Episode 6 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 poorly finger.

..to awesome experiments.

We're turning our bodies inside out...

and upside down...

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

Oh, no!

BOTH: Coming up today on Operation Ouch...

Chris takes to the skies to discover what makes us travel-sick...

Uh-oh!

This man reveals amazing body skills.

And did you know you spend a third of your life asleep?

We find out why.

-But first...

-Hospital doctors and nurses always expect the unexpected.

Let's see how they fix our first patient.

In Accident & Emergency is 15-year-old Sam,

a budding boxer suffering with sharp pains in his stomach.

I've had this pain for quite a few weeks -

a stabbing, fiery pain.

That must have been quite a fight!

Who delivered the killer punch - Amir Khan?

-No, it didn't happen in a fight, it happened in his sleep.

-Right...

It was night time and Sam was in bed.

He was fast asleep, dreaming of boxing.

That's why he's punching, then.

Yes, but inside his stomach another battle was brewing.

I can see what's coming.

'In the red corner, we have the cramps.'

They look tough.

'And in the blue corner, it's the stabbing pains.'

Nice goatie!

This could be a close fight.

It was, and it was making Sam pretty uncomfortable.

He doesn't look too good.

The longer the fight went on, the worse the pain got,

-until it was too much and he woke up.

-Ouch.

Off to hospital for Sam.

I don't want it to get in the way of my next fight.

Your next fight might have to wait, Sam.

First, you've got to overcome the battle in your belly.

Meet Dr Eni Folaranmi.

He'll check our patient out.

Does it hurt here? Or does it hurt here?

This is one, and this is two.

-Two.

-Two. OK.

-Number two.

Remember that - bit of a clue.

To find out what's going on, Dr Eni sends Sam for an X-ray.

And after a quick snapshot the results are in.

Looking at it, he's got lots of faeces - poo - in his colon...

Poo?!

..and in his rectum...

Yep, all these areas are full of poo.

Sam is severely constipated, so he really needs to go to the loo.

You're really bunged up.

-And he doesn't mean your nose.

-You've got poo all over your colon.

Your discomfort might be because you're constipated

I can't believe it's poo!

You'd better believe it, Mum.

In fact, constipation is one of the most common causes

-of a sore stomach.

-To get rid of the pain

we need to get rid of that poo.

Time for the world champion of poo-fighting medicine - the enema.

An enema flushes fluid into Sam's large intestine

to soften up the blockage and help Sam have a heavyweight poo.

Let's hope this gets things moving.

Well, after a night in hospital, have we had any success?

He managed to go to the toilet,

but the pain in his tummy is still very severe.

I've been up most of the night. That stabbing and fiery pain came back.

It looks like there'll be more treatment,

so we'll be back for round two of Sam versus the poo later on.

And now to our lab, where we put our bodies to the test

to show you how your body works.

Ow, that really hurt.

Just don't try anything like this at home.

Today, it's travel-sickness.

Now, don't worry, Xand's not attempting to dance,

he's spinning on the spot but it is for a reason.

Inside his inner ear, Xand's got tubes full of fluid

that send information to his brain about balance and movement.

And when I stop, the fluid keeps moving.

And this fools his brain into thinking he's still moving.

With the fluid in Xand's ears telling him he's moving,

but his eyes telling him he's still,

his brain is totally confused. And the result...

I feel a bit sick.

If you feel sick in a car

that's because your brain is confused too.

As you travel, your eyes notice everything passing by quickly

and tell your brain you're moving.

But because you're sitting still in the car

your ears think you're not moving at all.

And these mixed messages don't just happen in cars.

But I'm about to take travel-sickness to another level.

This aerial display team specialises in aerobatic moves

that will be way more confusing for Chris' brain

than when I turned on the spot or you travel in a car.

Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

Do I have to do this?

Yes, Chris, you do.

Meet Mark Cutmore.

He's the pilot who's going to take Chris up for a spin.

