Ruth Winters (born 18 October 1984) is a trust doctor who worked in Holby City Hospital's emergency department from 2007 to 2011. She joined the department in September 2007 during her second year of foundation training, and following this she was appointed as a trust doctor in the ED.
Biography
Early life
When Ruth was a teenager, her father Ted drove her mother to suicide. (CAS: "Inappropriate Behaviour"; "Take It Back")
First months at Holby ED
On 8 September 2007, Ruth worked her first shift at Holby City Hospital's emergency department. Within hours of her arrival, a bomb had exploded on a coach, and the hospital declared a major incident. (CAS: "My First Day") Despite the chaos, she relished the opportunity to shadow cardiothoracic consultant Connie Beauchamp and observed as she performed an anterolateral thoracotomy on a tamponading patient. However, senior charge nurse Charlie Fairhead took issue with her disrespectful attitude towards the nursing staff, and, following the evacuation of the entire department, he instructed her to learn all of the nurses' names and "some manners". (CAS: "Charlie's Anniversary")
On 6 October, Ruth treated a woman named Bunmi Adasida who vehemently denied being pregnant. Nurse Nadia Talianos urged Ruth to perform a HCG test, but Ruth was confident that it was not necessary and later diagnosed Bunmi with appendicitis. However, Bunmi soon became screaming in agony and was taken to resus. When it transpired that Bunmi had an ectopic pregnancy, Ruth told consultant Harry Harper that she based her diagnosis off the information provided to her by Nadia. (CAS: "Core Values")
On 13 October, Ruth was horrified when her estranged father Ted was admitted to the ED following a road accident and tried to pass his case onto Toby, but Nadia pressured her into treating him. Ted tried to convince Ruth to switch samples to cover up his drink-driving and attempted to hit her when she refused to help. He later apologised and claimed that he tried to get in touch with her, but she was convinced that he was lying. However, Ted presented Ruth with a card that he claimed to have written years prior and acknowledged that it was too late for him to make up with her. Upon reading it, Ruth decided to oblige Ted and swapped his blood sample with hers. After agreeing to have a coffee with Ted, Ruth decided to get a card from a charity collector outside the hospital; she was devastated to find the card Ted had given her and tore it up. (CAS: "Inappropriate Behaviour")
After Ruth failed to find a free surgical placement, Adam Trueman tricked her into visiting the histology department. However, despite the department being full of "geeks", she expressed an interest in volunteering there. On 23 October, Ruth delivered test results to a woman named Rachel without realising that she was the patient, and they showed that she had breast cancer. (CAS: "Sex and Death")
On 17 November, Adam allowed Ruth to take the lead in resus, and Ruth decided to retrieve and administer prilocaine to the patient herself. She later realised that she had given them the wrong drug by mistake. However, as Ruth attempted to cover up her error, she noticed someone filming her and had the tape destroyed. After being called into Adam's office, Ruth feared that he had found out about her mistake, but he instead praised her work and suggested that she could be a consultant within a few years. (CAS: "Strangers When We Met")
On 8 December, executive director Marilyn Fox informed Ruth that she was being considered for a surgical rotation and wanted her to perform an intricate procedure and show her worth. When a patient's foot was amputated and deemed unviable, Ruth was eager to clip and tie the wound, but Adam wanted to give the opportunity to Toby De Silva who had recently resigned. Ruth protested and claimed that she needed to perform the procedure, but Adam told her that she had been "in a world of [her] own" for the entire day and ordered her to take a break. That night, after Toby had withdrawn his letter of resignation, Ruth allowed him to share the on-call room with her. She asked him if everyone hated her, but he was fast asleep. (CAS: "Behind Closed Doors")
On Christmas Day, Ruth was delighted to learn that Dominic Bidwell, a histologist that she had grown fond of, had recommended her to surgeon Sarah Evans and got a spot assisting in Rachel's surgery. (CAS: "Sex and Death")
On New Year's Eve, a young woman named Orla was admitted to the ED following a car accident. Ruth reviewed her neck X-ray and ruled that there was nothing wrong with her, so she instructed Nadia to remove Orla's neck collar and discharge her. However, Orla soon collapsed and could not move her limbs. After noticing a potential C7 fracture on the X-ray, Ruth told clinical nurse manager Tess Bateman that Nadia was instructed to remain with Orla while she asked for a second opinion. (CAS: "Take a Cup of Kindness Yet") Tess confronted Nadia who insisted that Ruth was lying, and Tess warned both of them that there would be a formal investigation if they could not agree on what happened. Feeling that she was an inadequate nurse, Nadia decided to take full responsibility for the incident and resigned. Ruth overheard and admitted her fault, but Nadia insisted that she did not belong at the hospital and wished Ruth luck with her career. (CAS: "For Auld Lang Syne") Following the incident, Ruth visited Dominic in the histology department and made a pass at him, but she was heartbroken when he told her he was married and stopped volunteering there. (CAS: "Sex and Death")
