Episode 12 Operation Ouch!


Episode 12

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Transcript


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He's Dr Chris and he's Dr Xand. Yup, we're twins.

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Do you know just how brilliant your body really is?

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Now's the time to find out.

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

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I've got a big hole in my head.

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We'll be doing awesome experiments...

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You sound ridiculous! Pipe down, squeaky!

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

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-OK, here we go.

-It's hard to think it's so cold.

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

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Hang around because this is gonna be fun.

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Arghhhhh!

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BOTH: Coming up on Operation Ouch!

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-We take a look at breathing.

-Xand is blowing up a lung.

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We show how this man is skinny in more ways than one and Chris gets

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picky as we find out all about the stuff that comes out of your nose.

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But now... Let's see our first patient in Accident & Emergency.

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This is not for the faint hearted.

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Rushed into hospital in Liverpool today is Joe

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and he's got a worrying eye injury.

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It certainly looks sore, but how did it happen?

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Joe and his best mate were getting ready for tin can target practice.

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-That looks a bit dangerous.

-Joe's mate had the pellet gun

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and thought he had the safety catch switched on - but he didn't.

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-That is not good.

-Nope and a plastic pellet hit Joe's eye.

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Bad news.

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Joe's learned the hard way that pellet guns are dangerous.

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-What will you do when you get home?

-Throw them in the bin.

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'Sounds like a good idea to me.'

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-Not worth it, is it?

-No.

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-'But what about his friend?'

-We've left his best friend,

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who shot him in the eye at home. He's mortified.

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It's just a BB gun, just a toy.

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We allowed them in the garden, shooting cans off the fence.

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You think it's OK, but it's not.

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He's scared because he can't see through his eye at the minute.

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'Eye specialist Dr Henri Sueke is here to find out what's going on.'

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We need to do is to check your vision

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and then I have to examine you under a microscope to see

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the extent of the injury.

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-First is a basic eyesight test.

-Can you see the chart there?

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Cover your bad eye. Can you read from the top?

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S, Z, N, R, N, C, V, K, C, R...

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Joe switches eyes and Dr Henri tries a different test.

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Look at my hand, how many fingers.

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Two.

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Yeah - and now?

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I can't see them. I can't see...

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Things don't look good so Dr Henri uses a microscope to get

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a closer look at the damage to Joe's eye.

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I'm glad to say it looks like you've been very lucky.

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The ball bearing's actually - it's just sort of - hasn't gone

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into the eye - it's just scratched the surface of the eye.

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But saying that your vision will be very hazy

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because there's blood inside the eye.

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Your eye is about two thirds the size of a ping pong ball.

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At the front is the cornea and the doctor can see where the

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pellet has scratched the surface.

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At the back of the eye sits the retina, which enables you to see.

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Because of the blood it's very hard to see the back.

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The blood in Joe's eye

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means that Dr Henri can't see the inside of the eye clearly so

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he can't tell at this stage whether Joe has permanent eye damage.

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The doctors decide to send Joe home, but he has to

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come back again so his eye can be monitored.

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Before he goes, he gets patched up.

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We can get a pirate one for you if you want. No?

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Less of the pirate jokes. We'll be back later to see

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how Joe's eye is doing.

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This is where we're going to put our bodies to

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the test to show you how your body works.

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Ow, that really hurt.

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Don't try anything you see here at home. Today, we look at breathing.

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Take a deep breath.

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You can try it at home. Breathing is essential to make our bodies work.

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We do it without even thinking about it.

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But why? How do our lungs work?

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What is it that makes us breathe?

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What are you doing?

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I've got the innards from a pig. I know it looks like a meat counter

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but one of the things I've got here is a pig's lung.

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So have a look and see if you figure out which one it is.

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-Have you worked it out?

-Why don't you show us, Xand?

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I'm gonna inflate the lung.

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-Is it that then?

-No!

-You blow up the pig and the pig blows back.

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-It blew right back.

-Keep blowing, keep breathing in and out.

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A pig's lung works exactly the same as ours.

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When you breathe in and out, you take oxygen

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out of the air and you breathe out carbon dioxide,

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which is a waste gas - it's like a car's exhaust pipe.

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The inside of your lung is like a sponge -

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it's got millions of little air spaces in it called alveoli.

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And it's inside these alveoli where oxygen is absorbed

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and is sent to wherever it's needed all over your body.