You might think it's an odd time for lunch,

but that sarnie should help to settle his stomach

for the flight ahead.

I'm wondering if I'll be seeing the tuna and mayonnaise sandwich again

over the cockpit window in a few minutes.

We'll soon find out.

Safety gear on, it's time for Chris to take his seat.

Sick bag.

-We call it a comfort bag.

-A comfort bag!

Come on, Chris - up you go!

And they're off.

Chris is travelling at speeds of up to 250 mph

and so far he seems to be doing OK.

But let's bring on the crazy moves and see how he copes

once his eyes and ears start confusing his brain.

This is a very unpleasant sensation.

Human beings are not meant to be upside down.

Ooh, the pit of my stomach.

The tuna sandwich! It will stay down.

Now, in a situation like this,

clearly Chris' eyes can see he is moving

and the fluid in his ears is moving too.

So why does he feel sick?

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

There are so many different movements happening

at such high speed

his eyes and ears are failing to send the same messages

at the same time to his brain.

They're out of time with each other and that's why he feels sick.

Uh-oh!

Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

As we touched down,

I was definitely feeling the tuna sandwich returning for revenge.

I mean, at the end I did feel sick, I'm not going to lie.

I was very pleased to be back on the ground.

At least you've managed to keep your lunch down though, Chris.

But if you get travel-sick, you can stop your brain getting confused.

Don't look down

and try looking out of the window at a fixed spot on the horizon.

This will mean your eyes and ears

are sending the same messages to your brain

and you shouldn't feel sick.

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 Chris' turn on the front line.

This is a West Midlands Ambulance Service rapid response vehicle

the paramedics who drive these are on call 24/7,

always ready for extreme medical emergencies.

This fast medical service takes thousands of 999 calls every day.

If you have a serious accident

then they're the people you'd want to come to your rescue.

On call with me today is paramedic Ben White.

Just got a call to see a 23-year-old girl who's got chest pain.

Chest pain is something that can have really, really serious causes.

So Ben, as well as negotiating his way through the traffic,

is thinking about all the different things this might be,

all the causes and how he'll manage it.

And I've got my camera to get you as close as possible.

We arrive at the scene just a few minutes after the call was made

and our patient is having problems breathing.

What's actually been happening today then?

-I've been up since quarter to seven this morning.

-Yeah.

-With chronic chest pain.

-Right.

And they've got worse in the last, say, about half an hour.

-Okay-dokey.

-Kyrie, since she woke up, has had really bad chest pain.

So Ben's just having a listen to see if we can work out

if this is something that needs to go to hospital or not.

Your chest sounds a little bit wheezy.

'Ben gets Kyrie to blow into a monitor

'that measures the air flowing out of her lungs.'

I could hear that it was a bit wheezy,

that indicated that the breathing passages

are a bit constricted and closed up

and that's what is causing the wheezing noise that I can hear.

So now we're going to give her a nebuliser,

which is a mist of drug that can penetrate right down into the lungs,

open up the breathing passages, and hopefully she'll feel better,

-less pain and easier breathing.

-How do you feel at the moment?

-Does it feel any easier?

-A little bit.

-A little bit.

'While the nebuliser gets to work, Ben monitors Kyrie's heart rate

'to make sure there's nothing else wrong.

Looking at your ECG, there's nothing abnormal on there

that indicates the pain's coming due to a problem with your heart.

That is a normal recording of your heart. It's in good shape.

Kyrie, I'm a bit concerned that you still seem quite short of breath.

I'm concerned that if we leave and she's still short of breath

that may need to be checked out in A&E

just to rule out another cause of the breathing problem.

To get Kyrie to hospital for further tests, an ambulance crew arrive.

She's a lot better than when we arrived, she's comfortable,

but she's still got chest pain.

We're pretty sure it's not the heart

but there are other serious things that it can be.

So she's going to go to hospital and have things properly checked out.

And with Kyrie in good hands, we get ready for our next call.