On 5 January 2008, as the nurses had declared a work-to-rule, Ruth volunteered to attend an entrapment. Despite being warned that paramedic Greg Fallon had already administered morphine, a pressured Ruth pled ignorance and gave the patient named Clare a second dose. In the ambulance, Clare lost consciousness, and consultant Zoe Hanna diagnosed her symptoms as those of a morphine overdose. Later, Ruth treated Clare's partner Aiden and believed that his hand injuries were sustained while abusing Clare, but Aiden showed Ruth a series of bruises on his back, and she realised that Clare was responsible. Believing that Clare's violent behaviour was the result of pregnancy hormones, Ruth encouraged Aiden to help Clare through the pregnancy, and the two reconciled. (CAS: "Broken Homes")
Suicide attempt
| “ | I tried to be a good doctor. Really, I did. But it was too hard; it beat me, and I am so ashamed. I never wanted anything else out of life, so there is no life. I am so sorry to the patients I caused suffering; to their families, my sincerest apologies. I don't belong here. | „ |
| — Ruth's suicide note (CAS: "Before a Fall") | ||
Two weeks later, Ruth treated a man named Pete who had taken an overdose. Although his prognosis was initially optimistic, Pete began to experience severe chest pains, and his X-ray and ECG suggested that he was suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Pete soon went into VF, and, despite Ruth's best efforts, he was pronounced dead. Ruth tried to inform Pete's wife Suki of his death, but she refused to believe that Pete was dead. Ruth revealed to Suki that her mother committed suicide when she was a teenager, and she assured Suki that Pete's overdose was a cry for help and not meticulously planned. (CAS: "Take It Back")
On 2 February, Ruth struggled to stay awake at work and was forced to take caffeine pills to remain alert. In cubicles, she treated a man named David and dismissed him as a drunk. Nurse Kelsey Phillips pointed out that his breath did not smell of alcohol, and Ruth agreed to check him again; she was sure of her original diagnosis after David became incoherent and grabbed her. However, he later suffered a seizure and was rushed into resus; his patient notes revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer. David soon went into asystole and was later performed dead.
Feeling guilty about David's death, Ruth volunteered to perform the last offices, but Harry Harper assured Ruth that David's condition - Wernicke's encephalopathy - could present as intoxication, and she would learn from her mistakes. Upon discovering that David was the father of a severely autistic patient named Joe, Ruth decided to speak to Joe herself. In admin, Ruth publicly apologised for her error and promised that it would not happen again. (CAS: "Before a Fall") Elsewhere in the hospital, Ruth was devastated to discover that Rachel had died. (CAS: "Sex and Death") Later that day, Toby and Abs decided to surprise Ruth at her apartment, but they instead found her hanging. She was taken down and rushed to the ED. (CAS: "Before a Fall")
The week after her suicide attempt, Ruth was taken off sedation and woke up from her coma. (CAS: "Thicker than Water") In March, Ruth was discharged and agreed to stay with Maggie. (CAS: "Diamond Dogs")
Personality
When Ruth arrived at the emergency department, Ruth was highly ambitious and solely focused on her medical career. (CAS: "Sex and Death") Her medical expertise amazed her peers, (CAS: "Core Values"; "Before a Fall") and she relished any opportunity to impress and put her skills to the test. By the end of her first month at the ED, despite the heavy workload, she found herself loving the experience. (CAS: "Sex and Death") However, Ruth lacked basic manners towards her colleagues, especially the nurses, (CAS: "My First Day"; "Charlie's Anniversary") and she was prone to scapegoating. (CAS: "Core Values") Ruth often lacked compassion for patients (CAS: "Inappropriate Behaviour"; "Where's the Art in Heartache?") to the point where she recommended getting the police to stop a woman with Alzheimer's disease from constantly calling for an ambulance. (CAS: "Strangers When We Met")
Ruth asks Toby if everyone hates her. (CAS: "Behind Closed Doors")