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These pockets inside the lung have a huge surface area -

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the bigger the area the more oxygen that can be absorbed.

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That's the important thing - these air spaces.

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The surface area that they give. If you spread out

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all the alveoli you'd have the same surface area as a tennis court.

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When you breathe in, your lungs take

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the oxygen from the air for your body and when you

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breathe out you expel the carbon dioxide that your body doesn't need.

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What happens in your body when you hold your breath? Let's find out.

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This machine is a capnometer.

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It'll measure carbon dioxide that Xand's breathing

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out and it's also gonna shine a laser through his finger

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and measure the amount of oxygen in his blood.

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The carbon dioxide level's about 5

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and his oxygen levels are about 95%, both of which are normal.

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-Now I'm going to hold my breath.

-No, now you should hold your breath.

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-I said I'll hold my breath.

-Just hold your breath.

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So at first nothing much changes apart from the fact that the

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machine thinks you're dead.

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You're not dead but the machine thinks you're dead

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because it's not detecting you breathing out.

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You've got enough oxygen in your body for

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about 5-10 minutes of life, but Xand won't make it that long

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because the rising levels of carbon dioxide in his blood are gonna

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make him absolutely desperate to breathe.

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'It's the carbon dioxide build-up in your blood

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'that tells your body to breathe

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'before your oxygen runs out.'

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On my count I want you to breathe out slowly

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through the machine. Go.

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XAND BREATHES OUT

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In Xand's last breath he had high carbon dioxide levels,

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but his oxygen levels never really went that low.

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'Although the machine shows Xand's oxygen level is almost normal,

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'his carbon dioxide level has risen significantly.'

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So what we see from this is that long before I was gonna run

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out of oxygen the rising carbon dioxide levels in my blood

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were forcing me to breathe.

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'So you can breathe easy knowing that your body is working hard to

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'look after itself by getting rid of all that carbon dioxide

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'and sending all the good stuff - oxygen - around your body.'

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It's not only teams in hospitals that deal with the unexpected.

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If you have an accident there'll be a medical crew ready to help.

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Throughout this series we've been on call with emergency medical teams

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and seen them use some of the life-saving equipment

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they carry with them at all times. And out of all their kit,

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we've picked three of the coolest that help save lives everyday.

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The nebuliser. It can help patients with breathing difficulties,

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just light Kiri here.

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So now we're gonna give a nebuliser, which is a mist of drug that can

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penetrate into the lungs, open up the breathing passages

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and hopefully she'll feel better and easier breathing.

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'Remember James? He was having problems breathing

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'and the nebuliser came to his rescue.'

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Is that helping at all with the breathing? It is. Good.

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Second on the kit list is gas and air.

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This is a mixture of half oxygen half nitrous oxide.

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It numbs pain and makes patients more comfortable

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so that they can be treated properly.

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We were called out to see Saffron who had a broken collarbone.

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I've got some gas and air. Put it in your mouth and breathe in.

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Take big lungfuls of gas - just keep breathing.

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-Every time you feel pain take a deep breath.

-You're doing brilliantly.

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Saffron looks much better with the gas and air and with the sling.

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Her arm's immobilised colour's come back

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to her cheeks - she's looking much, much better.

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Kathleen had a fall and we suspected she had a broken hip so we gave her

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gas and air before moving her into the ambulance.

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You're doing a really nice job there.

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And our third piece of emergency kit is the ECG monitor.

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ECG stands for Electrocardiograph

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and it's a real star in the emergency medical team's kit.

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One of the most noticeable things about emergencies

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is you need a lot of equipment.

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I'm carrying the monitor. It checks blood pressure, heart rate,

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oxygen levels and if the heart needs a shock it can give a shock as well.

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Remember Ivanna? She had an asthma attack and the

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ECG attached to her body was used to monitor her recovery

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Jan is using her monitor

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to get lots of measurements off the patient.

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She's checking her blood pressure, if she's got a temperature,

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her pulse and she's checking the oxygen level in her blood.

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'Back to Kiri, who was having breathing problems.

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'The ECG was running to check that she was responding to the treatment.'

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-There's nothing abnormal.

-That is a very normal recording of your heart.

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So there you have it. Three star pieces from the kit that

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emergency medical teams carry with them everywhere they go

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and that they use for life-saving treatments.

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Still to come - find out what happens

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when you burn your skin. There's a mind-bending trick to

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try on your mates and things get sticky when I investigate snot.

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Yuk.