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 - we get wired up, to find out why we need to sleep.

I go on duty in the Accident & Emergency department.

And we show you another amazing body trick.

-You think I can do it?

-ALL: No!

Now, did you know

there are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in your brain?

That's enough to go around the Earth four times.

Wow, that's amazing. And so is this.

In an ordinary city,

high above the streets, lies a deserted urban playground

awaiting a prime performance.

Ready to see some serious skills?

This is John Farnworth, and he's a football freestyling genius.

He holds five world records

and can do 107 shin keepy-uppies in a minute.

His specialities also include...

-Toe keepy-uppies...

-Around The World...

The side-to-side on head...

And heel keepy-uppies...

This keepy-uppy king trains for more than 40 hours a week

and he's completed the London Marathon

whilst keeping the ball in the air.

So how does John's amazing body do this?

Believe it or not, the secret to John's success lies in his brain.

Certain tricks are harder than others,

but they all require a lot of concentration to do.

When it comes to the brain, up front is the big lad, the cerebrum.

That's what allows you to think, make decisions and learn.

The cerebrum houses the motor cortex.

It's the midfield maestro, pulling all the strings,

telling our muscles to move when we want them to.

Playing at the back - the cerebellum.

Crucial for balance and co-ordination,

it's the big-match player

with the vital role in everything you're seeing right now.

Now, that's amazing.

Can we have our ball back, please, mister?

Xand, that is not amazing!

Let's go back to the Accident & Emergency department

and meet our patient from earlier.

Back in Manchester, budding boxer Sam is in hospital

with a troublesome tummy.

He'd been fast asleep, dreaming of a boxing victory.

Watch out for his fists!

But a battle was brewing in his belly.

I wouldn't mess with them.

As the stabbing pains took hold,

Sam woke up with a seriously sore stomach.

X-rays revealed Sam was severely constipated

and basically needed a big poo.

He's managed to have one, but a second X-ray shows

there's still plenty of poo to come out.

They've cleared the left side,

but now there's a load of poo on the right side.

Enter Dr Alex Turner,

a man with a plan to banish that blockage for good.

I'm going to insert a nasogastric tube.

So that's a tube that's going to pass down the nose

and into the stomach

so we can administer a special medicine.

This tube means the medicine can get straight to the poo,

soften it up, and hopefully help Sam go to the loo.

So, with the medicine making its way to the pile-up

there's only one thing left to do - wait.

# Time goes by So slowly... #

-Any luck?

-Not so much as a sniff.

Any joy?

No. I think we might be here a while.

Come on, Sam! Still nothing?

-No.

-How many times has he tried to go?

I've lost count.

Several toilet trips later - do we have a result?

-Thank goodness for that.

-Hooray - it's a knockout!

The poo has come at last.

The big poo.

I feel great, the poo has finally come out.

I bet, it was one big blockage!

We've got to really watch now what Sam eats.

He's got to cut down on his sweets and fizzy pop.

-Pizzas, burgers, cheeseburgers.

-And drink plenty of water.

So if you want to do doo-doo,

-don't, don't eat too much junk.

-I can't wait to get back to boxing.

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

Here's how to stop your friends from simply moving a leg.

I'll show you that I can stop Chris using his leg

without even touching him, that's how strong I am.

-Do you think I can do it?

-ALL: No.

-Never!

-So I'll get Chris to put his left foot against the wall -

flat up against the wall, so even the heel is against the wall.

Then I'll get him to push his ear against the wall...

-This isn't going to work.

-It'll work really well. Look at me.

-Get your ear up against the wall as hard as you can.

-OK.

Come on, lift your leg, let's go.

ALL: Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris,

-Chris...

-See, I told you it would work.

Chris can't lift his right leg at all.

-Chris, Chris, Chris.

-Argh!

OK, can you lot do any better?

-I did it!

-No, your ear came away from the wall, Amelia.

You have to keep your ear on the wall. Go.

What do you think is going on here?

