Lily Chao

Lily Chao is a doctor who currently works in the Emergency Department of Holby General Hospital. She joined the department in 2013 as an F2, and became a registrar in 2015. Although she initially had trouble with adopting a more caring attitude when dealing with patients, with some help from Martin Ashford she was able to improve her bedside manner.

Despite originally being disliked in the ED, she has since managed to develop friendships with other staff members, notably Caleb Knight and Ethan Hardy, registrars in the ED. When she took her examination to become a registrar she passed, whereas Cal and Ethan failed theirs to become consultants. She has had tough times whilst working in the ED including being involved in a minibus crash along with four other staff members and having a motorcycle accident due to Connie Beauchamp increasing the work hours. Either way Lily continued to work hard, determined to complete her five year plan to become a consultant.

Early life
Lily grew up with her parents Feng and Li Na Chao in a family where education was considered to be of great importance. Despite the fact she was the first of her family to go to university, her father would tell her that hard work and dedication was the key to success.

At some point after graduating, Lily devised a 5-year plan, consisting of her two years as a foundation doctor in an emergency department. Upon joining Holby ED, she quickly realised that she may have set her goals too high. She has origins from Hong Kong. Prior to joining the department, Lily completed a six month rotation in gerontology.

Time in the Emergency Department (2013-)
Lily Chao joined the Emergency Department of Holby General Hospital in August 2013 as a new foundation doctor in her second year of training. Initially, she found it hard to fit in with the team, primarily due to the fact she was bossy, strict, and had complete disregard for her bedside manner when dealing with patients, something that Martin Ashford later picked up on. Ash was one of the first staff members to have met Lily after he told her she couldn't park her motorcycle outside the ED, but she refused to move it. After first meeting Zoe, Lily told her and Ash that after completing her training and doing a couple of hospital jobs, she hoped to be living in the countryside with her future husband specialising in dermatology.

Towards the end of the month with no signs of her behaviour improving, she was paired up with Rita in an attempt to help her improve her bedside manner once and for all. When this failed to work, it became clear that Lily was only determined to progress her career, and had no time for going above and beyond with patients. However, this later became more costly as in November she attempted to remove some broken wood from a patients leg which inadvertently nearly caused him to bleed to death. Later in November, she discharged a distressed lady without taking her mental state into consideration, and Jamie was assigned to guide Lily when dealing with this in future.

In January 2014, Lily found a friend in a new registrar, Ethan Hardy. On his first day, Zoe assigned Lily to teach him the ropes of the department, and they worked together in figuring out a patient's illness when she displayed unexplained symptoms. Meanwhile, Ash was still concerned about Lily's methods of dealing with patients and by this point he was becoming angry. However, at a Valentine's Day party in February, Lily threw a drunken kiss at Ash, something which caused further tension between them.

By March, Lily had begun to show a softer side when she treated a woman admitted to the ED, but Ash had a harsh word with her after she failed to follow all of his instructions. The following week, Lily decided to press charges against Ash for workplace bullying. Two weeks later, a disciplinary hearing took place involving Lily, Ash and the hospital's CEO at the time, Guy Self. It resulted in Ash receiving a formal written warning.

In April, Cal Knight, a registrar who had arrived in January, assisted Lily in treating a patient, all whilst he was trying to reel her in. Eventually when Lily overheard Cal badmouthing her to Fletch, Ethan punched Cal in the face. This caused a small rivalry to surface between her and Ethan, but they eventually made up in July, on the day that Connie Beauchamp had her first shift as Clinical Lead. In August, Lily helped to expose Cal for stealing Ethan's ideas on cost cutting and blood transfusions.

In October 2014 Lily was involved in a minibus crash along with several other members of staff. Despite the paramedics concerns at the scene due to her pain, Robyn later told her at the ED that her injuries indicated that she was low priority. Whilst in the crashed minibus, she asked the paramedics to check if Ethan was okay first, which reflected her caring side towards those that she liked. Lily attended Jeff's funeral the following week after his death at the scene of the minubus crash.