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One of the reasons is because your hands have better blood circulation.

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That's amazing and so is this.

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An ordinary day in an ordinary garden. This man's making the most

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of the good weather - stripy deckchair - knotted handkerchief

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-and bright blue shoes.

-Cool shoes, but what's so amazing?

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Just you watch this.

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-That is stretchy.

-Stretchy is right. This is Gary

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-and he has the world's stretchiest skin.

-That's a handy trick if you

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forget your sunglasses - or that one if you don't want to be recognised.

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Doesn't hurt at all - I can just pull it away as many

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times as I like and it just naturally stretches.

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But don't go trying this yourself - Gary has actually got a rare

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skin condition that makes his skin this stretchy.

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I've got stretchy skin because I've got

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a lack of collagen - it's also twice as thin as normal skin.

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Collagen is a type of protein in the skin - it keeps skin flexible

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but strong. The collagen in Gary's skin doesn't work in

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the same way as yours so he can do stuff like this.

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When I stretch and see people's reactions it's quite funny.

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It's enabled me to travel the world doing shows

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and I've really had a great time doing it.

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That's amazing.

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Xand - it's not amazing.

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Let's head down to Accident & Emergency to see

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how our patient is doing.

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Back in Alder Hey, 11-year-old Joe came into hospital unable to

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see properly out of one eye.

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I can't see it.

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Joe was accidentally shot in the eye with a pellet gun

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while playing with his mate.

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-What are you going to do?

-Throw them in the bin.

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The bin's the best place for your pellet gun.

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Doctors examined his eye, but the blood in it

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stopped them from getting a proper look.

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Since the accident, Joe's been back to the hospital

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several times for a scan and for some checkups.

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The good news is that his eye has healed all by itself.

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Mr William Newman, an eye specialist,

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wants to check up for possible longer term damage.

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Look ahead to start with.

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The blood in Joe's eye has

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cleared so it's now possible to see exactly what's going on.

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It's time to check the pressure inside the eye

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using this device for signs of any long-term damage.

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What we're worried about now is to measure

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your eyes and make sure your eyesight stays good

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and that you don't develop glaucoma, which is pressure

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in the eye and that can happen because of damage that

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you can't see when I look where the blood vessels broke.

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That's what the doctor's worried about. What's Joe got on his mind?

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-Can I play football again?

-Yes, you can go back to playing football.

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Stick to the football and no more pellet guns.

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-OK? Cheerio.

-See ya.

-Have fun going back to your football.

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We know loads of fantastic body tricks to amaze

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and confuse your friends like this one.

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-This is a good trick.

-You're gonna like this.

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I'm standing so my fingertips are just touching the wall.

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When I say so Chris is gonna move his arms round in a circle

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and try and touch the wall again but I'll push the wall away from him.

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-Go. Aaarrrggghhh!

-Your mates will think that their arms have shrunk.

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-Actually, I pushed the wall.

-No, you didn't.

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Yes, I did - frankly I'm amazed this building is still standing.

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'Of course Xand didn't really move the wall.

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'When I rotated my arms, the muscles in my shoulders

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'tightened up meaning I couldn't stretch my arms as far -

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'simple, give it a try and see if you can fool your friends.'

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We're hitting part of the hospital that you haven't seen before.

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Today we're in the burns aftercare clinic.

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On Operation Ouch! we've seen our fair share of burns, scrapes,

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cuts and all sorts of gory bits but what happens afterwards -

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all those injuries start to heal and often they form scars on your skin.

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Look at this - last week I burnt my arm on the cooker.

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Now your body's good at repairing itself

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and this has started to heal, but if it had been a more serious

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burn that could leave a scar and that would require careful treatment.

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When you injure yourself the body heals the wound with

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scar tissue - this looks and feels quite different to normal skin -

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it's not as flexible and the bigger

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and deeper the injury the bigger the scar.

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I'm with scar and burns specialist Kevin Ryan to

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check up on some of the patients he's treating.

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First in is Holly who took a bit of a tumble five months ago.

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If you're squeamish get ready to look away.

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Holly, why are you here?

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There was a tree stump on a hill and I fell over it.

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So can I see what happened?

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One month later and the skin's started to heal,

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but there's a lot of this pus infection there and then this

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is now five months later and you can see it's all healed.

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A bit of scar, but that's gonna keep getting better and better.

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'Holly is being fitted with a stocking that will help

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'the scar continue to improve.'

