Hope returns
All new to Wednesday night

Australia’s leading real-life medical series, RPA, returns to Channel Nine on Wednesday, August 22 at 8.30pm.

Narrated by Max Cullen, the new one-hour episodes in the 13th season of RPA tell even more stories of the brave and inspiring people who pass through Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney every day.

With access to one of Australia’s leading hospitals the cameras capture around-the-clock drama, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the emergency wards and operating theatres to understand the devotion, dedication and perseverance of Royal Prince Alfred’s doctors and nurses.

In the series return we meet Laurence, a 19-year-old who has been described as a medical phenomenon. Few patients with his condition make it into their teenage years but he is fighting on. He was born with a complex congenital heart disease that meant several vital functions in his heart were missing. The late Doctor Victor Chang was the first surgeon to operate on him when he was just nine hours old and Laurence has since had six more cardiac operations. But now he’s in trouble again.

Lyndal, a 28-year-old mother of three young children who blames her constant headaches on bad sinuses, receives the shocking news that they are caused by a brain tumour. But that’s just the beginning, as she waits to find out if the tumour is malignant.

Andrew, 39-years-old, is in big trouble after falling six metres through a roof on a demolition site. He is rushed to RPA’s Emergency Department in an ambulance with a large head wound and multiple fractures, including smashed kneecaps and a fractured spine.

In part one of Andrew’s story, doctors make some tough decisions as they assess which one of his many injuries should be dealt with first.

And it wasn’t baby Dominic’s crying that kept his parents awake, it was his loud snoring. As Dominic grew he developed sleep apnoea and by the time he turned five was too tired to join in school activities. The culprit is a huge pair of tonsils that almost meet in the middle of his throat.

RPA is a Nine Network series, produced with the co-operation of patients at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the staff of the Sydney South West Area Health Service.