[24 hours at Johannesburg Hospital Trauma Unit].

This paper describes the hectic work as a doctor at the Trauma Unit of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, a highly regarded and well-visited trauma unit worldwide. A trauma junior doctor is followed on a 24-hour-call through a full casualty to urgent operations and complicated postoperative management of the trauma patient. In a diary fashion the paper describes the evidence-based guidelines of management of certain trauma cases brought into the trauma unit during the 24-hour-shift.