Triage sorts through bike accidents, severed fingers, a patient who has fallen off a mountain and one who barely needs a bandage. No case, large or small, is turned away by the emergency department of Vancouver General Hospital… and it’s taking its toll.

The staff faces overwhelming traffic from elderly patients suffering a range of medical issues. Doctors and nurses struggle with the conflicting issues of “living long” versus “living well.”

Summer hits the ER and the air conditioning is down. From a nail in a boot, to an agonizing escharotomy following a severe burn, everybody is feeling the heat. An ER resident winds up in treatment after a head - injury on the water.

It's last days at VGH for Jo - Anne, the matriarch/charge nurse of the ER. Despite being surrounded by pain and suffering on a daily basis, most nurses love the challenge and share their secrets to surviving in “Emerge”.

In an episode that’s full of life-saving technology, remarkable treatments and heart - warming recoveries, we witness ER staff, patients and family members confront the limitations of medicine and face the truth of their own mortality.