Episode 5 Operation Ouch!

He's Dr Chris...

And he's Dr Xand...

Yep, we're twins.

Now's the time to find out just how brilliant your body really is...

From the ins and outs of what you're made of...

I've got a big hole in my head.

To awesome experiments.

We're turning our bodies inside out and upside down...

Oh... Ohhh...

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

Oh no!

Coming up today...

On Operation Ouch.

I explore the inside of Xand's head...

This man reveals a mouth-watering ability...

And Xand joins paramedics on an emergency call to an asthma attack.

Asthma attacks can be really serious,

this is the kind of call we've got to get to very quickly.

But first...

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.

BOTH: Phew.

In Liverpool, nine-year-old Charlie is in hospital with a painful elbow.

See? Painful.

So what have you done to it?

Tried to do a leapfrog, but my pants were too far down

cos I had heavy stuff in me pocket.

You did what?

He did a leapfrog, but his pants were too low down.

Hang on let's get this story straight.

Charlie was on his way home from school with his cousin.

They saw some bollards up ahead and had a great idea.

That explains the light bulbs, then.

-They were going to leapfrog.

-That explains the frogs, then.

Yes, but as Charlie leapt into the air his trousers got caught

-and he fell smack onto the ground.

-Ouch.

SIREN

Enter Dr Sarah Pyper.

She'll examine that arm to find how what's wrong with it.

Sore there.

I was a bit worried you might have broken this bone,

but the bottom of the humerus which is this long bone here...

Me dream come true.

Eh? Your dream come true?

Not playing for Liverpool or winning an Oscar?

Broken bones can be pretty serious, you know?

Well, an X-ray's the only way to find out

if Charlie's dream really has come true.

Keep nice and still there for me. Brilliant.

The bone Charlie may have broken is the humerus,

running from the shoulder to the elbow,

it's the fourth longest bone in your body.

Often called the funny bone, the humerus has a nerve

running through it very close to the skin.

That's why when you bang your elbow,

you get that funny tingly sensation.

With Charlie's X-rays done, Dr Sarah delivers her verdict.

-I'm afraid it is broken.

-Get in!

What's the matter with this boy?

It looks like Charlie's crazy "I've broken my arm badly" dream

is alive and well.

He's got a little break to the humerus,

the long bone of his arm just above the elbow joint.

It's not in too bad a position

so hopefully it will get away with just putting it in a cast.

-Shall we get it in a cast now?

-Yep.

Oh, so it's the CAST you wanted, right, that's the dream.

But hold on a moment...

I just need to have a little word with the bone doctors

just to make sure they're happy with the X-ray,

because sometimes they want to put wires in.

-Right.

-Sometimes it does need a little operation.

I don't think an operation was part of the dream,

but it could be the only way to make that arm heal properly.

Still, his dream comes temporarily true with a temporary cast.

But Charlie has to stay in hospital overnight so that the doctors

can decide whether he'll need an operation or not.

Ooh, that looks painful.

And now, we're heading to our lab

where we're going to put our bodies to the test

to show you how your body works.

Ow, that really hurt!

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

Your nose, mouth and stomach are all connected.

If you've ever been sick

and had vomit coming out your nose you'll know this is true.

But here's the proof.

I'm going to take this nasogastric tube,

stick it through Xand's nose, down into his stomach.

If Chris gets this wrong, he could kill me.

He could drive it up into my brain, or down into my lungs,

so we can only do this because we're doctors.

Now, nasogastric tube means nose-stomach tube in Latin,

but the reason we don't call it a nose-stomach tube is because...

I have no idea why that is.

Anyway let's go.

First things first. We need to get that tube into Xand's stomach.

These tubes are used in hospitals to feed patients who are too ill

to eat normally and this experiment will show you how that's possible.

-So, now the tube is about here in Xand...

-Yeah, right,

so I feel like you're right in the middle of my brain, now.

I'm not.

So can you see at the back of my throat?

Open up - yes.

The tip is right at the back of your throat.

After a bit more careful manoeuvring, the tube is now in Xand's stomach.

How are you feeling?

It's like having a very bad cold, cos obviously one nostril

is literally completely blocked.

And you look silly.

Do I? I thought I looked quite cool.

So, now the tube's in place, we're going to use it

to prove your nose and stomach are connected.

First, I'm going to drink some blue milk...

And next some yellow milk.