In March 2015 when Connie greatly increased the training doctors' workloads in her urgency to improve standards, Lily worked the hardest, losing sleep in her efforts to impress Connie. She appeared in the ED 'dead on her feet', inattentive and potentially a danger to herself and her patients. She fainted at work, but Connie ignored the warning signs. Dylan eventually persuaded Lily to go home, but against his judgement she decided to make her own way on her motorcycle scooter. Lily nodded off whilst driving and hit a jaywalking girl; the girl's father admonished her and Lily was devastated. She attributed the accident to her own carelessness, and left Connie a letter of resignation. However, Connie caught up to her before she left and rejected her resignation, and told Lily that she was a good doctor, leaving Lily to go back on her choice. The girl also admitted that she had purposely stepped out in the road, therefore getting Lily off the hook.

In August 2015, Lily passed her test in order to become a registrar, while her friends Cal and Ethan didn't pass their consultant exams. Upon telling her father, he wasn't as pleased as she had thought he would be which lead her to start a quest for approval at work, by turning to Connie.

In September 2015, upon the arrival of Alicia Munroe, Lily was paired up with her to be her mentor. Lily was jealous at the fact she managed to get along well with everyone, and always looked for a way to criticise her because of this. Although she initially wanted to work in dermatology, she revealed to Alicia that she belonged in the ED. The week after Alicia's arrival, Lily was angered when she performed a risky procedure on a patient during the terrorist attacks in the department although Connie wasn't bothered as the patient was okay.

The following month, Lily received a devastating phone-call to tell her that her father had died. She attempted to bottle up her emotions and get on with her shift. However, after the funeral the following week she threw herself into work once again, and ended up taking her anger out on Alicia when she asked if Lily was okay. At this point, it was becoming evident to Louise that Lily was bullying Alicia.

Just a week after the funeral, Alicia was forced to go and get Connie after Lily made a mistake whilst realigning a patient's broken ankle bone. Lily soon became more jealous when it was Alicia's quick thinking that saved the patient's ankle. At the end of October, Connie encouraged Alicia to take her MCEM exams as soon as possible. The only issue was that she asked for a senior member of staff to also write a report on her, and it was Lily who took charge. During the shift, Alicia performed an unfamiliar procedure on a patient to relocate his dislocated shoulder which annoyed Lily. Towards the end of the shift, Connie asked Lily if everything was okay, and Lily told her that she thought Alicia was overconfident and not ready for the exams.

In November when Alicia abandoned her patient to help at the scene of an accident outside the ED, Lily was furious, and they were both called into Connie's office. In the end, Alicia left her job stating that she had been bullied out of her job by Lily. When Louise blamed Lily for Alicia's departure the following week, she acted oblivious to the way she treated Alicia, and that her actions had consequences. Soon, several other members of staff picked up on this, including Ethan, who said that he couldn't take her side as what she had done was wrong.

The following year in February, Lily was on scene at a pride event with Iain. She was finding it boring until an accident occurred, which kept her on her toes. In the following weeks, she also provided support for Ethan following his Huntington's diagnosis. In July, Rita once again helped Lily out with her bedside manner just as she had done three years before when they had first joined the department.

In August with Charlie's 30th anniversary approaching that evening, Lily was shocked to discover that Alicia had returned for a locum shift in the ED. Trying to put the past behind her, Lily made an extra effort to be nice to Alicia, something which didn't go unnoticed. When Alicia discovered that Lily had a phobia that was affecting her work, she was forced to perform an eye procedure. Later in the shift, Lily tried to strike up a friendly conversation with Alicia. Despite this, Alicia informed her that although she could get over the past, they were never going to be friends.

