Episode 1 Operation Ouch!

He's Dr Chris and he's Dr Xand.

Yep, we're twins!

Do you know just how brilliant your body really is?

Well, now's the time to find out.

We'll be uncovering the ins and outs of what you're made of.

I've got a big hole in my head.

We'll be doing awesome experiments.

You sound ridiculous.

Pipe down, squeaky!

..as we push our own bodies to the limits.

OK, here we go.

Oh, oh.

To show you all the incredible things your body can do.

Hang around because this is going to be fun.

-BOTH:

-Coming up today on Operation Ouch.

Ryan and Harry come in to get fixed.

There'll be giant flesh-eating creatures...

OK, not giant, but flesh-eating.

We meet a man with a terrifying secret,

and Xand joins paramedics on a life saving mission.

We have an 83 year-old lady who's fallen.

Hello, we're going to sit you up so I can look at your head, is that OK?

What started off as a normal day for our first patient has ended up

with a trip to Accident and Emergency.

Luckily, they've come to the right place.

In the waiting room is six year-old Harry

who's come in with an unusual head complaint.

I have a big stone in my head - it hurt.

I'm not surprised - how did that happen?

It was just another ordinary day in the playground -

you know how it is. It was break time and Harry was chasing wolves.

Wolves? In the playground?

Oh, I suppose they probably do have wolves at Hogwarts.

It's not Harry Potter, Chris,

but he was pretending to chase wolves.

They were everywhere and Harry was running,

ready to pounce. He was just about to catch one

when suddenly he tripped and smacked his head on the gravel.

Ouch.

It was a good game until I fell over.

Enter Dr Gareth Hardy.

He's the man to sort out that stone.

What have you done to yourself, eh? What's gone on?

I fell over in the school.

Dr Gareth examines Harry to check

for signs of any other injury to his head...

Just going to look at my light like that.

-..then time to tackle the problem.

-You've got a big bit of gravel

-stuck in there, haven't you?

-Ow!

-Sorry, my friend.

It's clearly sore so he'll need some anaesthetic cream to numb

the area before our doctor can get to work.

Does it hurt?

-Erm, not a single bit any more.

-Good.

With Harry's head numb,

Dr Gareth gets plastic tweezers ready to grapple with some grit.

It looks a bit tricky - yes,

I think it's jammed in further than we thought.

You can feel the gravel but it's not coming out,

I can't flick it back out because it's so deep.

Maybe a sharper tool will help - or not. Anyone got a hoover?

Anyway you might be wondering where that stone's gone to.

Well, behind our forehead are five layers for it to get lost in.

A combination of skin, fat, fibrous tissue

and blood cells surrounds our skull.

When these layers are broken dangerous infection can occur

so it's important that we get that stone out of Harry's head

and close up that hole.

But no-one said it was going to be easy. This is one stubborn stone.

Is it the Philosopher's Stone?

-Just drop the Harry Potter thing, Chris.

-Sorry.

We've got some of the gravel out but there's a chunk left right

deep down, so let's see what we can do. OK?

We'll come back to Harry in a bit while we go

and check out another patient - Ron Weasley.

-You're kidding?

-Yes, Chris, I'm kidding.

This is our lab where we're going to do

some incredible body experiments.

-Ow! That really hurt.

-Just don't try any of this at home.

Today - it's muscles.

Meet Tiny from Tottenham.

Yeah, we've already met.

Tiny, put my brother down!

Go on, mate, put me down.

You've got a lot of muscle - can we have a look at your biceps?

Not...Chris, not you.

-How big is that bicep?

-24 inches.

So that's 61 centimetres.

That's amazing - so Tiny's bicep is probably bigger than your waist.

Tiny's muscles are big and very, very strong

but what are they made of?

Well, your muscles are made up of fibres

formed from millions of individual cells and blood vessels

deliver the energy that your muscles need in order to move.

Now, single muscle fibre on its own isn't very strong but when you

gather a bunch of them together they become much more powerful.

But Tiny doesn't have any more muscle cells than Chris so how did

Tiny's muscles get so big?

Tiny how have your muscles got so big and strong?

I've been training for 15 years -

the only day I don't train is Christmas Day cos the gym's shut.

I don't train on Christmas Day either.

Right, so when Tiny goes to the gym and lifts weights what happens is

the heavy weight causes small tears in the muscle fibres

and that stimulates his body to build those fibres back bigger

and stronger than before.

That's how his body got so big and strong.

Tiny, it's been an absolute pleasure, thank you

so much for coming in today.

Chris - never be cheeky to a man called Tiny.

So how do our muscles actually work?

Your brain controls your muscles by sending a small electrical

charge down a nerve to the muscle and that tells the muscle to move.

What happens when we take control away from the brain

and stimulate the muscle directly with these electrodes?

I'm attaching electricity conducting pads to Chris's arm.

When I press these buttons electrical charges are sent directly

to his muscles which will make his arm move - see?

That was me!

Now let's see how many beakers Chris can down

while I try to override his brain and control his muscles.

OK, Chris, 15 glasses - 30 seconds.

Now, remember, I'm in control you have to drink as much as you can.

-Right, you ready?

-No problem.

-Go.

Chris is struggling because whilst his brain is sending

electrical charges to move his muscles,

I'm interfering by sending my own electrical charges.

With these opposing charges fighting each other Chris's

co-ordination is all over the place.

I can't let go of it.

There we go. Oh!

BUZZING

You can't let go!

Only two left.

So we've shown that you can override the brain using these

electrodes but not very successfully.

The brain is really important for co-ordination of muscles.

You did really well, Chris. Cheers.

Oh!

XAND LAUGHS

It's not only emergency departments in hospitals that deal with

-the unexpected.

-There are expert teams all over the UK

ready for action.

We go on call with the UK emergency services

getting into the thick of the action to help save lives.

Today it's Xand's turn on the front line.

This rapid response vehicle belongs

to the West Midlands Ambulance Service -

it's one of over 800 vehicles

serving 5 million people and today you're coming on call with me to

see what it's like to be one of the first at the scene of an emergency.

This fast medical service is on standby ready to help you

24 hours a day.

If you have an accident, they're the people who come to your rescue.

On call with me today is paramedic Jan Vann.

So because there is so much going on and it's going to be so busy,

we've got James filming and I've got this camera as well

so hopefully I can get in close.

The service takes thousands of 999 calls.

Jan alone can do 20 emergency callouts in a day!

We've just had another new case come in.

We have an 83 year-old lady who's fallen - she has injured her face.

That's all we know at the moment.

Usually doctors like me see patients in a hospital where they've already

had some treatment. We have the full story of what's happened

but you have to think quickly

when you're the first on a scene of an accident.

All the while we're on the way, we're trying to think of all

the initial steps we need to go through

and that's what Jan is very, very good at.

We arrive just five minutes after the call came in and I can

see our patient Olive with some firemen who have stopped to help.

Hello, Olive, my name's Janice, I'm a paramedic.

First thing that Jan's doing is just trying to get a sense of

whether or not she knows where she is, if she's conscious, bleeding,

what's her pulse, her blood pressure and all that

helps Jan start to make decisions about how best to treat her.

-And no pain on your back where I was pressing?

-No.

No? What we'll do is sit you up so that I can look at your head,

is that OK? Cor you've been in the wars.

-How are you feeling now?

-I feel all right. I just slipped on that kerb.

What's very nice to see is that Olive's talking,

she knows who she is, she knows where she is, so all of that's very,

reassuring which is nice.

How much pain are you in with your face?

-It's sore.

-It's sore on her cheek and she's got a nasty bruise to

the her face and a cut on her nose. She's not been unconscious

so we're not concerned about a head injury,

but we need to get some X-rays and make sure she's not broken anything.

You've cracked your face a whopper, I think we need to get you to

the hospital for a check up and get an X-ray on that cheek.

The ambulance arrives to take Olive to hospital for further checks.

If you get any pain when you're walking let us know.

What's really reassuring to see is that Olive is able to

walk into the ambulance by herself and that's a really good sign.

It's really important that

the ambulance and paramedics were here as quickly as we were,

she's gotten into an ambulance, she'll be on the way to hospital.

Which means it's time for us to get back in the car ready for

when the next call comes in.

5032 new job received over.

-Got another job immediately?

-Yeah.

With hundreds of rapid response crews like this on standby

it means that if you had an emergency,

expert medical care will be with you in minutes.

Still to come - Xand goes in search of some blooming bacteria.

Can you stop your friends standing on their tiptoes?

We've got an amazing trick to show you how.

Find out how these squirmy creatures are a marvel

of modern medicine.

But not if you're squeamish.