You have to be able to lean to one side to balance,

but the wall is blocking you to lean to one side.

-Very good explanation.

-Very good.

To lift your left leg off the ground, your bodyweight has to

shift directly over your right leg to keep your body balanced,

but the wall gets in the way, meaning your leg can't go anywhere.

Give it a try and see if you can impress your mates.

We've seen lots of patients coming into the hospital.

It's been a few years since I worked in Accident & Emergency,

but I'm going on duty at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital

emergency department with Professor Simon Carley.

Open 24/7, this department sees more patients an hour

than any other part of the hospital.

This casualty is 15-year-old Joe, who's been in a bike accident.

Joe's come in by ambulance. He was cycling down a hill really fast,

his brake didn't work and he crashed into a people carrier.

No-one in the car was injured, but the car was badly damaged.

So we have to be careful that

-he doesn't have serious internal injuries.

-One, two, three...

So Louise is just feeling down Joe's back, making sure

-he hasn't got any fractures there.

-One, two, three...

-Were you wearing a helmet?

-No. That's one thing, kids -

-wear your helmets.

-Are you going to wear a helmet from now on?

-Yes.

-Will you get your brake fixed?

-I'll scrap the bike and get a decent one.

So far in the contest of Joe versus the car, Joe's in a good mood and

hasn't any obvious injuries, so at the moment, it's Joe one, car nil.

Next, we have to check for internal injuries with an ultrasound machine.

We're looking for any blood there. That shows up as black.

I can't see any at the moment, so that's good news.

The ultrasound scan of Joe's internal organs is normal,

so that's Joe two, car nil.

We'll take Joe to X-ray, where we'll take

pictures of his bones and ear, to see if any of the bones

that are tender are actually broken.

We'll take pictures of Joe's pelvis, so the bones of his hips,

we'll then take pictures of his spine and his chest,

then the spine, up to his neck.

OK, Joe, that's that picture done.

What we're trying to do here is get a picture of the spine

just at the back of his skull, so to photograph it well,

he needs to open his mouth and take a picture of the vertebra there.

-It's hard with this.

-I know, it's very hard,

-but you're doing superb.

-Good lad. That's done.

Professor Simon takes a careful look at Joe's X-rays.

I think those look OK. We will also get the radiologists,

who spend all their time looking at X-rays and are expert at that.

They'll look at these too, and all being well,

-we'll take everything off and get him set up.

-Brilliant. His mum said

-he was made of steel, she might be right.

-Might be.

Are you surprised that we've got a smashed-up people carrier

-and a perfectly well 15-year-old boy?

-I am a bit surprised,

but I'm also quite pleased, really.

Astonishingly, Joe's X-rays are completely normal.

That is Joe three, car nil.

-Ready to go home?

-Yeah.

-So in the man versus car contest, we have a winner.

-Yeah.

-Ha-ha!

Great result, but it's been a lucky escape for Joe,

things could have been a lot worse, so make sure you wear that helmet!

Ever wondered why you have to go to sleep?

Ever heard someone snore so loudly, the room rumbles?

LOUD SNORING

We're about to tell you why.

This is a case for Investigation Ouch!

You spend a third of your life doing nothing.

I'd hardly call picking my nose nothing.

I'm not talking about your disgusting habits.

I'm talking about sleep - all animals do it, including us.

It's essential for life. So to find out more, we're going to bed.

To discover what happens when we sleep,

we're spending the night in this sleep clinic,

but first, we need to get wired up by a team of sleep experts.

This will give us information about what our bodies do when we sleep.

-I suppose you'll also have your bear wired up!

-Of course.

Mr Grumble has a lot of trouble sleeping sometimes.

Monitoring us will be sleep expert Dr Wahab Dhemech.

So sleep is not just sleep - there are different types of sleep?

-Absolutely.

-And some types relax your brain and recharge that,

and other types recharge your body?

Basically, yes, that's why we need sleep.

-Night, Chris.

-Night, Xand.