Now, inside Xand, the blue and yellow milk are in his stomach,

where the end of the tube is.

To prove it, let's suck the milk back out through his nose with a syringe.

We've got yellow and blue stripy milk...

But hang on, what happens if we...

MUSIC: "Wiggle It" by 2 In A Room

# Wiggle it just a little bit

# I wanna see you wiggle it... #

Nice moves, Xand.

And the milk has turned green.

BING!

So, we've shown your nose, throat and stomach are all connected

and this means, if a patient's too ill to swallow,

doctors can use a tube like this to feed them.

But it's not nearly as nice as eating

your food yourself, is it, Xand?

If you're in need of medical help fast...

There are teams of paramedics near you ready to assist.

We're going on call with the UK's emergency services,

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

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

This is a rapid response emergency vehicle.

It's designed to get a medical team to an incident within minutes.

This fast medical service is on standby, ready to help you, 24/7.

On call with me today is paramedic Jan Vann.

The service takes thousands of 999 calls,

and Jan alone can get up to 20 emergency call outs in a day,

and you're coming with us

We've got James with us filming - there we go

and then I've also brought this camera with me,

so that I can get as close as possible, record as much as I can.

An emergency call has been made and the blue lights are on.

We've got to get there fast.

So, we've just got a call to a young girl with an asthma attack

who's having problems breathing.

Asthma attacks can be really serious,

it's the kind of call we've got to get to very quickly.

But there's some confusion...

There's two running tracks... If you can just double check

I'm going to the right place, please - over.

So it's very important when you're making a 999 call

to give as much detail as you can, and to stay on the line.

Saying things like, "We're at the running track,"

well, there are two running tracks in the area

and we don't know which one we're going to.

But after more information comes in,

we make it to the right sports track,

and we need to find our patient quickly and treat her asthma attack.

So we're on our way. They seem to have found her inhaler at least,

so she may already be getting some treatment.

As we find Ivana she has her inhaler,

but is still struggling for breath.

-Can you tell me what happened?

-I was running.

So you were feeling short of breath as you were running?

-Was that panicking you a bit?

-Yeah.

OK. Can I have a quick listen to your chest, is that all right?

So, what Jan's just been doing is listening to her chest,

and that's really important to do with an asthmatic,

because you get a kind of whistling sound

and your chest gets tight if you're not getting enough air in.

Right, your chest is really clear, there's no wheeze. OK?

So although you feel you can't breathe you're getting plenty in.

Actually, her chest sounds really clear, you can hear the air

freely rushing in, and that's really good news.

So it may be that one of the reasons she's feeling so ill

is because she's so frightened

of having an asthma attack, she's been breathing too much.

What's actually happened is she's been hyperventilating,

which actually blows off all the carbon dioxide in your blood.

We need to get her breathing controlled,

keep an eye on her temperature

and make sure she doesn't get any hotter.

It's great to see Ivana taking part in sport despite her asthma,

but Jan hasn't quite finished with her yet.

She's checking her blood pressure,

she's checking whether or not she's got a temperature,

she's checking her pulse

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

Your pulse is going a bit quick, but I'm not surprised by that.

Once everything settles down,

you'll be back to normal and you won't need to go to hospital.

Now she's used her inhaler and she's sat somewhere nice and cool

with a fan on her she feels a lot better.

Ready to run another race.

No. Ha ha ha!

Ivana's already a lot better,

so we're off to get ready for the next call out.

-Bye.

-Good luck. Take care.

With hundreds of rapid response crews like this on standby,

it means that if you have an emergency,

medical care can be with you in minutes.

Still to come...

Chris meets a surgeon of the future.

We'll show you how to mystify your friends

with another mind-bending trick.

And things get nippy when I enter a room colder than anywhere on earth.

Now, did you know you have 10,000 taste buds on your tongue?

And inside each one are up to 100 cells all helping you taste

everything from the sweetest cake to the spiciest chilli.

That's amazing....and so's this.

An ordinary town with ordinary people.

Well, except for one person.

But what makes him so special?

Can I have an ice cream, please?

A lot of people like ice cream, Chris.

Oh, is it that he's gone for boring vanilla

when he could have had mint chocolate chip?

Ooh, been looking forward to this all day.

No, in fact this man is hiding an amazing body.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, make it stop, make it stop.

This is Stephen Taylor and he has the world's longest tongue.

MUSIC: "Bonkers" by Dizzee Rascal

-How long, you ask?

