It is going to be one to remember I am sure, says Dr Lourens Wahl, as he begins his shift at Ngwelezane Hospital in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal.It is December 16 and a film crew is shadowing Wahl through his 30-hour shift.He thinks it is going to be one to remember because it is the December pay day, a public holiday and there is a soccer game on - all making it a perfect night for a storm of trauma and mayhem.Wahl and four other doctors are stars in the documentary Doc U Mentally, which shows how they deal with not only extreme trauma, but also lack of sleep.The viewer sees what the doctors see: near drownings, stabbings, gashes that must be stitched, sick grannies in hospital beds and queues of sick people waiting for help.Director Francois Wahl said: "For doctors abroad, if they have a gunshot case it is something special. For our local doctors it is normal and you might get multiple gunshots in one call [30-hour shift].The film shows how the doctors cope without time to process the trauma they witness.Wanele Ganya, a doctor from Khayelitsha, gets emotional support from his parents. His mother is a part-time domestic worker and his father unemployed, so they have not been able to support him financially, but, he says, he could no t do his job without their encouragement.Dr Saishrien Rasen has learnt to switch off."We are so desensitised to it all," he says. But, he concedes, the trauma and exhaustion does affect him."You just get emotionally broken," he says.Francois Wahl, an accountant by training, wanted to direct a movie to show how young doctors, who see countless patients, stay awake and sane for 30 hours.The doctors were so enthusiastic about having their stories told that in three months they had donated R85000 to the documentary, via local crowd-funding site ThundaFund.In the wake of the documentary, the SA Medical Association has called for the 30-hour shift to be reviewed.Recently, the long hours doctors work made headlines after a intern died in a car accident, which doctors said might have happened because of her long shift.Doctors use different methods to stay awake, the film shows."Some people have cocaine. I just have a sucker," said Yenzi Ngema, one of the five doctors followed for 30 hours straight.In the late hours of the night, Amy Salvesen says: "I love medicine, but at this point I do not love my job."The documentary has been entered into the Johannesburg film festival and will be shown in September. It has also been entered into the Raindance festival in London...