Ear We Go! Operation Ouch! Hospital Takeover

-He's Dr Chris.

-And he's Dr Xand.

And we're identical twins.

We were until you grew your beard!

In this series,

we're taking over one of the biggest children's hospitals in Europe.

The amazing Alder Hey in Liverpool.

We'll go head-to-head as we take on

some of our hospital's most important jobs.

This isn't going well.

Ouch And About hits the wards for more medical mysteries.

This tube goes into Dolly's tummy.

And we'll be meeting our brilliant Ouch-patients

-who come in for regular treatment.

-Hi!

We've hidden our lab in a top-secret location...

And our experiments

just...got...bigger!

You guys are crazy!

So, are you ready to join us?

I have to change my cape.

-Coming up today on...

-Super Xand!

It's Operation Ouch.

'We go radio gaga...' It's phenomenally stressful.

'..things get a bit hairy...'

It's just creepy.

'..and we're hitting the high notes.'

But first...

We're giving you exclusive access

to the accident and emergency department.

Let's meet our first patient!

Waiting to be seen is eight-year-old Chris and his dad.

Brilliant name, but that hand looks bad.

It's sore and it's hurting.

Ooh, what happened?

Chris was in the garden with his sister and two of her mates.

They were all playing...

Britain's Got Talent!

-Oh, yes! Can I be Simon Cowell?

-It's a no from me.

Anyway, the girls were the judges,

hands poised over their buzzers,

watching the best act of the day, it was...

A dog dressed as a spaceman juggling ice creams?

Even better than that.

-Chris was doing parkour, so jumping and rolling off stuff.

-Sounds fun.

Yes, but as he did his final move,

a gravity-defying don't-try-this-at-home leap,

he slipped on some moss and cut his hand on the gate.

-Ouch!

-Don't worry, Chris, here's Dr Clare Thompson.

Sliced it on metal, didn't you?

So what we'll do, is we'll send you for a little X-ray on your hand

to make sure there's no little pieces in there that shouldn't be.

If Chris has any metal in his cut, it could get infected.

You can see the cut, can't you? See where it looks more black in there?

But there's no bits of metal, there's nothing else in there.

-It's looking good.

-It is!

Next up, Dr Clare makes sure Chris hasn't lost any feeling in his hand.

-Can you feel this?

-I can't feel it that much.

It could have damaged the nerves,

which then might have caused the sensation to be lost.

-Is it going to need stitching?

-Yeah.

Because this is a deep cut in a complicated place,

Chris needs to come back tomorrow for surgery.

So, with a temporary patch-up, it's off home for the night.

We'll be back later to see how Chris gets on.

BEEPING, ALARMS BLARE

I'm hitting the wards with my Ouch bleeper.

Because we've brought Ouch And About inside the hospital. Wow!

Dr Xand, Dr Xand!

And I'm hitting the streets to answer your medical mysteries.

In the hospital canteen, Chris has his first call.

A question! Right, I better go.

It's from Lydia, who is recovering from brain surgery

to help cure her epilepsy.

-Hi, Lydia, how are you?

-Good.

-Very nice to see you.

-You have a question for me.

-Yeah.

How long does it take for the stitches in my head to dissolve?

Well, what's the diagnosis, Doc?

Sounds like a case of...

Ha-ha, Lydia's in stitches!

Well, they should take about 10 days to two weeks,

but sometimes the stitches can take up to six weeks to dissolve fully.

-Shall we have a look with the Ouch cam?

-Yeah.

-OK, I'll put that there.

And then you can see the screen.

Look away if you're squeamish!

So, the little black lines are your hair. The black bit is a scab.

-It's just creepy.

-You know what, Lydia?

I can't see any stitches at all.

So I think your stitches are already starting to dissolve.

That's actually quite cool.

OK, Lydia, you have earned yourself an Operation Ouch sticker.

-That's sticky.

-Thank you very much, bye!

-Bye, thank you!