-Well, I was just about to.

Well, his record-breaking tongue measures a massive 10 centimetres

from the tip to his lip - that's as long as a sausage.

So what's it like having such a long tongue?

The advantages of having a long tongue, um...

Well, I can eat a yogurt without using a spoon,

so it saves on the washing up.

Oh, I think you may still have to wash that beard.

But although lizard-tongue Stephen can probably lap up an ice cream

quicker than you, don't worry you're not missing out

when it comes to flavour.

Because taste buds don't just live on your tongue.

In fact, they're also at the back of you throat.

Kilo for kilo,

the tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body which makes

Stephen's licker the heavyweight champion of the tongue world.

Now, that's amazing.

Mm-hm, mm-hm?

No, that's not amazing, you are still a long way off.

Hmmmm.

Let's go back to Accident and Emergency to see

how our patient's getting along.

Nine-year-old Charlie is in hospital with a broken elbow.

-He'd had a bright idea.

-There go the light bulbs again.

-They were going to leapfrog.

-And there go the frogs again!

Yes, Xand, but as he jumped over the bollard his trousers got caught

and he fell onto his arm.

A plaster cast was his dream, but surgery could also be on the cards.

After a night in hospital, Charlie's waiting to find out

whether he'll need that operation or not.

Enter bone specialist Dr Jason Chan.

He's been looking at the X-rays and has some news.

Now, looking the fracture,

-I think he's going to need an operation.

-Right.

-OK?

It might not be the news you wanted, Charlie,

but this is the best plan to get that arm fixed.

What we'll do is, once he's asleep under general anaesthetic,

we will manipulate the fracture

to get the bones back into the right position

and then we'll have to hold them together with a couple of wires.

So, theatre here we come.

With Charlie fast asleep, the surgical team use a live X-ray image

to help them realign his elbow into position.

Strapped up to keep it in place, Charlie's arm is now ready

for those wires.

This might be hard to watch, but Charlie can't feel a thing,

and without the wires, the bones wouldn't set in the right position.

With it all in place, it's time for some temporary plaster.

Let's wrap him up.

Operation over, Charlie will be going home,

but he'll have to come back in a week's time

to make sure everything is setting correctly.

One week later, and Charlie's back for his checkup.

It's been three weeks...

What?

-It's been a week.

-Three

-You done it last week.

-Oh!

It's been a week, but never mind.

It's off to X-ray, so Dr Chan can see how that elbow's healing.

-They look fine.

-Thank God.

It's good news for Charlie.

Well, I'm happy with the position of the fracture.

The wires are doing their job

and the fracture's in a good position at the moment.

The wires will be taken out in a few weeks' time, but now Dr Chan

gives Charlie the best news ever - his dream news, in fact.

We'll have to put you into another plaster, OK?

So don't I get a full cast?

-Full cast today.

-Oh, yeah!

High five, Doc. Come on, don't be shy.

Time to give that old cast the elbow.

And replace it with a brand spanking new one.

-You're enjoying this, aren't you?

-Yeah.

This is what Charlie wanted.

Go on, give us a big wave.

Well, that'll have to do.

And there we are, all done.

A full plaster cast with matching pink sling,

it's what all the best dressed boys are wearing this year. Very stylish.

It certainly is a dream come true.

We've got loads of amazing body tricks to show you.

Want to find out how to stop your friends

from simply lifting a finger?

We're going to show you how.

Xand, I want you to put your hand on the table

and then I want you to leave that finger out.

Leave that one out...

If you can lift this penny without taking your hand off the table,

-just using that finger, you can keep it.

-Ooh!

-Now, I'll place this very light, normal penny on your finger.

-Easy.

And we're going to do a big countdown. Ready?

Three, two, one - lift!

Come on. That is pathetic.

Who thinks Xand's pathetic?

Now who thinks they could do it?

Well, let's see then, shall we? Time for everyone to have a go.

OK, so, in three, two, one - lift!

Come on, guys, come on, lift it!

None of them can do it.

So, how does it work, then?

Your little finger and your first finger have their own muscles,

but the middle ones have a muscle that controls all of them

so you can't move them separately.

The muscle you need to move the penny with is busy

keeping the middle finger bent,

and it can't do two things at once, making the penny finger useless.

Now, we're hitting the hospitals to show you what goes on.

Today, I'm meeting a special surgeon.

I'm in this operating theatre

with one of the best surgeons in the world.