Now, did you know that although human hair feels soft,

in fact it's one of the strongest fibres on the planet.

Really? That's amazing. So is this.

This is an ordinary town with an ordinary hair salon -

they're pretty busy.

Luckily this guy doesn't look like he'll take much time.

What'll it be today, sir? A no back and sides?

Wait, hold on what's this?

GASPS

This is Sam "Hairy" Smith.

I've no idea how he got his nickname but he's Britain's hairiest man.

Yes, he may be bald up top

but boy does he make up for it everywhere else.

Sam is covered in thick body hair that measures up to 15 centimetres.

He shampoos and conditions his chest to keep it soft

and has to use four towels to dry himself after every shower.

Whoa!

Now we all lose hair but most of us lose fewer than 100 strands a day,

Sam loses up to 300 - that's three times more.

Well, he's got plenty to spare!

Now that's amazing.

Xand, give it up you're never going to match that man.

OK, it's time to head back to the Accident and Emergency department.

Let's see how our first patient is getting on.

Six-year-old Harry came into hospital

with a stone stuck in his head.

He'd been playing a game at school with his friends.

They were in a forest chasing wolves when he tripped

and fell on his head - as you do.

So far, the slippery stone has escaped Dr Gareth's grip.

Enter senior doctor - Dr Lorcan Duane.

He's going to give Harry some gas to help get that stone out.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-The gas will numb the pain receptors

in Harry's brain so he won't feel a thing.

Put this over your head like this - there we go.

You're like a fighter pilot now.

And he's got some entertainment to take his mind of it all.

OK here we go - take two.

The gas is clearly doing the trick - or is it the game?

Ooh, ooh!

It looks like he's got it - one slippery stone...

but with some fine tweezers

and a super steady hand, Harry's big bonce boulder's banished at last.

Hooray! Well done, that man.

But are we sure there's nothing else lurking in there?

Got a big chunk of gravel out - can't feel anything else,

we'll make sure there's nothing else there with an X-ray

which will show up any other bits of stone or gravel in the wound.

Nice and still.

A quick head shot done and there's some good news for Harry

That's where your bump is there -

and any gravel would show up bright white.

So there is nothing in there at all?

There is his brain! Good news, it's the all-clear for Harry.

Stone free, Harry's patched up and ready for action.

Hang on, he's not fighting wolves again, is he?

Ouch!

We've got some incredible body tricks for you to show your friends.

Want to find out how to stop your mates standing on their tiptoes?

We're now going to teach you a trick, so, Xand, stand there.

Can you stand on your tiptoes? Look at that, well done.

I want you to stand against the door,

and the tips of your toes very slightly beyond the door,

stand so your whole chest is against the door, like that,

stand on tiptoes.

Come on, stand on tiptoes.

CHILDREN URGE HIM ON

Yeah - no I can't do it - I can't do it.

CHILDREN SHOW THEIR DISAPPOINTMENT

And it's not just Xand that can't do it.

He can't do it, she can't, and nor can he.

Ahhh, cheating. You moved your feet. We all failed to do it, didn't you.

Now does anyone know why?

The door being there can't go forward and you push backwards

and stay on the ground.

Alex is absolutely right.

When you go on tiptoes

it's not just your muscles pushing you upwards,

which is easy, you've also got to balance,

and to do that, your brain tells you to move forwards

then upwards to distribute your weight evenly,

and to stop you from falling.

So we can't lean forwards, you just fall backwards like that.

Or like that.

Some people think that kissing is disgusting.

While some people think it's quite nice.

Well take a look at this and make your own mind up.

I'm going to show you how bacteria are GOOD for you.

Look at all of these people.

Now they all look different but they all have something in common -

every single one of them is covered in millions of bacteria.

We all are. But don't worry this is completely normal.

In fact, we need bacteria to survive.

Now this is a Petri dish -

named after its inventor, Julius Richard Petri.

Doctors like me use these dishes to grow bacteria

and see what lives on our bodies.

That's what I'm going to do now, starting with our lips.

Who's going to give me a kiss? Anyone going to give me a kiss?

What I want is a kiss - a nice big kiss on that.

What we're trying to do is look at what grows in people's

-mouths and things like that.

-Carrots.

-Carrots?

Will anyone give me a kiss?

Can I ask your girlfriend for a kiss?

A more manly kiss from you - all right?

Can we get a nose pick as well?

It's less exciting than kissing.

Just going to see what comes out of people's noses and mouths.

