Trauma: Life in the ER

University Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, is a state-of-the-art trauma center. Meet the largely local staff of this ER, learn about the influences that led them where they are, and watch them work.

Automatic weapons, gang violence and freeway accidents -- mayhem is part of life at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. Many of the patients were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The staff makes these situations their work.

At Charity Hospital in New Orleans, the staff is on the front lines of a brutal way of life. They treat the shot, stabbed, beaten, abused and neglected who are brought in from the streets of The Big Easy.

Each member of the trauma team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville has their own approach to their work. Meet this diverse group, from the mentoring chief of the ER to the insecure resident.

When people are injured by drunks, it isn't simply an accident. At MetroHealth Hospital in Cleveland, 60 percent of traumas are alcohol related, and more than half are from car crashes. See how the staff deals with their work.

Learn what a typical day's worth of trauma cases are like at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. The common thread is that the victims are young and inexperienced in life.

At the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California, learn what it takes to be an ER doctor. The skills include dealing with life and death decisions, working in controlled chaos and handling tragedy.

Charity Hospital in New Orleans offers medical care to anyone in need. In a city known for architectural majesty and Southern sophistication, New Orleans has a lesser known face as well, one of poverty and violence.

Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the setting for family drama when victims of domestic violence are treated for life-threatening wounds.