He's done hundreds of operations,

he's seven years old and he's got four arms.

No, it's not a genetically engineered child mutant surgeon,

it's a robot.

What made you want to become a surgeon?

Interesting.

We're at Leeds General Hospital and this robot - yes, robot -

is going to perform surgery.

And we've been allowed special access to show you how it works.

And this is the surgeon that will operate the robot,

Dr Azad Najmaldin.

On the operating table is two-year-old Thomas,

and he needs an operation on his stomach.

And Dr Azad's decided to use the robot

because the robot arms can be put through small incisions

rather than making a big incision on the tummy.

That means when Thomas wakes up he'll only have a few tiny scars

instead of a big one.

But before the robot can start operating,

there's a lot of preparation to do.

Just like surgeons get dressed in sterile clothing for operations,

so does the robot.

The team need to put the camera and robotic hands

inside Thomas' tummy and then Dr Azad can drive the robot.

It looks completely terrifying, but this is actually very safe.

The business end of the robot is that single pair of fingers

that do this, and rotate.

Now, these very delicate movements

can take place at the tips of those arms.

And so our robot gets to work,

with Dr Azad on the other side of the room.

It might look like a computer game, but when it's controlled

by a highly skilled expert like Dr Azad,

it can make intricate surgical movements.

What the robot does is it takes the big movements of the human hands

and it shrinks them down and it gives Dr Azad tiny robot hands

inside the patient's body.

And there's not need for him to be in the room,

or even in the country.

So, he could be anywhere in the world,

operating on a patient in Leeds.

Thomas' surgery has gone well, so he's off back to the ward.

And now it's my turn.

I've never used this before

and I've got a massive challenge, to skin a grape.

I'm trying to cut the skin on the grape...

Move down vertically like this.

Surprisingly straightforward.

I just don't know why everyone doesn't peel grapes like this.

What do you think, Dr Azad?

Considering that this is his first encounter he's doing pretty...

Pretty well.

Obviously, for the grape we're using a local anaesthetic,

not a general anaesthetic, it's much safer, it's a minor operation.

MACHINE BEEPS

Yes, this is very cool.

This isn't just the world's most expensive grape peeler.

Even with 15 minutes' practise, I can see the enormous benefits

that that will have for patients.

This is definitely the future of surgery.

What's the largest organ in your body?

Is it A, your heart,

B, your lungs or C, your skin?

The answer is C, your skin.

And when you're cold, it gets covered in goose bumps, but why?

Sounds like a case for... Investigation Ouch.

Behind this glass it's colder than the freezer in your kitchen,

it's actually colder than the North Pole.

In fact, it's colder in here than the coldest place on earth.

That's Antarctica.

This is called a cryogenic chamber and I'm about to get inside.

That actually sounds like a terrible idea.

A cryogenic chamber is a freezing-cold room used to treat

common health conditions and help top athletes recover from injury,

helping to repair their muscles.

But today I'm using it to find out

how our bodies react in extreme cold.

That room is minus 60 degrees,

and the room behind me is minus 135 degrees.

That's five times colder than the coldest day ever recorded in the UK.

-What's it going to feel like?

-Chilly.

LAUGHTER

This is Renata Zejer, and she'll be monitoring me to keep me safe

when I'm in the cryogenic chamber.

So, clearly I'll need a very warm coat to go in there.

No. Just very, very small clothes, not very warm clothes.

-This is it? This is all I get?

-This is only that.

Perfect. What do I mean perfect?

This doesn't look like nearly enough clothes!

I might be cold, but at least I'm going to look stylish.

Headband, vest, shorts, two pairs of socks, clogs, facemask, gloves.

I told you I'd be looking good.

So, I've got James with me, filming.

James can't come in with that camera,

so I've got a special camera with me

which I can take in there, so I'm not going alone.

You're coming with me.

Here we go.

And it'll be so cold in there that I need the facemask to

stop my snot and saliva from freezing.

MUSIC: "Cold As Ice" by M.O.P.

Whoa! Ah, ah...

OK, it's very...

It is very cold, but it's quite manageable

because it's very dry, it's almost sort of foggy in here.

So, the room I'm in at the moment

is as cold as the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth.

But this room is just preparing my body for the next room

which is twice as cold.

Minus 135, here I come.

Whoa!

OK...

It's so cold in here that I can only stay in for three minutes,

and Renata will be monitoring me the whole time, to make sure I'm safe.

