In the aftermath of Roxannas shocking death, everyone at Holby City was feeling vulnerable and upset. Hanssen was devastated, and everyone else needed an uplifting speech from Ric Griffin to keep them going.
Into this heightened atmosphere, Sacha Levy was about to carry out a complex and risky bowel transplant surgery on patient Tyler Saba. You might remember Tyler – he was the friend of Connor, the patient whose death led to Sacha being on the roof of the hospital thinking about suicide. Dominic and Ric were worried – was Sacha up to the challenge of this most personal and important of cases? How would he cope if the worst happened and Tyler died on the operating table?
The surgery wasnt without incident and there were several moments when it was touch-and-go. In the end, it was a success. Everyone was naturally relieved about this, but then Jac found Sacha on his own, sobbing. In an emotional scene he told her that felt broken, that he couldnt do the job any more and felt like he should resign. Then he told her about the day hed been suicidal, when hed come into her room as she was sleeping to say goodbye. Jac immediately took charge and told Sacha he was coming to live with her so she could look after him. Its me doing the one thing I can to help my best friend in the world, she said.
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Meanwhile on AAU they were welcoming a new F1. Leah Faulkner (Hannah Daniel) is a little bit older than the typical F1, because she started training later than most. This means, she said, that shed have to be even better than most if she was going to make consultant by the time she was 40. So shes not lacking in ambition, nor is she lacking in confidence. Her first patient typically (for Holby) presented with a straightforward-seeming condition which then turned out to be anything but. Leahs insistence on calling for a psych consult for him didnt go down well and Serena had to get involved when the patient got upset. Eventually Leah worked out what was wrong with him.
Serena was impressed. and offered to buy Leah a drink after work. It was Serenas birthday, but shed been keeping it quiet because Roxannas death meant that nobody was really in a party mood. She did get flowers from Bernie, but that only made her miss Bernie more. Serena and Leah bonded in Albies over a bottle of Shiraz, a birthday muffin and a discussion about long distance relationships. There was a little bit of flirting going on, and Leah said that her flat was just around the corner. Was Serena tempted? I would say she probably was, a little bit. I think she was more shocked than anything, that such a situation would arise. She said shed get a cab home – but she was rattled.
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There was also some flirting going on on Darwin. A few weeks ago someone casually mentioned Scary Sue from ITU, and in this episode we got to meet her. Played by the brilliant Angela Lonsdale, Sue was only scary if you have a fear of being talked to death. And shed taken quite a shine to Steven Fletcher, who is currently on Darwin recovering from being hit in the chest by a runaway gurney.
Stevens heroic actions protecting his grandson Mikey have made Fletch see him in a more sympathetic light, and Fletch was keen to spend both quality and quantity time with him. Steven wanted to watch a boxing match on TV (theyve gone boxing mad on Holby recently), so Fletch arranged for a TV to be brought to the ward so he and his dad could watch the boxing together. Then Steven managed to invite Scary Sue, who turned up with snacks. She and Steven were getting on like a house on fire and Fletch was feeling pushed out, but while Sue was out of the room Steven told his son that he wasnt interested in romance, just getting to know his son and grandchildren better. So he gave Sue the brush-off and she went home and left them to it. Thats when Steven told Fletch that his own father had been an abusive bully who once knocked him down the stairs, and that was the reason Steven had let Fletch stay up and watch boxing on the telly when he was only six years old – he didnt want Fletch to be a victim like hed been.
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Back to the aftermath of Roxannas death now, and poor Essie was worried that it had been her fault. She worried that shed pushed Roxanna too hard trying to get her to communicate with the alphabet board. Professor Gaskell told her she mustnt blame herself, and she left him sitting among the shiny blue objects in his wet lab, pondering his next move.
Sue Haasler is the author of the official Holby City book, which you can read about here. She also writes novels and theres information about all her books here
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