This article contains spoilers for Breathtaking episode 3, "Mitigation". Breathtaking is an ITV medical drama based on the book by palliative care doctor, Rachel Clarke. The three-part series recounts the experience of working through the UK's COVID-19 pandemic, as seen through the eyes of an acute medicine consultant, Dr. Abbey Henderson (played by Joanne Froggatt) who works at a fictional hospital.
Breathtaking's final episode takes us to a later point in the pandemic, around the 2020 Christmas period and beyond, with the threat of another national lockdown.
This episode in particular highlights issues like the rationing of care (workers being forced to deny potentially life-saving treatment because they're overwhelmed with COVID patients), misinformation, and resistance to COVID restrictions and policy, and lays bare the mental strain that continuing to work through the pandemic had on workers.
Here's a full recap of everything we saw in Breathtaking episode 3.
A family moment
With news footage mentioning the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and rumblings of a second COVID wave, Heading to work from her temporary accommodation, Abbey finds a member of the public has broken into the hospital and started filming the building, calling it a "ghost town" and the staff "liars" as he flees.
After the titles, it's November 24, 2020, the end of the second national lockdown. After treating a patient with Ant, we see Abbey telling staff that they're going back to being a "Hot Ward", and that their whole hospital floor is becoming COVID wards again. She tries to reassure staff that it won't be like before, as they have a plan and vaccines around the corner. Tracey asks why there can be talk of social bubbles over Christmas while they're trying to reopen COVID wards.
Next, we meet Ellie Bridges, a COVID patient who has advanced MS. She wants to "try everything" they can to treat her; Ant tells her they'll treat it as aggressively as they can. Outside, Ant, Emma, and Abbey discuss her chances of survival and settle on a CPAP trial on the ward; Emma tells them her husband is desperate to bring the kids in to visit, but Abbey tells her they can't make an exception. The policy is now only in the last days of life, and only one visitor.
We skip forward again to Abbey on a video call with her family. Dr. Ozkul asks to speak to her; he has a patient who has to take the final ITU bed. Abbey tries to make the case for Ellie, but Ozkul says his new patient is more likely to cope with (and come off of) the ventilator. She can't understand why they would have to deny potentially life-saving treatment; Ozkul says because the lockdown was lifted, this is the place they're in. Afterwards, Abbey tells Chantelle to allow Simon to bring in both children to visit their mother.
Simon turns up with their two young girls. Abbey greets them at the door and helps them put on the required PPE before their visit. Following their reunion, Abbey has to tell Simon that Ellie is "potentially sick enough to die". She promises to do whatever she can for Ellie, but that they have to prepare for the worst.
There's a lighter moment next, as Abbey's reunited with her family for Christmas and her kids greet her at the door with presents in hand, but this is contrasted with footage from a governmental COVID briefing which projects things are set to get worse after Christmas.
Abbey's back in the hospital again. She sees Emma keeping an eye on a patient (Joan) whose condition is deteriorating. Worse, Joan's husband is also on a COVID ward, and her daughter-in-law is in the ITU. Abbey asks how Emma's coping, if she got any time off, and if she saw her family; she didn't, as Emma was isolating, and Abbey tells her she is always there if Emma wants to chat about anything.
Misinformation on the rise
Outside, Ant has a fraught conversation with his mother over the phone. He wants her to stay home as things aren't safe; she brings up videos she has seen online playing down the risks. He chastises her for not listening to a doctor's advice and focusing on stuff she sees on Facebook. When she further says vaccines aren't safe, he harshly says "It's no wonder Dad died". His mother bursts into tears at that point; Ant apologizes and asks again for her to wait for her vaccine, but she says there's no point as being dead "would be easier".
Emma and Tracey move Joan into a side room as her condition worsens. Then, Emma phones Joan's son, Nigel, telling him that his mother's lungs are failing, despite intervention. Nigel starts to blame himself for inviting everyone around for Christmas, as that's when they caught the virus, but Emma interrupts, telling him it's not his fault, he was told it was okay. She asks what would matter most to them (being together), and we see Joan and her husband have been moved into a room side-by-side. Despite praise from Abbey, Emma starts to cry on her way to another patient.
January 1, 2021. Abbey walks onto a ward and overhears Ant arguing with a patient. They are refusing to wear her face mask (which she calls "face nappies for ****ing sheep") as he son is deaf and needs to see her mouth. She labels the whole pandemic made up, and Ant explains the facts: NHS staff are dying to protect her and her family, which finally makes her put it back on.
