Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH
| Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Documentary |
| Directed by | Kevin Eastwood |
| Music by | Terry Frewer |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
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| Producer(s) | David Moses |
| Cinematography | Zachary Williams |
| Editor(s) | Tanya Maryniak, Joanna Gyurkovics, Eddie O. |
| Running time | 48 to 56 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Lark Productions |
| Distributor | |
| Release | |
| Original release | 21 January 2014 (Season 1) 12 April 2016 (Season 2) February 21, 2017 (Season 3) |
| External links | |
| Official site | |
Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH is a medical documentary series which premiered on British Columbia's Knowledge Network on January 21, 2014. It follows doctors, nurses and staff at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) as they cope with real patients from the Greater Vancouver Regional District. VGH is the second largest hospital in Canada and British Columbia's only level I trauma centre. Stories of stabbings, car accidents, heart attacks, and life-threatening disease are shown alongside everyday cuts and sprains, drunks, and other minor cases, and episodes contain graphic images of wounds, blood, and/or routine and invasive medical procedures.
The series was directed and co-executive produced by Kevin Eastwood, produced by David Moses, and executive produced by Andrew Williamson and Louise Clark of Lark Productions.
The series was conceived by Knowledge Network CEO Rudy Buttignol to depict the everyday experiences of the medical personnel who care for people in crisis. Lark Productions, Vancouver General Hospital and Vancouver Coastal Health partnered to develop the series, and spent six months in negotiations to decide how to give the production crew maximum access while ensuring no patients suffered privacy violations, and that proper consent was obtained from everyone who appeared on camera.
Filming took place over an 80-day period between February and May 2013.
Initially, some staff opted out of participating, thus requiring the production team to blur their faces if they appeared incidentally in a scene that was used in the final edit, but in the end, more than 2000 people gave their consent to appear in the show. The camera crew also avoided filming certain patients undergoing mental health issues, due to the difficulty of obtaining informed consent, but were present for dozens of other traumas without complaint from hospital staff or patients.
Episode 1, "No Typical Day" premiered on January 21, 2014 and was the most watched program in its time-slot, as well as the biggest documentary series premiere in Knowledge Network's history. Episode 3, "Full Moon", was given a special big screen presentation at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver on May 4, 2014 at which Eastwood, Murray Battle of Knowledge Network and members of the cast gave a Q&A.
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