Unlike Dr Chris, I don't have a fancy bleeper out here.

-How will I know when someone has a question?

-Dr Xand!

-Have you got a question for me?

-Yes.

Why can my shoulder blades stick out?

Wow!

So, what you have is things called winged scapulas.

Your scapula is your shoulder blade,

and they're called wings because they come out,

a bit like wings, on you, which is amazing.

Normally you have a muscle called serratus anterior,

and that muscle goes under the shoulder blade

and holds it onto your back.

But for some reason in you, it isn't doing that, which means

you can do this amazing thing which is flap your shoulder blades.

I've never seen that before.

-Well, thanks very much for showing me your amazing back. Bye!

-Bye!

Amazing!

Meanwhile, my Ouch bleeper is busily beeping.

Get a wriggle on, Chris!

It's Harry, who has a condition which means he has trouble eating.

-Hello, Dr Chris.

-How are you?

-Fine.

-What is your question?

-What is oesophagitis?

-That is a very good question.

What's the diagnosis, Doc?

I think it sounds like you have a case of...

Ooh, a double -itis!

You know that an oesophagus is the tube that links your mouth

to your stomach.

So, whenever something in your body is inflamed,

we put -itis on the end of it.

And in your case, you have an oesophagus that's inflamed,

so we call it an oesophagitis.

And so when Harry eats, his oesophagus swells up

and food can't get down it and he feels very, very poorly indeed.

So, Harry, can you show me how the doctors have fixed the fact

-that you can't eat food using your mouth?

-They put a mini button in me.

A mini button, what's a mini button? Wow!

-So, that is now a hole going straight inside your stomach.

-Yes.

So, what kind of food do you have through the hole?

Just a special type of milk and some medicine.

That's how you stay big and strong

-even though you can't swallow stuff?

-Yeah.

That's pretty amazing. You've taught me something.

You did such a good job, I'm giving you an Operation Ouch sticker.

Thank you, bye!

Job done for today. Clinic closed.

In hospital, it's not just the doctors and nurses

who help to get you fixed.

There are lots of other heroes working behind the scenes.

Yes!

'What will happen when we have a go at their amazing jobs?'

Useless!

This is Operation Takeover.

When you're a patient, life can be a bit boring,

so it's important to keep upbeat and entertained on the wards.

Today's hospital heroes help with that.

They are Radio Lollipop DJs Dom and Chaminda!

They're hosts on the Evelina Children's Hospital radio station

which broadcasts just for the patients to cheer them up

and reduce stress, which is good for health.

It is thrilling Thursday.

I'm really excited, we have some very special guests coming in later.

I think they're talking about us, Chris! Let's say hello.

Are we live now?

-Absolutely.

-Hi, kids! So, what is it like doing hospital radio?

It's great fun. The children love it as well,

and if they're having fun, then we have the most fun.

As a kid, being in hospital is not the most exciting place to be

so it takes them away from the whole hospital environment.

What I want to know is,

what are the ingredients of a really good radio show?

I reckon you guys should go upstairs on to the wards, find out

first-hand from our listeners what makes a really good radio show.

That's a brilliant idea.

OK, let's hit the wards and get...

The top three tips to being a hospital radio show host!

In at number three...

Try to be funny a little bit.

-Good luck with that one, Xand!

-Oi!

-What's at number two?

-Do good singing.

Do you think the DJs should sing,

or do you think we should just play the records?

-Sing.

-Really?

Uh-oh!

And finally, top of the charts is...

Don't embarrass yourselves.

That's easy for me,

a little bit less easy for Dr Xand.

-Thanks, Toller!

-And thank you, Summer.

So, we've found out just how important

the job of hospital radio hosts really is.

But have we got what it takes to be on the same wavelength

as the real professionals?

Get it? Wavelength?

'It's time for us to be hospital radio hosts.'

So, your challenge today is to take over the airwaves

for ten minutes each.

And then we want to see how you handle a special guest.