I can't do this in the street, put a cotton bud up my nose.

Go on.

That's gross.

-He's a nice man, isn't he?

-Yeah.

-Ah, thanks.

The kisses and nose swabs will now go off to be grown

in a special laboratory, and after five days,

it's time to see how the bacteria have blossomed.

This is Dr Richard Drew, microbiologist,

and expert of all things gross.

Now the kisses have gone all furry - well that's bacteria for you.

So what kind of bugs have we got here?

We have a lot of streptococci of the slightly greeny colour on the lips.

But up here where there nose would have been

you can see the yellowy bugs growing,

and these ones are more like staphylococcus aureus.

Sounds like a dinosaur!

It's completely normal to have these bugs in your mouth -

so all of us have them.

We could have got a kiss from everyone in Liverpool,

-and they all would have grown these two bacteria?

-Absolutely.

You might think it's disgusting but bacteria are really useful.

They're important to have, for example we've got bugs

in our gut, and they help to digest food.

And they fight disease too.

By increasing the acidity in your gut to the point that bad

bacteria don't want to move in.

So what about the weird things that grow up our nose?

This one we found a lot of E.Coli

and a lot of staphylococcus, as well.

Now E.Coli can be dangerous, they do cause disease,

but living up your nose, or commonly, living up your bottom,

is completely normal and completely safe.

It's when it gets into blood or other bits of your body

which shouldn't have it,

like the brain or the joints, that it can cause problems.

-This one looks like cheesecake.

-Mmm, yummy.

So, our bodies are covered in bacteria, but that's not just normal,

it's good, because our bodies are amazing at protecting

the bits that need to be protected, which is why kissing is fine.

Bit disgusting, but fine.

Ouch.

The correct answer is B.

You shed 30 to 40 thousand dead skin cells every minute of every day,

but don't worry your body continually makes new ones too.

What's that sound? Can you hear that buzzing sound?

No, I don't know what you're talking about.

Seriously, there's buzzing everywhere.

Perhaps this is a case for....

Investigation Ouch.

BUZZING

Yes, this is a room full of flies

and no, I haven't had a bath in weeks

but we're not going to talk about that.

If you're wondering what these flies have to do with modern medicine,

I'm about to tell you.

This is Ceri Jones, and he's a fly breeder.

Yes, you heard right, he breeds flies.

Ceri, how many flies have you got in this room?

-We've got 36,000 flies in this room.

-Do you count them all?

Every single one.

And I bet he knows all their names.

What kind of flies are they?

They're the common green bottle as you'd find in your house.

But these flies are growing up in a completely sterile,

bacteria-free environment,

and they're eating a very special dinner. Mmmm, yum.

What we've got here is a big box full of flies eating raw liver.

Disgusting. But there is a point to it. Why?

The reason we're feeding them on raw liver

is to build up their strength so they've got enough

strength to lay the eggs, because it's the eggs we're interested in.

Flies lay eggs, and the eggs hatch into larvae

or maggots like this one.

Hello beautiful.

And it's the maggots that have a special medical use,

but before we get to that, those eggs have to be harvested.

It's basically a manual process of removing the eggs from the liver.

They're extremely small,

and there'll be between ten to 20,000 eggs in each dish.

Yes, this white stuff is thousands of eggs all stuck together.

-How long has this liver been in there?

-About two hours.

-So in two hours 600 flies have laid 20 thousand eggs.

-Yes.

That'd be impressive if it was chickens, wouldn't it?

In these fly eggs, little white worm like larvae hatch -

these are maggots. Nice.

Now you've probably seen maggots before,

and these are the same scary maggots

that you see in dead animals and in horror movies,

but there's one really important difference -

these maggots are sterile.

These are superhero maggots.

Being completely germ free means

they can be used in hospitals for a very important job -

to clean dead skin away from large wounds allowing them to heal.

So these are nice maggots.

Kind of.

In here there's a foot with a wound with 500 maggots in it.

Let's go see them in action. Not if you're squeamish.

Prepare to look away - but not yet.

This is Ros Thomas, she's a foot doctor or podiatrist.

She's going to be tackling this.

It's a foot with a nasty wound on the bottom of it -

and a sock, so it's still all right to look.

Maggots have been on the wound for two days

and now it's time to see what they've done. Get ready people.

Hopefully they've had a good feed now,

hopefully we'll see a nice clean wound.