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As Holly's wounds have a long time to heal the scar is more

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severe if you like and so by making a little stocking that

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presses on that it'll get nicer result is that right?

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That's what we're hoping for.

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'Jensen is having a check up on a burn he got four weeks ago.'

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Tell us how this happened.

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A pie dropped on my leg.

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You dropped a pie on your leg?

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What type of pie was it?

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-Cheese and onion.

-Cheese and onion pie?

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What would have concerned us would be if had he had raised scarring

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that would have contracted, but that's

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soft and supple so that shouldn't cause him any problems at all.

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The pinkness will be there for several weeks, but it will fade.

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If I press on it I can make the pinkness go away

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and that's the blood flowing back.

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Those blood vessels, that's part of the healing process.

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That's right it is, but very fragile.

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But they do take time, just takes several

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months for that to resolve.

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Ben also had an accident five months ago. This isn't for

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the fainthearted and unfortunately his burn injury got infected.

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To help it heal, the doctors took a patch of skin from his thigh

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to cover the injured part of his foot - this is called a skin graft.

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Why are you in the burns clinic today?

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I was making Mum and Dad a coffee - I had a music player

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with me that I'd put on the side while waiting

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for the kettle to boil and, because I had no pockets, I just thought

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of a quick way to carry it upstairs, I put it under my chin.

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-How were you holding it all?

-I was holding it like that.

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What happened? I tried to lift my head up to see where I were going

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-You dropped the player and spilled hot coffee over your foot?

-Yeah.

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'For Ben the question now is whether he can go swimming again.'

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-Shall we have a look at it and we'll give you an answer?

-Yeah.

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Fantastic. Can't feel

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any signs of thickening there - it's just what we want.

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It's now fully healed.

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I thought that this was gonna look much more serious. That is

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such a good result.

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-In terms of swimming - no problem.

-Brilliant.

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That's brilliant news - brilliant news.

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'Although the scars may not ever go away fully, thanks to these

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'treatments it means that life can get back to normal for these three.

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'Swimming for Ben, gymnastics for Holly

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'and cold pies only for Jensen.'

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Aatchoo! Does this look all right to you?

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No. This is a case for Investigation Ouch!

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Snot - what is it and where does it come from?

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And, since it's so delicious,

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why has nobody started a snot restaurant?

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I've come to Cardiff University's School of Biosciences to find out.

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Aatchoo!

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'This is Dr Kelly Berube and she's a snot expert.'

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What is snot?

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Snot is a natural polymer that you create as these are cells

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and all the mucus membranes that line all the

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areas of your body that are not exposed.

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This isn't real snot, but it's a mixture that Dr Kelly

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has made to show exactly why it needs to be so sticky.

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Anywhere where bacteria can get in, you need to have

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this material to keep them off.

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It's like fly paper so you inhale, it sticks on.

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The defender cells will say, "That shouldn't be in here,"

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goes in and kills them or you sneeze it, spit it or swallow it.

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Mucus protects the areas of your body connected to the outside world.

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You make mucus in your nose, your mouth,

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your gut, to your bum, also in your lungs and also covering your eyes.

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Mucus lubricates things so we have a poo - that's lubricated

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and it lubricates your tongue -

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if you have a dry mouth you can't speak -

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and your eye balls so they can move around.

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Snot is actually nasal mucus

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and when it dries it creates bogeys, but why do they taste salty?

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Snot contains lots of chemicals

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and one of them is salt.

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Hmmmm, that's handy to know for my snot restaurant menu.

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Your spit also contains

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snot and it's full of bacteria killing chemicals too.

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If all day, when you're well, you spat all your snot,

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blew your nose into a jar, you'd end up with this completely full.

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We think it's disgusting,

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but we're swallowing this stuff the whole time.

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Is it OK to pick my nose and eat it?

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Science says if you pick your nose

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and you eat it, you're spiking your immune system.

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There you go straight from the expert it is OK to eat your bogeys.

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-I'm gonna start.

-Socially it might not be acceptable, but if you're a

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closet bogey eater, which I'm sure you are, then it's probably OK.

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I'm getting over a cold.

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My snot is definitely not a healthy colour like this.

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-This is what I've had the last few days.

-At the beginning of a cold...

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What's happening now is that you bring in a lot of water

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that more mucus is being made and more water is being retained.

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'These liquids show how your snot can be different colours.'

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So what can we tell about someone from looking at their mucus?