Right, this should be trivial.

And I have a special guest in mind who I think will give me

-an enormous advantage.

-I don't have a guest!

-Where am I going to get a guest?

-Better go find a guest.

I have a professional DJ as my guest.

It's Radio 1Xtra DJ Yasmin Evans.

And I am going to thrash Dr Xand as a result.

Not so fast, Chris.

Meet the judges!

They are tuned in, ready to pick a winner.

Who's the best? They decide.

Bring it on. I'll go first.

EPIC JINGLE PLAYS

'What time is it? It's Dr Chris time!

'Hospital radio's number one Operation Ouch-based show.'

Hello, everyone, welcome to the Dr Chris show.

I have with me Yasmin Evans. How are you, Yasmin?

I'm very well, how are you?

I thought I'd been really clever inviting you along because you could

help me out but in fact it's just piled and piled on the pressure.

My first go as a DJ. I'm going to hit play.

I'm going to turn these up.

-And now we can hear Justin Bieber.

-That's Justin Bieber.

-We're talking over it.

-Can they still hear us?

-Take us down.

Oops! I wonder if anyone noticed.

It's a good job Yasmin's here.

This is a nightmare!

Chris has already got a guest and I don't have one!

Where am I going to get a guest at such short notice?

OK, I'm going to try and work the screen.

I'm sorry, everyone listening. I hope I'm not losing the judges!

-So, that's Nick Jonas.

-Nick Jonas. 'Oh, there's so many buttons!'

Thank goodness Xand still doesn't have a guest.

Hang on, I've spotted someone.

It's Laverne, the housekeeper.

Can I stop you cleaning, will you be a guest on my radio show?

-Oh, I'll think of it.

-You'll be all right?

-Yeah.

-Come on then, come with me.

-OK.

-Off we go.

'Phew, just in the nick of time!'

For all the judges out there, I'm going to leave you with the thought,

how much better this has been than Dr Xand is going to be.

Thanks a lot, everyone. Bye!

-Yay!

-I must say, that is phenomenally stressful.

Gimme five. 'Beat that, Xand, over to you!'

Hey, everybody, it's Dr Xand. Oh...

One thing's for sure, I'll give it a go.

It's time for Dr Xand's amazing radio show!

This is Dr Xand, and let me tell you,

I'm going to make your eardrums burst.

No, I'm not going to do that, that would be bad.

I'm going to give you dandruff, how about that?

-See, Chris? I can be funny.

-If you say so.

We have an incredible guest.

The world-famous, the one, the only, Laverne Lodric!

How are you doing?

Hi, there, Doctor. Good evening.

I'm going to play some relaxing music.

How does that go?

MUSIC: Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson

Ooh! 'The judges wanted singing.'

# Cos uptown funk gonna give it to you

# Cos uptown funk gonna give it to you... #

Yes, but you are 100% embarrassing.

What's the food like in the hospital?

I've never tasted the patients' food!

-You've never stolen food off a poorly child?

-Oh, no, no.

That's a bad thing to do.

I tell you what, I have done that occasionally.

What? You can't do that!

-You're wonderful.

-Thank you.

-Goodnight, everyone.

Time to admit defeat, Chris. Let's get the verdict.

So, guys, tell us who the winner is.

No!

4-1! In your face!

You love me! You really do love me!

So, judges, what did you like about my show?

It was a little bit more funny.

It wasn't really you, it was more your special guest.

Ha! You got lucky, Xand.

Well, we've seen just how important the job of radio hosts

like Dom and Chaminda are to the running of the hospital.

And although I did a lot better than you,

according to the listening public,

I think it is best left to the experts.

-Have the headphones back, guys.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, guys.

-Thank you.

Back in the emergency department,

Chris is waiting for an operation on his hand.

Are you?

They look all right to me. But it's not my decision.

Let's get you to theatre.

Not me, Xand. Mini Chris.

We met him earlier, with a gory gash to his hand.

