By Delya Apsari
“A&E isn’t for everyone. It can make you or break you. It is a very fast paced environment but is very special to my heart. I love the adrenaline rush it gives me”, Filipino senior nurse RJ Louis Garcia, 35, tells the camera in ITV2’s “Emergency Nurses: A&E Stories”.
Garcia and his best friend, Lou Angelo Aguilar, 33, both Filipino senior charge nurses, feature prominently in the series which follows the working lives of a group of millennials working in Northwick Park Hospital in London. It has one of the busiest A&E departments in the UK and – like many UK hospitals – has a large community of nurses from the Philippines.
“I may look ordinary, but I am capable of doing extraordinary things. And one of them is saving lives”, says Aguilar.
Pressure and excitement
Emergency Nurses shows Garcia and Aguilar attending to A&E patients in a high pressure environment and confidently explaining patients’ conditions and medical procedures to the camera. “It’s really difficult to be in an emergency situation even without a camera”, Garcia shares. “You have the pressure from the doctors, pressure from the patients, pressure from the families, and you know it. It’s kind of weird at first, but the crew from the TV show were really good. At one point I didn’t even notice I was being filmed”.
Garcia and Aguilar, who both work at the hospital’s A&E department, expressed elation and excitement at representing Filipinos in the UK medical series.
This project is very special to my heart as I think this is the first time a Filipino is represented in a medical TV series in the international arena.
RJ Louis Garcia
In a Facebook post, Garcia says, “This project is very special to my heart as I think this is the first time a Filipino is represented in a medical TV series in the international arena”. Aguilar adds that he has often wished a Filipino would get featured in a medical drama.
“I thought that it would be nice if a Filipino got featured in a medical documentary,” says Aguilar, “and here you go. It happened. I never imagined that! I used to say that it’s impossible. I mean, it is possible, but I have never imagined that I would be the one who is actually in that documentary.”
Filipino representation in TV medical series
The Philippines is the largest supplier of overseas nurses in the developed world, with around 15,000 nurses leaving the country every year. In the UK they are the third biggest ethnic group working for the NHS while in the US, they make up the largest group of migrant nurses.
Despite this, Filipino nurses seem to be rarely represented in TV medical programs in either country. Nonetheless, Aguilar, originally from Baguio City, shares that whilst working in A&E, he fell in love with American medical dramas such as Nurse Jackie and Grey’s Anatomy.
I was happy because I think I have used the opportunity to take a multi-faceted approach to representation. I was able to represent myself as a Filipino, as a Filipino nurse who works abroad, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Lou Angelo Aguilar
Aguilar, who recently moved to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in the US says, “I was happy because I think I have used the opportunity to take a multi-faceted approach to representation. I was able to represent myself as a Filipino, as a Filipino nurse who works abroad, and the LGBTQ+ community. We, the Filipinos, are here, and this is how we look after people”, he says.
Pandemic struggles
The experience of overseas Filipino nurses during Covid was also captured in the documentary.
Garcia caught the virus during the height of the pandemic and spent 13 days in the intensive care unit. He did not tell his family back home of his illness and he was also unable to work for three months. Teary-eyed, he shares his experience in the TV documentary.
“I just realised that I have actually found my second family in Northwick Park. They were there during the toughest time of my life. I’m just so grateful for my family. This is the family I chose for myself,” Garcia says.
Filipino nurses in the UK and the US were the worst affected ethnic group during the pandemic. More than 70 Filipino nurses in the UK while 83 in the US died of Covid-related complications.
Cultural showcase
But Garcia’s Covid experience was not the only thing he wanted to show viewers of Emergency Nurses. When we asked him which scene he found most endearing, he told us the answer was being able to show his Filipino culture.
The Batangas-born nurse says: “It was very memorable because I got to show my friends the Philippines’ traditional food. It was my big chance to show boodle fight on an international level. So, I have to explain to the camera what boodle fight is and how special it is for Filipinos”.
Garcia and Aguilar share one story where they were both on duty during the pandemic and had to deal with a crisis. They were ready to go home when they noticed a patient who did not seem to be moving. Garcia recalls, “I said, ‘Lou, can you see if the patient is sleeping or not?’ and I was like ‘I don’t think she’s sleeping.’ And I was right.
“We called the doctor, we started compressing the patient’s chest. We stayed in the hospital for an extra hour, and it was total chaos. The patient survived, but, you know, the adrenaline rush that you get with your friend? It’s unforgettable,” Garcia recalls.
Aguilar describes the start of the filming process as awkward and uncomfortable. “But as the weeks go by, you get used to it. They (the TV crew] very respectful and professional. I think 80 or 90 percent of the time, most patients that I engaged with did agree on being filmed.
“Most of them really liked the idea that they will be used to show other people how the emergency nurses look after others”.
About the author
Delya Apsari is an Indonesian journalist currently pursuing a master’s degree in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She has covered the Surabaya bombings while working for Surya Daily, one of Indonesia’s major newspapers. She has also written for Indonesian online outlets. At Bournemouth, she has led a team to explore stories about racism and inequality in the UK for The Breaker, the news website run by master’s students of the Department of Communication and Journalism.
