Emergency

Within minutes of last week's Ladbroke Grove train crash, St Mary's Hospital implemented its major incident plan. As ambulances sped to the scene, a ward was cleared and 200 hospital staff gathered in casualty to be given tasks. Hierarchies were forgotten and old skills recalled to make the vital difference between life and death. United by an instinctive team effort, doctors and nurses worked unstintingly through the hours they now describe as the most awful of their lives. (Original abstract)