He'd been playing Britain's Got Talent with his sister

and her mate when his jumping act went totally wrong.

Not a good idea.

He slipped on some moss and cut his hand on a gate.

Chris's cut was too deep to fix in A&E

so he's back bright and early to have surgery.

-It's definitely looking a bit yucky.

-It's gone all purple.

Chris needs a general anaesthetic so he'll be asleep for the operation.

Sweet dreams!

Ready to get handy with Chris's hand is Dr Susie Yao.

-Let's give her a big hand!

-Enough with the hand jokes.

So, I'll just give it a quick clean.

Her first job in surgery is to check for any serious injuries.

Inside your hand there are lots of nerves, tendons and blood vessels.

These things are vital to your hand

and so they are wrapped in a protective tissue

called the palma fascia.

If Chris's cut goes deeper than this protective layer,

it could lead to complications.

Over to you, Dr Susie.

There is always a risk that these important structures can be damaged,

and if they're damaged, in the long run,

that can cause poor healing and poor function.

Time for a thorough examination.

Amazingly, he has not breached his fascia. Very lucky.

Great news.

Now it's time to prep the cut, ready for stitches.

What I did was, I took away a little bit of tissue

on either side of the cut.

It was important to create a brand-new, fresh edge

for the skin to heal nicely.

-And they've stitched him up in no time.

-Lovely job.

Over in the recovery room,

our patient is still feeling a bit sleepy after his operation.

Whoa, a bit wobbly, there, Chris!

But don't worry, the anaesthetic will wear off very soon.

-Bye!

-Ta, love.

Anything you've learned from this?

Don't climb over fences.

-And will you be entering any more playtime talent contests?

-No.

This is one act Simon Cowell won't be seeing any time soon.

Bye, mini Chris!

Still to come.

We're tuning up...

HE HUMS TUNELESSLY

'..there's amazing anaesthetic...'

Now Will's job is to keep Kieran safe.

'..and it's breaking point for Lily.'

But first...

They're called the anvil, the stirrup and the what?

Is it...

The correct answer is A.

Together, we call all three bones the ossicles.

And they transmit sound from your ear into your brain.

And now to our lab.

But this time, we've hidden it in a top-secret location.

So secret, in fact, even Xand doesn't know where it is.

Wow! Anyway, it's time for some amazing experiments.

Just don't try anything you see here at home.

Today, we're looking at your eardrum.

Xand, what are you doing?

You know there is no trampolining allowed in the lab.

Yes, I know, but I just thought...

No buts, Xand, we have an experiment to do!

Yes, I know. Which is why...

-Xand, could we please get on with the experiment?

-All right.

Today we're going to be HEARING about

one of the most amazing pieces of body kit you've got.

Your eardrum. Wow!

-There's nothing there.

-No, it is there.

-Right there, see?

-Oh, yeah.

Now, this one is from a pig.

It's similar to yours. Yours is actually a bit bigger.

It's called the tympanic membrane.

And this is the amazing piece of body kit that vibrates

when sound reaches it allowing you to hear.

Let's see one in action.

Now, I'm going to use this endoscope to show you my eardrum.

Now, remember, we can only do this because we're doctors.

You should never stick anything in your ears.

If you have a look on the screen, you can see that's my ear,

you can see that clearly.

And then that goes into the ear canal

and that's lined with a few hairs, a bit of wax,

and then that right there, that is the eardrum.

The eardrum is only 1/10th of a millimetre thick.

That is five times thinner than a sheet of paper.

And yet, it's incredibly strong. And if I hold my nose and blow...

I can make my eardrum pop. Look! You can see it's really stretchy.

Well, this part actually works a bit like...

BOTH: A trampoline!

That's why I brought it in. Anyway, let me get the trampoline.

Now, the bit of the trampoline I want you to look at

is the bit that you jump on. The net.

It's made of lots of elastic fibres that crisscross

and this makes it stretchy but also very strong.