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You can tell whether they're sick, what they like to eat

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and even where they live.

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-You can tell all that?

-It's amazing.

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What can you tell me about my body?

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-We're gonna have to pick some out - are you game for that?

-Yeah.

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So I'm taking a good sample of my snot on this sterile swab

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and now mucus from my lungs.

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-It's even making me sick.

-'Sorry. It is in the name of medical research.'

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It's a bit yellow. It's not bad, but there are flecks of grey.

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So it's time to get the results

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from all of my sticky mucus and snot.

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What can you tell from looking at this?

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If you look on the screen and the mucus is thick,

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but it's done what it's supposed to do, it's trapped sub-particles.

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You live in the big city so it's done a great job.

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-It looks like some pollen in there.

-That's pollen.

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If you're riding a bike to work or walking,

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-you're gonna take it in quicker.

-It doesn't mean you shouldn't cycle.

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No because the mucus has trapped it it's got trapped in the muscin.

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The mucus in my body is doing what it's supposed

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to do - it's trapped all the things that can cause me disease.

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I've been able to cough it up and get rid of it.

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So snot is amazing and vital for keeping you alive.

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There's nothing wrong with eating it.

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The only problem is harvesting enough to start my restaurant.

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Xand stop eating it.

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Oops, sorry!

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The average person produces around 500 litres of snot in a year -

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that's over a litre a day.

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In Accident and Emergency departments,

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doctors and nurses need to act fast.

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Especially when things like this happen.

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In Manchester, Rosie has been brought in by ambulance

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with a potentially serious head injury.

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Head injuries can be

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so serious that the hospital has a trauma team of 12 doctors and nurses

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on standby in case Rosie needs to have surgery or further tests.

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Speed is vital so everyone is ready for action.

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Rosie didn't recognise me.

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She looked quite unwell.

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It was worrying that I wasn't able to console her.

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She didn't know who I was.

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Luckily she recognises her dad now, but what actually happened?

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Rosie and her friends were in the playground.

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She and her friend were running in different directions

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to escape being tagged, but they were concentrating

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so hard on escaping that when they changed directions

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they headed straight towards each other and whack!

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They both banged their heads - hard!

0:25:210:25:23

Time for a trip to hospital.

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Ouch. Meet Professor Simon Carley - he's heading up the trauma team.

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-Did you get a glucose.

-Yes, it was 8.4.

-Thank you very much.

0:25:310:25:35

It sounds that her behaviour has not been normal and she's been vomiting.

0:25:350:25:40

What the team's worried about is

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whether or not she's got any bleeding inside her skull

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that might be pressing on the brain.

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Professor Simon will need to examine Rosie's head, but in the meantime

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he prescribes some sophisticated emergency medicine - cuddles.

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Cuddles are slightly more effective than any medicines.

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And luckily there's a professor of cuddleology on hand - Dad!

0:26:000:26:05

Time now for Rosie's special test on her head.

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It's called a CT scan - it's a bit like an X-ray

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and the images will show the details of Rosie's

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brain and skull to help him check for damage.

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Here we go. That's nice and comfy.

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Nice pinny, Dad.

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I want to take this home it's so nice.

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Actually the pinny means Dad can stay in the room with Rosie

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because it protects his body from the X-rays.

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A few snaps later and the results are in.

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This is Rosie's brain - so how's it looking?

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That looks like a normal skull - a normal brain.

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There's no evidence, that we can see,

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of any bleeding at all and that's great.

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It's a huge relief for Rosie's mum and dad and it means

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the reason she's been feeling unwell is she's got concussion.

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Inside your head your brain is surrounded by fluid to protect it.

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But sometimes when you bang your head hard, your brain

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moves about and knocks into the sides of your skull. This can

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make you feel confused, unwell and be sick.

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In Rosie's case these symptoms disappear

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and after a few hours rest there's been a transformation.

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I feel great.

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Believe it or not this is the same girl - back to normal

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-and ready to leave the hospital.

-I'm going home!

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This has been quite an experience for Rosie and her family,

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but thanks to the skilled trauma team she's got her groove back.

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Bye, Rosie.

0:27:320:27:35

Next time - find out what's happened to this funny looking arm,

0:27:380:27:42

see what amazing body skill this man is hiding,

0:27:420:27:45

and we find out how our skin protects us.

0:27:450:27:48

We'll see you next time on Operation Ouch!

0:27:490:27:52

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