However, despite Ruth's cold exterior, she was very sensitive. As a result of her troubled relationship with her father Ted, Ruth had very low self-esteem and saw herself as a "miserable, stuck-up, too-big-for-her-boots, cold fish". (CAS: "Sex and Death") She took issue with her colleagues calling her "Chuckles" due to her classmates mocking her mother's death by calling her "Bambi", (CAS: "Finding the Words"; "Sex and Death") and she was hurt when a graffiti artist produced a piece depicting the department's staff and drew her without a face, suggested that she was an emotionless automaton. (CAS: "Where's the Art in Heartache?") She tried to open up about her issues to registrar Maggie Coldwell, but, having had enough of being involved in her colleagues' personal lives, Maggie turned her away. When she shared the on-call room with Toby, Ruth asked him if everyone hated her. (CAS: "Behind Closed Doors")
After being rejected by histologist Dominic Bidwell, Ruth's self-esteem worsened dramatically. She began to believe that neither she nor anything mattered and that God hated her. When Rachel, a terminally ill patient Ruth had befriended, claimed that she wanted to overcome her fear of dying, Rachel became concerned when Ruth told her not to worry about death. On 2 February 2008, Rachel died. Coupled with a mistake she had made earlier which resulted in the death of a patient, Ruth saw her death as "the straw that broke the camel's back". Upon returning to her flat, Ruth prepared a suicide note and tied a noose. Later that day, Toby and Abs found her hanging and had her rushed to the ED. (CAS: "Before a Fall"; "Sex and Death") When Ruth woke up for the first time since the incident, she was disappointed that she was not dead. (CAS: "Diamond Dogs")
Relationships
Familial
Ted Winters
Ruth's relationship with her father Ted affected her throughout her entire life. She believed that he was responsible for her mother's suicide, (CAS: "Take It Back") and she refused to keep in contact with him into adulthood. (CAS: "Inappropriate Behaviour") However, Ted's emotional abuse and words of admonishment remained with Ruth, and it stunted her ability to build friendships and connections. (CAS: "Sex and Death") When Ted was admitted to the ED in October 2007, he manipulated Ruth into swapping his blood samples by presenting her with a birthday card that was allegedly written years prior. Despite his history of abuse, Ruth felt willing to allow Ted back into her life and agreed to meet up with him for a coffee. However, after discovering that he had bought the card outside the hospital, Ruth tore it up and disowned him. (CAS: "Inappropriate Behaviour")
Jonathan Winters
In school, Jonathan would beat up any boy that led Ruth on; ashamed of his actions, she urged him to stop. In November 2007, Ruth received a visiting order from Jonathan but ignored it. Upon learning that Ruth had tried to kill herself, Jonathan asked for a message to be passed on - a sheet of paper simply reading "Good". (CAS: "Sex and Death")
Friendships
Rachel O'Hara
Rachel was the first friend Ruth made at the hospital. While volunteering in the histology department, Ruth handed Rachel a set of test results without realising that she was the patient, and they showed that she had breast cancer. Ruth began visiting Rachel on the wards, and the two developed a bond. On Christmas Eve 2007, Rachel encouraged Ruth to overcome her social anxiety and join her colleagues in histology for a drink. When Rachel was nervous about her operation, Ruth comforted her, and Rachel urged her not to sacrifice her life for her job.
In January 2008, Rachel's cancer returned and spread to her brain. On their final day together, Rachel became deeply concerned about Ruth's mental health when she told her not to fear death. Unfortunately, on 2 February, Rachel succumbed to her cancer. She left Ruth her clothes as she felt she needed the fashion, but Ruth had them donated to a charity shop. Later that day, Ruth tried to hang herself. (CAS: "Sex and Death")
Toby De Silva
From the outset, Ruth saw Toby as a privileged yet incompetent individual. (CAS: "Sex and Death") However, when Toby was being blamed for the scandalous toxicshark.com blog, Ruth did not believe that Toby was the culprit and, feeling as though he was not enjoying medicine, suggested that it would be better for him to "get out" sooner rather than later. (CAS: "A House Divided") After Toby had resigned and was given the opportunity to perform a complex procedure, an indignant Ruth asserted that Toby was "hopeless" as a doctor, and she was more clinically able than him. Regardless, when the two shared the on-call room that night, Ruth tried to confide in Toby and asked if her colleagues hated her; he did not respond as he was fast asleep. (CAS: "Behind Closed Doors")
In January 2008, Toby invited Ruth to dinner with him and Maggie, but, after working on a case that hit close to home, she turned him down. (CAS: "Take It Back") In February 2008, Toby was devastated to find Ruth hanging in her flat (CAS: "Before a Fall") and wished that she had spoken to him about her troubles. (CAS: "Thicker than Water")
Professional
Harry Harper
