Watch more Sklif episodes: https://rtd.rt.com/films/sklif-series/
Sklif’s Intensive care unit is the first point of contact when an emergency or an accident happens. The doctors who work here need to act fast – the lives of their patients depend on their timely response. When a young man is rushed into the unit with a serious head wound, the doctors learn he had fallen down an escalator in Moscow Metro. They urgently need to prevent more blood loss, while minimising any risk of causing damage to the patient’s neck. The cause of the accident indicates that he might also be suffering from a spinal injury, and if so, a movement in the wrong direction could cause paralysis.

Before long, a man with a stab wound in his neck is also wheeled in. He needs treatment for shock and an operation for his spinal injury. His test results reveal he also has HIV, which means the doctors must be particularly careful while treating him. Risking their own lives while helping others is common for doctors in this unit, especially as the people arriving here can be intoxicated or aggressive.

Sklifosovsky Institute, aka Sklif: a name known to every Moscovite, and many Russians too. It is Europe's largest research and development facility for emergency medical care, complete with a hospital, research labs, surgery rooms, burn treatment facility and much more. Sklif's Emergency Intensive Care Unit is the clinic's busiest unit, with doctors and nurses tending to those whose lives are hanging by a thread. Here, battles against death are fought every minute of every day. It takes the best to win.

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