Later in the day, a grumpy elderly patient named Sally Hodge was admitted to the ED following a fall and Charlie and Lily began treating her. They initially concluded that she likely had a urinary tract infection, but later discovered that she had a lithopaedion as a result of an attempted abortion when she was a teenager. They sent her off for surgery, but not before she inadvertently ruined the surprise of the party for Charlie. Lily later joined the party at The Hope & Anchor and began updating Charlie on Sally's condition, but he was clearly preoccupied with his celebrations. Following the helicopter crash outside the ED, Lily was straight on the scene assisting with the other medical staff. She primarily took care of Iain and his leg injury as he was inside the helicopter, and was angry when he kept getting up to help in the fear that he would make his condition worse. Later in the day, Lily performed a head scan on Iain and found that there was no significant injury, and he was relieved to hear that Grace had also pulled through.

In September, Lily was treating an elderly couple in the ED and was shocked when the woman told her that she had been hit by one of the ambulance doors. Lily went down to the ambulance station to examine Iain as she believed that his injuries from the crash were still affecting him. It transpired that he had a perforated eardrum which was affecting his hearing, hence why he didn't hear the woman behind the door earlier in the day. She prescribed him some antibiotics and advised him to take some time off work which he later did.

Later in the month, the anniversary of her father's death arrived and Lily threw herself into work. She soon found herself working with a teenage girl who didn't want anything to do with her father and tried to persuade her to reconcile with him. However, when the father's condition worsened and his daughter became worried, Lily found it all too close to home and had to leave. To make things worse, Alicia had lied to Lily and told her that her birthday party was fancy dress in an attempt to deter her from coming. Lily borrowed the girl's pole dancing outfit to go to the party desperate to try something new. She was humiliated when she turned up in the outfit and found comfort in Iain.

In the following weeks, Alicia tried to contact Lily to apologise but she wasn't answering her phone. Towards the end of her shift one day, Lily turned up to work and let Alicia off the hook for what had happened. However, Alicia told Lily that Iain had stepped in to defend her and hinted that he may have feelings for her. In November, new F1 Seb's father Archie Grayling visited the ED whilst organising a brain operation for a teenage boy. Lily told Alicia that Archie was his type and Alicia asked him if he'd be interested in going out with her. He accepted and they went out together after their shifts. Two weeks later, Archie visited the ED whilst treating a young boy and arranged to meet up with Lily for a coffee. However, at the end of the shift Lily felt betrayed when he revealed himself as the undercover inspector for the ED that day.

Personal life
Throughout her time in the ED, Lily has been shown to have a romantic interest in co-worker Ethan Hardy. Despite this, many things have got in the way including studying for exams to become a registrar and the arrival and return of Honey Wright, the ED's coffee shop barista. She also had a brief fling with Cal in the summer of 2014.

In early October 2015, Lily's mother phoned her to tell her that her father had died. Her father's funeral took place on 17 October 2015.

Since the helicopter crash in August 2016, a potential romance has blossomed between Lily and paramedic colleague Iain Dean. However, in November she went on a date with Archie Grayling.

Trivia

 * Lily’s mother owns a restaurant.
 * Lily lives by her five-year plan and nothing will deviate her from this course... or will it?
 * Lily doesn't even like funfairs.
 * Lily aspires to be like Connie one day.

Behind the scenes
Crystal Yu has portrayed Lily in Casualty since her arrival in August 2013. The character has been generally well received by critics favouring her sound medical skills and poor bedside manner. However, Duncan Lindsay writing for newspaper the Metro accused the character of being one-dimensional. Since her arrival, Lily has been a prominent character on the show through the 28th and 29th series. However, after the start of series 30, Lily's role in the show became less prominent throughout the series.

Crystal Yu attended the NTA Awards in January 2016 along with several other cast members. Casualty was nominated for the best drama, however it lost out to Downton Abbey.

Appearances

 * See also: Character appearances and Category:Lily centric.

Lily made her first appearance in the 2013 series 28 episode "Bedside Manners". To date, there have been  Lily centric episodes.