And the middle section of your eardrum is also made of

lots of crisscrossing elastic fibres.

This time of a protein called collagen.

Some crossing in lines like spokes on a wheel,

and some arranged in circles

so it's also strong and stretchy just like the trampoline.

But how does your eardrum help you to hear?

To show you, we have this.

This is a Ruben's tube,

and it can show us what sound,

which is normally invisible, actually looks like.

If, for example, someone was to sing...

Sing?! This is my moment!

OK! Well, when Xand sings, the dreadful sound that he makes

travels through the air in invisible waves

and if you're unlucky enough to be near him,

they go into your ear.

With the Ruben's tube, we will be able to see the sound waves as fire.

OK, Xand, take it away.

HE SINGS NOTES BADLY

Now, the sound that Xand is making is amplified at this end

and sound waves are then sent down the tube.

# Ooooooh! #

So if you could see sound, it would look like this.

A wave of high and then low air pressure.

OK, Xand. I think that's enough.

So the Ruben's tube shows us that

sounds are made of waves of air pressure.

But to understand how those waves get sent into your brain,

take a look at this.

This is a model of an eardrum.

So, your ear would be there, sound comes in through the ear canal.

This is the eardrum. And this represents the ossicles.

Remember, that's those three bones,

the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup,

that help transmit sound into your brain.

So now we're going to make some sounds,

send them into the ear canal,

and you will see what happens to the ossicles.

And, Chris, I've cued up your favourite tune.

-Ooh!

-Take it away.

OPERATION OUCH THEME TUNE

Now, the sound waves travel through your ear into the ear canal

where they hit the eardrum.

This is why it's strong and stretchy,

to cope with being bombarded with sound all day long.

Let's see it in slow motion.

Look how the ossicles, the green bit, is bouncing about.

It's being moved by the vibrating pink eardrum. Cool!

The ossicles are what transmit the sound into your brain

so you can hear the amazing music.

BOTH: Operation Ouch!

So, we've shown you what an eardrum looks like,

and how it's made of strong elastic fibres just like a trampoline.

And we've shown you how your eardrum works,

vibrating as the sound waves reach it so you can hear.

Your eardrum is amazing and that's why you have to look after it,

so you should never, ever stick anything in your ear

that's smaller than your elbow.

It's harder than you make it sound. Can I borrow your elbow?

SQUEAKING

That's better.

Let's head back to accident and emergency...

For another curious case.

Arriving at Alder Hey with her dad is football fanatic Lily.

-I play for two teams.

-Two teams? Xand couldn't even get into one.

Oi!

What's with the sling?

Lily was playing a cup game for her local footy club.

As always, she was on top form.

She shoots and she scores!

But the goalkeeper hadn't turned up so Lily went in goal.

The match ended 2-2 and it went to penalties.

It's a tense game, Chris, it's going right to the wire.

The opposition were ready to take their first penalty.

It's a high shot to the top left corner!

Lily reached to save it when all of a sudden,

the ball bent her hand backwards.

Ouch!

Ooh! Lily, why not try something safer, like a crossword?

-I like football a lot.

-Are you sure? Even more than crosswords?

-A lot, a lot.

-OK, I believe you.

Emergency nurse practitioner Nicola Evans

is here to get you back on the ball.

Just going to have a little feel.

Nurse Nicola examines Lily's arm to explore the twist in her wrist.

What about when we lift it up?

-A bit on that side.

-OK.

-Ahh! There.

With Lily in pain, she's sent straight to X-ray.

-Hold them, Lily.

-That's your X-ray.

You've got a little crack there.

She's broken her radius, which is the big bone in her wrist.

Uh-oh! It's a red card for Lily's radius.

-So you won't be playing in the school final.

-No.

Oh, no! Lily will be on the bench for a while.

Time for a temporary cast so the swelling can go down.

But there's only one thing on Lily's mind.

-I'm going to miss the final now.