Prepare yourself,

it can look a bit icky, and there we go.

-Are you looking?

-Cleaned up quite a bit - not completely

and they're still quite lively there.

They're our little blind legless surgeons that help to

clean up all the mucky tissue.

-So they're very precise surgeons?

-They're very precise surgeons, yes.

Take a closer look.

Although they can eat dead flesh maggots don't have any teeth.

They vomit powerful chemicals onto the wound,

which dissolves dead flesh,

and the maggot can then eat that,

along with any bacteria that are around,

and that is what makes the perfect wound cleaning machines.

It's looking so much better than it was originally,

cause it was completely covered with yellow mucky tissue.

Yes, it was, but that yellow tissue was all dead flesh.

So although it might look worse now...

Are you still looking? ..in fact it's much healthier.

This patient's wound has improved a lot in two days,

but don't worry the maggots won't eat the healthy flesh,

only the dead stuff.

No-one's going to be eaten alive. So that's a relief.

We normally think of maggots as eating rotting things in bins,

but it's this ability to just eat rotten flesh

that makes them such good healers.

Whereas a human surgeon might have to amputate a foot,

500 blind tiny legless surgeons are able to eat only the dead flesh,

and therefore save the foot.

Our next patient has had a particularly nasty accident.

Luckily the team is ready to fix them.

In Manchester 12-year-old, Ryan has come in by ambulance

with a nasty neck injury,

after an attempt to jump like James Bond went wrong.

It was like karate kick, I thought I'd broke my neck,

but if I'd broke my neck I would have been like dead.

Well, luckily you're not.

But I'm not sure you'll be the next 007 either.

So how did this happen.

JAMES BOND THEME

It was just another ordinary day at school.

It was lunchtime, and Ryan, being a secret agent,

-was on a top secret mission.

-He's a secret agent?

OK, he was pretending to be a secret agent.

Cool, calm and collected, 00-Ryan stepped from the shadows.

In one swift movement he unleashed his killer karate kick.

When suddenly his mate grabbed his foot and Ryan dropped on his head.

Ouch.

After such a serious accident, Ryan is on a fixed board with

support pads to prevent his neck and spine from moving.

Enter, Dr Craig Ferguson - he'll check out our wannabe 007.

-Any pain in your back, or is it just your neck?

-My neck.

Head injuries are common - the James Bond theme is less common,

but he's got neck pain, so we have to take it seriously.

Dr Craig needs to find out if Ryan has broken any bones,

but to do that the team have to move him

in a special way, keeping his head and body in line.

That's because the bones in your neck and back protect the important

nerves that run from the brain into the body through your spinal cord.

If we touch all the way down, it's not sore anywhere,

is that right Ryan? Want to get some x-rays

to make sure the bones are intact.

If the bones are intact, it means it's much less likely that

he's suffered any nerve injury.

Fingers crossed, get ready for your close up, Ryan.

There are seven small bones in the neck,

and getting shots of them all can be tricky.

First his teeth are in the way.

I suppose they could take them all out.

we're going to ask you to open your mouth a little bit for us now.

Yeah, that's probably a better idea.

With his mouth open the X-ray can see the bones in his neck.

OK, wide as you can, wide as you can,

that's it, brilliant. And relax your mouth again.

And now his shoulders are in the way.

They can cut them off.

Pull down, like you're trying to touch your toes.

Yeah, that's probably better.

Keep pulling down to your toes - lovely and relax.

-Yeah, that's brilliant.

-I hope I haven't fractured anything.

I want to get back to playing cricket.

OK, let's just check out your X-rays first,

then you can get on with winning the Ashes.

I'm making sure that the bones are aligned,

and I'm making sure there's no breaks

in any of the bones I can see.

I think there might be good news for Ryan.

I've had a look at all your pictures, they all look fine -

I don't see any broken bones,

everything looks right,

I think you may be a bit stiff and sore for the next few days,

I think it's going to get gradually better after that.

It's been a lucky escape for Ryan.

It feels like a relief because I don't want to break my neck.

Who would?

You can go back to school tomorrow,

but no more James Bond moves, please.

OK.

JAMES BOND THEME

Next time:

There's more exclusive behind-the-scenes emergency access.

With a hook stuck in her hand.

I get my hands on a real human brain.

Nice.

This man reveals an eye popping ability.

-THEY SHRIEK

-When we'll be uncovering another...

-BOTH:

-Operation Ouch.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd