| Ben Goodall | |||||
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| Portrayed by | Shaun Edwards-Brown | ||||
| Introduced by | Steven Zanoski | ||||
| Duration | 2009-10 | ||||
| First appearance | 15 July 2009 episode 4282 |
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| Last appearance | 8 June 2010 episode 4503 |
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| Classification | Past; Regular | ||||
| Profile | |||||
| Date of death | 8 June 2010 | ||||
| Occupation | Paramedic | ||||
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Benjamin "Ben" Goodall is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. He was portrayed by actor Shaun Edwards-Brown. Ben debuted in the soap in July 2009, and began dating long time character Tania Jeffries. Ben then started dating Tania's mother Yvonne Jeffries. Ben died due to a brain hemorrhage on June 8 2010.
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Ben was born and raised in Westport and that at age 13, Ben's mother died.[1] Straight after high school, Ben went knocking at his neighbourhood looking for a job and met Heather Sloane. The two started a relationship and she even paid for him to attend nursing school. Bens younger sister Anita Goodall did not approve of the relationship and told Heather so. When Ben found out he and Anita got into a heated argument and did not talk for the rest of Bens life. Ben and Heathers relationship lasted 5 years. Ben moved to Ferndale in his early twenties, which would be around 2001-2005.
Ben was introduced to Shortland Street when Yvonne Jeffries went to the bank to start up an account for her grandson Jay. The bank was held up by two masked people. Ben was in the line and during the holdup Ben and Yvonne started a close friendship. Yvonne took an immediate liking to Ben. Ben charged at one of the robbers but got hit in the head with a crowbar. He survived and was taken to hospital. Around that time, paramedic Grunter let junior paramedic Hunter drive the ambulance. Hunter crashed and Grunter was fired. Ben was his replacement. Yvonne, overjoyed, introduced him to her daughters. Maia took an immediate dislike but later apologised. Yvonne could see Ben was attracted to Tania.
Yvonne set up Tania and Ben a few weeks into Ben being at Shortland Street. Ben wanted to take it slow and Tania agreed. Tania was also frustrated that Ben would rather help her family than be with her. But Yvonne insisted to Tania that Ben is a good catch and is worth it all. Tania decided that she may actually love him. Ben took Tania to a market, which she disliked but eventually loved the way it was a small community and got into it much to Ben's delight. In September 2009, Tania had set up lots of dates for Ben. But Ben always had to go early and it seemed he didn't enjoy it. Tania suspected he was cheating on her. In actual fact, Ben was at a friend's house welding furniture for Tania. She had mentioned weeks before that she wanted furniture like this and Ben thought it would be a great gift. Tania followed Ben's car and came to the house. She confronted him and accused him of cheating. He told her the truth and Tania realised maybe her mother was right, Ben was the perfect man for her. Ben joined Yvonne's book group and realised he had a lot of similar interests to Yvonne. Ben, Yvonne, Tania, Oliver and Tracey went to clean up Scotty's house after his wife's sudden death. Scotty yelled at Yvonne for invading his privacy. Ben felt sorry for her. Later at the IV Ben overheard Tania insulting Yvonne and saying she deserved Scotty yelling at her. Ben broke up with Tania that night and the audience learnt that Ben had developed romantic feelings towards Yvonne.
Ben confessed his love to Yvonne who instantly rejected him and went about ignoring him. Yvonne moved on to a man her age called Howard Carter. Ben took his defeat but secretly still had feelings for her. On a job, fellow paramedic Diego got stabbed by a knife and Ben was hit in the head. Yvonne heard of this and worried that Ben had been stabbed. She rushed to ED to find Ben fine and she worried over him. TK realised something was up and Yvonne confessed her love of Ben to TK. Ben eventually realised Yvonne had the same feelings and confronted her in the IV only for her to run away. He followed her but TK pushed him aside and told him to go to the farthest away hospital so no one would get hurt.