It's very hard to describe quite how cold this is.

The closer I get to the floor... Ugh, uh, uh...

This is now very, very, very cold.

It's very hard to THINK, it's so cold, actually.

The shock to my body is making it hard to control my breathing.

I'm getting goose bumps all over my arm

and you can see every single hair on my arm is standing straight up.

And the reason that's happening is that my body is trying

to trap a layer of air very close to my skin and, er,

I'm shaking a lot.

Shivering like this is my body getting my muscles moving

to generate heat and keep me warm.

As my hand gets cold you can see all the blood goes out of my skin,

and now my fingertips are going absolutely white.

Very, very cold, indeed.

That's because as my body gets colder, it's making a choice.

It's taking the blood away

from the parts of my body it can do without, like my fingers and toes,

and pulling it into the centre of my body

to keep vital organs like my heart and brain alive.

I'm now coming up to almost three minutes.

I'll be very pleased to come out.

TIMER BEEPS

Whuhh! Augh.

Ha ha, that's so much better, this is like walking into an oven.

But when you're cold, you get goose bumps

and that's your skin trying to trap a layer of warm air

around your body.

So, what you can see from that is how important your skin is

in regulating your body temperature

And when you get extremely cold, your body starts making choices

about what it wants to keep going.

Very, very, very quickly my body takes the warm blood from my skin,

brings it in to the middle of my body to keep my organs warm,

my brain going, all of these things.

When I come out into the warm, my body immediately releases that blood

and you can see it all going to my skin.

And there's a very good reason why our bodies react like this

in the cold.

If my core body temperature, that's the temperature

in the middle of my body, had dropped by even four degrees,

it could have been fatal.

What's so interesting about being in a room that cold

is that you can see all the incredible things your body does

to keep you at exactly the right temperature.

In the Accident and Emergency department,

the team are ready for their next case.

Let's meet him.

At the Royal Manchester Children's hospital, six-year-old Hassan

is in Accident and Emergency with a problem. What is it, Hassan?

Hassan, can you hear me? What's the problem?

-There's a stone stuck in this ear.

-Pardon?

-He said he has a stone stuck in his...

-I know, I'm joking.

And the stone is in your ear because...?

I popped it in my ear because it was too noisy in PE.

So, how did it happen?

-Hassan was in PE class.

-That'll be why people are running, then.

And swimming.

Well, it is a PE class.

Hassan doesn't look very happy though, does he?

That's because it was really noisy, far too noisy, in fact.

And the louder it got, the more fed up he became.

I'm not surprised, with all those aeroplanes.

He'd just about had enough,

-when he looked down and...

-Saw some earmuffs?

No. When he had a brilliant idea.

He picked up a stone and put it in his ear.

Job done.

-No more noise.

-Only it wouldn't come out, of course.

Not the best idea you've ever had, Hassan.

SIREN

I told the teacher that the stone got stuck,

but she couldn't get it out.

Time for an expert, I'd say. Enter Dr Shila Begum.

She'll help our Hassan out.

How big was the stone?

Er, just small.

Just a small one? OK, and which ear is it in?

-This one.

-The right one.

Oh, OK, or the left one?

Hang on a minute, we seem to have a bit of confusion.

It's in this one!

Never mind, Dr Shila will work out where it is.

Yep, I can see the stone.

-Looks like Mum was right.

-They always are, Chris.

What I can see is a small, black stone,

approximately five millimetres in the external ear canal.

Now, if you're wondering where that stone has gone,

your ear has three different parts.

There's the inner, middle and outer ear, connected by the ear canal.

And that's where Hassan's stone is stuck.

I'm going to try and take it out, OK, it shouldn't hurt.

-Is that all right?

-OK.

Hassan lies as still as, well, a stone,

as Dr Shila uses a special medical instrument

to carefully retrieve the stone so that it doesn't cause infection.

Hooray!

And there we go. A blink of an eye and it's out.

I'm quite happy with his ear,

looking at it after taking the stone out.

I can hear better now.

No surprises there, then.

Maybe earplugs are a better bet in future, eh?

Next time...

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

We get some shut eye, to find out what our bodies do when we're asleep.

Chris takes to the skies to show you why motion can make you feel sick.

Oh, wow, I have no idea what's going on...

And this man reveals an amazing talent, so see you next time on...

BOTH: Operation Ouch!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd