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Filmed in the summer of 2019 before coronavirus struck, Critical: Inside Intensive Care is a powerful and moving observational documentary series following the staff on the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, south Wales. These staff are now on the frontline fighting the virus, but in this series we see the extraordinary work that they were doing before the present crisis.

On this ward, life hangs in the balance. Staff treat a wide variety of patients with a range of illnesses. In this episode, we meet some whose symptoms are linked to their lifestyle, and others who prove more difficult to diagnose. One man鈥檚 strange symptoms are a medical mystery leaving the doctors scratching their heads.

Sometimes, despite all the medical and mechanical organ support that ICU can offer, there is little staff can to do help those in the most desperate circumstances.

The Royal Gwent Hospital serves a diverse area, from the city streets of Newport to the rural valleys of south Wales. Unemployment and social deprivation are high here, and this can be reflected in the patients treated on the ICU. Caring for those suffering with the effects of alcoholism and drug abuse is common, while the staff also encounter an increasing number of homeless patients.