Upon Harry's return to the emergency department, Harry was impressed by Ruth's advanced medical knowledge (CAS: "Core Values") and viewed her as one of the department's most promising F2s. (CAS: "Inappropriate Behaviour") In December 2007, Ruth approached Harry to talk about her personal issues, but she dropped the subject when he praised her as one of the best junior doctors he had seen and thanked her for working additional shifts. Following her suicide attempt, Harry blamed himself for not realising Ruth's emotional turmoil and felt that the hospital had failed her. (CAS: "Sex and Death") Unsatisfied with the hospital management's response to the tragedy, and wanting to help other junior doctors in a similar situation as Ruth, Harry sent excerpts of her diary to the press (CAS: "Silent All These Years") and was forced to resign. (CAS: "Thicker than Water")
Nadia Talianos
In October 2007, Ruth ignored Nadia's advice of ordering a HCG test for a woman named Bunmi who was experiencing abdominal pains and diagnosed her with appendicitis. However, after Bunmi was rushed into resus and found to be having an ectopic pregnancy, Ruth blamed Nadia for failing to perform the test. After Nadia was reprimanded, she confronted Ruth and branded her an "ambitious little bitch". (CAS: "Core Values")
The following week, Nadia found out that Ruth's father Ted had been admitted to the ED and pressured her into treating him. She began to antagonise Ruth and asserted that she was not unique because of her troubled upbringing, but Ruth brought up Nadia's privileged background and insisted that she could never understand. However, after Ruth revealed that her mother was dead, Nadia apologised, and the two started to come to an understanding. (CAS: "Inappropriate Behaviour") Despite this, Ruth did not want to be friends with her. (CAS: "My Aim Is True")
On New Year's Eve, Ruth and Nadia treated a patient named Orla who had been injured in a car accident. After reviewing Orla's X-ray, Ruth instructed Nadia to remove her neck collar and discharge her, but Orla soon collapsed and could not move her body. A C7 fracture was soon discovered, and Ruth alleged that she told Nadia to remain with Orla until a second opinion was obtained. (CAS: "Take a Cup of Kindness Yet") Nadia initially attested that Ruth was lying, but Nadia began to question her version of events; she eventually took full responsibility for the incident and resigned. Ruth later admitted to Nadia that she was the one at fault, but Nadia claimed that she did not belong at the hospital and wished Ruth luck with her career. (CAS: "For Auld Lang Syne") Feeling guilty about Nadia's resignation, Ruth considered publicly admitted her mistake, but Dominic Bidwell suggested that losing two medics would be detrimental to the department and urged her to reconsider. (CAS: "Sex and Death")
Dominic Bidwell
While volunteering in the histology department, Ruth grew fond of Dominic and confided in him when her ED colleagues nicknamed her "Chuckles". Feeling that she was expecting too much of herself, Dominic urged her to cut back on her work hours and learn to enjoy life. On Christmas Day, she was overjoyed to learn that Dominic had recommended her to Sarah Evans for assisting in an operation. On New Year's Day, after scapegoating Nadia and allowing her to resign, Dominic suggested that it was not worth her admitting her guilt, but he asserted that she was cracking under the pressure and told her to stop volunteering in the department. He comforted her when she began to sob, but he backed away when Ruth made a pass at him. Heartbroken and angry, Ruth told him to stay away from her. He tried to make amends by visiting her in the flat, but Ruth told him that she wanted him out of her life. (CAS: "Sex and Death")
Adam Trueman
Ruth distracts Adam while he tries to inform a patient's relative of their death. (CAS: "Finding the Words")
In November 2007, Ruth was upset to hear that the toxicshark.com blogger had nicknamed her "Chuckles" and confronted Adam who had started using it, but Adam told her that she was exhibiting the "lack of humour" that earned her it. To get back at him, Ruth distracted him by wearing a red nose as he tried to inform a patient's relative of their death. Later, Adam claimed that he was not responsible for the blog but agreed to stop using the nickname nonetheless. (CAS: "Finding the Words") Despite his agreement, on the day of Ruth's suicide attempt, Adam called her "Chuckles" again after she apologised for a mistake that resulted in the death of a patient. (CAS: "Before a Fall")
As Ruth's superior, it was Adam's job to provide learning opportunities Ruth, but he often took a more radical approach, including refusing to assist Ruth in reviving a haemorrhaging patient. (CAS: "How Soon Is Now") When Ruth attempted suicide, Adam saw it as a waste of talent. (CAS: "Thicker than Water")
Maggie Coldwell
In December 2007, Ruth tried to confide in Maggie and discuss her personal issues with her, but, having had enough of being involved in her colleagues' private lives, Maggie turned her away; (CAS: "Behind Closed Doors") Following Ruth's suicide attempt, Maggie felt awful about not listening to her. (CAS: "Sex and Death") When Ruth woke up from her coma, Maggie implored Ruth to stay at her house, and Ruth eventually agreed. (CAS: "Diamond Dogs")
Trivia
- Ruth is knowledgeable about comic books. (CAS: "Sex and Death")
Behind the scenes
Georgia Taylor portrayed Ruth on Casualty from September 2007 to December 2011.
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