Eventually after much ignoring each other and debate, Yvonne and Ben decided that maybe they would be right for each other. Yvonne could not help but feel bad for Tania. She tried to tell her but felt bad and put it off. Ben tried as well but could not either. He decided to book the two a trip to Adelaide. In the second to last week of the 2009 season, Ben dressed as Santa for several fundraising activities alongside Hunter McKay. In the ambo bay, Ben convinced Yvonne to kiss him. As they were kissing Tania came around the corner and Yvonne ran away. Luckily Tania did not see anything. The next day a serial car robber was on the loose in the car park and Gerald looked over the security footage and caught Yvonne kissing Ben. He revealed this to Yvonne. She told Ben to cancel the holiday. He did so, disappointed.
After weeks of keeping their relationship a secret, Yvonne revealed to Tania that her and Ben were having a secret relationship and were in love. Tania did not react well and refused to talk to Ben or Yvonne. At the Christmas party, Ben attended with Yvonne and everyone discussed this new relationship thoroughly. Tania got very drunk at the Christmas party and jumped on stage and announced her anger at Yvonne in front of the staff of Shortland street. She then left the party with Morgan behind her.
That night Morgan got killed by Kieran Mitchell who framed it on a drunk Rachel McKenna. Yvonne got very affected by this as Tania could have been the one hit. Ben comforted her.
Ben told Yvonne that a good idea to get the family together again would be to have a picnic at the beach. The whole Jeffries family attended. Tania dressed in a very tight bikini to show off to Ben and Yvonne couldn't take it and went and sat in the car. She told Ben he should have someone his age but he insisted he loved Yvonne. A few days later, Ben bought in a patient that had suffered a stroke. He had been to her earlier in the day and had not picked up on symptoms that she may be about to have a stroke. He took this very personally as Tania yelled at him about it. Tania told the patients daughter to lay a complaint. This complaint made a paramedic of higher authority watch over Ben to make sure he made no more mistakes and also he had to attend a paramedic court case. Yvonne offered to pay for them to go to Peru.
In February 2010, a middle aged patient called Heather Sloane came into hospital with cancer. She saw Ben and asked Tania who he was. Tania confirmed it was Ben and Heather told her about how they were once in a relationship. Tania suddenly thought that maybe Ben was using Yvonne for her money, as she thought he had used Heather for her money. Yvonne found out and was very shocked. But it turned out Ben really did love Heather and didn't use her for her money. He was very shocked and saddened when she died on the operating table on February 12. Tania apologized to Ben and told him that she had tried to get him fired by telling the stroke patient's daughter to lay a complaint. Yvonne was extremely disappointed in Tania but Ben could see where she was coming from and forgave her. Soon after it was revealed that Ben had been put in Heathers will and was getting a large sum of money, Tania suspecting that Ben was a gold digger and was trying to get onto Yvonne's good side.
In April Yvonne got a job as PA to CEO Callum McKay. Ben found that he got next to no time to spend with Yvonne and got very angry at Rachel McKenna about this. In May, Ben told Yvonne he would like kids but he does not mind not having them and on the same day he proposed to her in her back garden which he had set up with lights. Yvonne kindly rejected him as she knew what it was like to be in a marriage and she did not want to be married again, but she suggested that they have a party to celebrate their relationship together.
On May 31 2010, Ben and Yvonnes party went underway. Many attended and Ben noticed that Hunter was having trouble talking to women and tried to leave the party. Ben decided to go get some ice and told Hunter he could drive his car. They headed to the supermarket and accidentally cut off some goons. The goons threatened to scratch the car but started to leave to which Hunter called them losers and pulled the finger. A brawl started which resulted in Hunter getting stabbed with a screwdriver and Ben getting knocked heavily to the ground. They were taken to hospital where Hunter was taking into intensive care and Ben was treated for concussion. Soon it became apparent there was something more wrong with Ben and he was rushed to a CT Scan. It was discovered that Ben had a brain hemorrhage and that Chris Warner would have to operate. Chris managed to remove a bit but it was too drastic and Ben was declared brain dead with the only thing keeping him alive was the machine by his bedside. On June 3, Bens sister Anita arrived and believed he moved. It was really just a muscle spasm but she refused to believe this and refused to turn off the machines. After getting angry at Yvonne, Anita got to know her and realised how lucky Ben was. Anita revealed to Yvonne that her and Ben had a huge fight and after a while, Anita decided to turn off life support and left Yvonne to say her final goodbyes. Hunter convinced Anita to let Bens organs be donated and with a final emotional speech by Yvonne, Bens life support was turned off and Ben died on June 8 2010.