-At least your hand will get better.

Wise words, Dad.

She'll be back on the football pitch before she knows it. Bye, Lily!

Your body is amazing, but sometimes it needs fixing.

In some cases, the only way to do this is with an operation.

Did you know that 27,000 operations happen in the UK every day?

Some of these are minor and happen in clinics

or in accident and emergency.

But for bigger operations, you have to go to surgery.

That's where I am today.

In the theatre at Alder Hey, there are surgeons, nurses,

but who's this person? That's the anaesthetist.

It's his job to make sure you don't feel a thing during an operation.

And they're a vital part of the team in any operating theatre,

because they put you into a special kind of sleep

that means you don't feel any pain

and you don't remember anything at all.

So, what is an anaesthetic? And how does it work?

There are two types of anaesthetic. A local and general.

A local anaesthetic numbs just the injured area of your body.

So that the pain signals sent to the brain get blocked.

You might have had one of these when you've had

a filling at the dentist or a couple of stitches.

And there's a general anaesthetic,

like mini Chris had earlier when he cut his hand.

This is a combination of medicines which you have as an injection

or as a gas that you inhale and it makes you temporarily unconscious.

This is anaesthetist Dr Will Gauntlett.

He's going to give 11-year-old Kieran

a general anaesthetic for his ear operation.

So, when was the last time you had anything to eat?

Before eight o'clock this morning.

When we go off to sleep, we want you to have

a nice empty tummy because the last thing we want is any burgers

and chips to come back up and make a reappearance when you're asleep.

It's a good job Kieran hasn't eaten anything,

because with a general anaesthetic,

your body doesn't function normally and a full stomach

might mean food gets stuck in your throat.

Kieran's given an injection and anaesthetic gas

to send him into sleep.

It takes him about two minutes to be fully anaesthetised.

Now, Dad, he's probably ready for an embarrassing kiss now.

Don't make it a sloppy one, Dad!

And you've got special plasters to keep his eyes closed?

Yeah, we put some tape over the eyes so that if any dust does land

on them, it won't risk scratching the eye while he's asleep.

We're all ready, now, I think.

The operation can begin.

But the anaesthetist's work isn't over yet.

Now Will's job is to keep Kieran safe while he's in the operation,

making sure he's getting lots of oxygen into his lungs,

but also that he doesn't wake up.

Dr Will has this amazing machine

to help him give Kieran

more anaesthetic during the operation if needed.

How does it work?

We've got our anaesthetic agents kept up here.

We have pipes at the back here with oxygen.

And as it goes through the machine, it will pick up, like,

a whiff of anaesthetic gas and then out through the pipes off to Kieran.

What, then, is this pump thing? Is that breathing for him?

This is a ventilator, and every time Kieran takes a breath,

the machine gives him a little extra air,

just to make up for the fact that under anaesthetic,

his breathing is not quite as strong as it is when he's awake.

With the operation over,

it's not long before Kieran is back on the ward.

Thanks to the awesome anaesthetic, he has no memory of the surgery.

-Do you remember anyone putting anything in your ears?

-No.

-Did any of it hurt?

-No.

So that's pretty good, isn't it?

And there's one sure-fire way of finding out if Kieran is better.

-So, what's your plan for dinner?

-Hamburger and chips.

So if you ever need an operation like Kieran did,

then you don't need to worry about it being painful, all thanks to

the amazing anaesthetists and their general anaesthetics.

Next time, it's a bumpy ride...

I've lost my shoe completely.

We meet a paw-fect expert... WOOF!

And there's limbo in the lab.

Let battle commence.

So, we'll see you next time for more Operation Ouch.

-SIREN WAILS

-Chris!

-Bye, Xand!

# I am Dr Xand

# I'm the star of Operation Ouch... #

The star?

# I like to eat in the lab... #

You're not allowed to eat in the lab!

# And Mr Grumbles, it's not for the squeamish! #

-What?

-That was funny.