland. The episode also follows a GP with Britain's most unusual commute, as he takes to the skies to carry out a clinic on Fair Isle, the country's most remote community. With no full-time doctor or nurse on the island the residents here rely on his visits. And Eddie, a keen motorcyclist, comes into the hospital after colliding with a seagull while riding his motorcycle at speed. His Shetland sense of humour is intact, but Dr Lalla and his team are concerned about how much damage the bird may have done to his neck.

The islands' new crop of junior doctors arrives in Shetland - this episode follows their first days and sees how they adjust to a very different type of medicine from what they are used to. Junior and newcomer Dr Wilson is thrown in at the deep end with two serious cases that arrive simultaneously into Accident and Emergency. Dr Wilson must use all his skills and rely on the vast experience of Shetland's native nursing staff if he is to provide the care the NHS expects. Away from the hospital, a doctor is working on Unst - the most northerly practice in the United Kingdom. And two of the new junior doctors take to the water to try out a popular Shetland hobby.

Episode four takes a closer look at life for Shetland's new and expectant mothers. In the Gilbert Bain's maternity department, first time mum-to-be Caitlin has come in as she is eight months pregnant and can't feel her baby moving. They also see a woman who, ten days past her due date, has to be flown from Shetland to the mainland for specialist assistance giving birth. Meanwhile, two young girls visit A&E - one having fallen off her Shetland pony and breaking her collarbone and another with a badly injured arm following a trampolining accident. The staff at the Gilbert Bain, who are not specialist paediatricians, have to use all their skills and training to treat them. Away from the hospital, the programme follow a midwife from Aberdeen who has recently moved to the islands and is struggling to find her way around, all while making house calls to Shetland's newest mothers.

Fisherman Brian has to be evacuated by helicopter after inhaling some dangerous chemicals. The coastguard landing team have to work closely with the air crew and paramedics to transfer him to accident and emergency, where the team are tasked with stabilising his breathing, as well as finding out what long term effects the chemicals may have had on his lungs. Away from the wards, Jan and Pete from the Hillswick Wildlife Centre have been alerted to a pilot whale which is in danger of running aground in one of Shetland's 'voes', or inlets. They need to enlist the help of volunteers if their audacious rescue plan is to succeed. Back in the hospital, the doctors and nurses have two different piercing problems to tackle. The first is a woman whose fishing trip had to be cut short when she got a hook embedded in her forearm. While the second is a teacher whose new piercing has gone wrong - and who requires an operation to remove this troublesome piece of jewellery.

The coastguard is scrambled to rescue a Danish cook who has been taken seriously ill on an oil rig supply vessel far out in the North Sea. The helicopter team have to work closely with the paramedics on the ground to get him safely to A&E so he can get life-saving treatment. The programme meets Britain's most northerly full-time GP in her practice at the very north of Shetland's mainland, and nurse Thelma demonstrates a popular island pastime.

Crofter Andy has an accident with his sheep shears while shearing some of his forty sheep. Nurse Lauren needs to treat Andy's injury so that he can return to his flock. Elsewhere, there is a case that peaks nurse Emma Williamson's interest; patient Alan has arrived in A&E with a protruding pacemaker. The wires from the device are poking through Alan's chest and have caused a nasty wound. Nurse Emma and Dr Kirsty Sneddon investigate Alan's 9th pacemaker! Off-shore worker Ryan has been transported by helicopter to the A&E department. He has some serious symptoms which could be appendicitis, but Dr Kushik Lalla suspects it may point to something else entirely.

An elderly lady is rushed into hospital with a suspected stroke. Though former nurse Kathleen's symptoms point to a stroke, the investigation by the A&E team sheds new light on her condition. Elsewhere, Dr Saul Wilson has a broken hand to contend with; Norwegian Kari was on board a tall ship in Lerwick Harbour when she took a tumble and injured her hand. On the first day of his holiday in the Skerries, Jimmie takes a trip he wasn't looking for when he falls off a wall and ends up in A&E with head injuries. Dr Lauren Cammaert needs to determine what is wrong with him and get him back on his feet and back to his holiday as soon as she can.

There is an extra special arrival for maternity receptionist Marie Jamieson - her daughter Sonja is expecting her third child. Marie faces an anxious wait, as she is still working on reception and must wait outside to find out if it is a boy or a girl like everybody else. Nurse Gwen Angus attends to a lady with a nasty head injury. Sandwick resident Anne has the builders in, but she takes a nasty fall while they are building her new kitchen. The Fetlar Islanders receive a visit from a new locum GP. Dr Gerard Bulger has travelled all over the world during his GP career, from Antarctica to Tristan Da Cuna. He believes he has seen it all - until he arrives in Shetland.

At the Gilbert Bain hospital on Shetland, nurses and doctors go the extra mile to care for any and all emergencies. Schoolboy Bruce runs too many miles and injures his leg. A football match leads to an awkward injury for teenager Saul, but a football tournament makes a great weekend for Dr Lalla and his family. An able seaman is referred by his ship's doctor, barely able to breathe. An unfortunate migraine sufferer develops worrying new symptoms which warrant a brain scan and an anxious overnight stay. And a young local man gets mud in his eye, presenting diagnostic difficulties for the night team in Britain's most remote Accident & Emergency unit.