After the confrontation, Abbey sees several workers (Ant included) watching some of the misinformation videos in a staff room, and she warns them to keep this stuff off the ward. After this, we're reunited with Ellie. who is terrified of dying and calling for her children; Abbey comes in to help Tracey and they comfort her.
After a conversation with Emma and Ant, Abbey goes to see a surgeon who has denied potentially curative surgery to a cancer patient, Mr Rodgers on the grounds of him being too frail. The surgeon says Rodgers is medically unfit, and that there are no ITU beds for him; she challenges him for denying the treatment, but the surgeon says their hands are tied.
The pair relay this to Mr Rodgers. His cancer hasn't spread, but they can't operate, and Abbey tells him the reason is they can't be sure they'd be able to provide the proper post-operative care he would need to survive his operation, because their ITU beds are all full with COVID patients.
Furious, Abbey confronts Mike Prentiss about denying life-saving treatment to patients because they're swamped with COVID, again. When he says they're doing everything they can but they have to accept the reality that this is no-one's fault, Abbey breaks into a rant. She says this situation came about because of decisions being made by policymakers and, with no one communicating the real working conditions they're up against, the public isn't aware of the real risks.
She threatens to blow the whistle herself, but Prentiss warns her against the idea. Similarly, Dr. Jo tells Abbey that she doesn't think it will even do that much good, and reminds her of the risk to her career. Their chat is interrupted by a staff member calling for a spare pair of hands, and they rush out to the parking lot outside.
A taxi has arrived with a potential patient in the back seat who is cold, with no pulse. The driver came as fast as he could, but it took at least 20 minutes. Jo says she will pronounce the man dead there before having him moved to the mortuary. They find the man's phone, and Abbey answers it, tearfully explaining to his wife on the other end that he has passed away.
Whistleblowing
We cut back to Emma, who is working overnight and keeping an eye on a patient. She's in frequent contact with ITU, asking for someone to come and assess him, but they can never send anyone down to help her. When Abbey arrives for a meeting the following morning, she asks where Emma has gotten to. No one has seen her, but Abbey soon finds Emma sobbing on the floor in front of some lockers.
In a lift, Abbey pulls out her phone and scans through the abusive messages from COVID deniers and trolls online. Later, as she tries to leave work, Abbey is seen being harassed and even spat on by "scamdemic" protesters who are posted up outside the hospital.
At home, Abbey watches her family leaving the house, before phoning a radio station and asking to speak anonymously to a health journalist. We then see her arriving at the studio for a live interview, where she explains how bad things have gotten for them.
At first, the radio presenter gives her the space to put her version of events forward, but later he challenges Abbey, asking what her motive is in becoming a whistleblower. She says it's because she's seen things recently that she'll never unsee despite working as a doctor for 15 years.
When he asks whether people can trust her version of events, Abbey falters for a brief moment, before naming herself and quoting her GMC number on-air. She says listeners can trust her because this is her version of events, and she believes that many of the deaths are coming from decisions that are being made far too late.
Ultimately, she concludes that people are entitled to differing views on the pandemic, but she says that if and when they catch the virus, Abbey's reality will become theirs.
After her interview, Abbey's on the phone with her husband, but their chat's interrupted by a phone call from an unknown number. Abbey answers, and the speaker identifies themself as Robert Hexfield from NHS England. Ominously, he asks what her CEO and the GMC will think about her interview; Abbey says she has a professional duty to be honest about failures in their duty of care.
We see more archival footage, illustrating the pandemic worsening yet again, including the news of the death toll passing 100,000 people, and the beginnings of the COVID inquiry. We're then reunited with our characters attending another support meeting.
Abbey spots Emma arriving and asks how the younger doctor is doing. Emma says she's trying not to leave medicine. Abbey reassures her and says she is a wonderful doctor, but she has to do what's best for her, revealing that she's felt like leaving before but always stays because she feels what they do has value.
Breathtaking comes to an end with the group session beginning, and some shocking figures on title cards. The Office of National Statistics recorded 414 healthcare workers died of COVID between March and December 2020, and a second one card reveals an estimated 60,000 NHS workers reported having post-traumatic stress symptoms due to their work during the pandemic in 2021.
Breathtaking is now streaming on ITVX.