Time for us to sleep. Dr Wahab sets the computers up

to record the night ahead, and I'm hoping this will prove

that Xand snores. He's always denied it.

-Mr Grumbles knows I never snore.

-Night, Mr Grumbles.

In a night, your brain cycles through different

types of sleep every 90 minutes until you get up.

You'll start with a light sleep - this lasts around 20 minutes,

and your breathing and heart rates slows down. You can still be

easily woken at this stage. Then you fall into a deeper sleep -

it's at this stage where some people walk or talk in their sleep,

because their body is still active, even though their brain is resting.

Then you start REM sleep, which stands for rapid eye movement.

It's in this stage where your brain is organising itself

and you'll have dreams, then your body repeats this cycle

about four or five times in a night.

Next morning, and it's time to get up.

Other people say I snore, but I really maintain that I don't.

I think they're all liars.

All will be revealed shortly, Xand. I didn't sleep very well at all.

We're both looking a bit weary. Oh, dear.

Let's find out why we're both so tired.

Chris, this line here, that's for when you were awake,

then here, you slept, that's different sleep stage.

Here, you were awake, then you slept again and then you were awake.

In terms of a good night's sleep, I only had, what, 2.5 hours?

Although I was in bed for six hours, I only was asleep for 2.5.

That is not enough, and not only does my body feel very tired,

my brain feels really thick headed and unrested as well.

-So how did mine compare to Chris's?

-You had more sleep.

-How long did I sleep?

-4.5 hours.

-So I got twice as much sleep as you.

But even four hours isn't enough for your body to rest,

especially when you're young. Children need at least eight hours

as you're growing and your body needs to work harder.

We're adults and can get away with less, but we still feel very tired.

On dreaming, how do we compare?

Well, Chris, I don't think you had a dream at all. Xand, you had two.

Although I had a full sleep cycle, it was pretty restless

and I just didn't dream, which can happen.

But look at this section of the graph.

I had lots of rapid eye movements. This suggests that I was dreaming.

Were they short dreams, or...?

One is half an hour, one is half an hour.

Really, half an hour of dreaming? What about snoring?

-You did snore.

-I did?

OK, Xand, there's the proof - you do snore.

-SNORING

-Oh, dear!

-How much of the time was I snoring?

-7% of the night.

Not everyone snores like me,

but people who snore can't move air freely through their nose or mouth

during sleep, so the air vibrates against the relaxed

muscles in their throat and nose. That's what makes that snoring sound.

You sleep for a third of your life, but you're not doing nothing,

you're recharging your brain and your body,

so if you don't get enough sleep, that'll affect everything you do

and you'll feel absolutely rubbish.

How many dreams does the average person have in a year?

Is it the equivalent of...

In fact, the answer is B.

You have 1,460 dreams a year.

So you could be having

up to four dreams every night.

Medical teams always expect the unexpected.

Let's see how they deal with this patient.

This is nine-year-old Ellie. She's in hospital with a painful wrist.

I was wearing high heels that big.

-Go on...

-They're my sister's, I love 'em, they're purple,

-and they're gorgeous.

-Got it, they sound fabulous.

I had one and my other mate had one, and we were running

and I was trying to chase after my mate, then we fell.

Hang on, who had what on?

Let's get this story straight.

Ellie was with her friend, trying on clothes.

-Is that a sandwich?

-Yes. Then Ellie spotted her favourite item.

Her sister's purple high-heeled shoes - fabulous!

-So she put one on...

-Hang on, her mate's put the other one on...

-Yeah, don't ask. Then they ran down the street.

-Er...

-Don't ask!

-All of a sudden...

-Watch out!..

-..Ellie tripped

and fell onto her hand. Ouch!

This is how I ended up in the hospital, because of the high heels.

But they were fabulous, and purple!

Anyway, let's meet Dr Mark Ansell -

the man to sort that wrist out.

-So what's happened?

-I was wearing my sister's high heels,

-I was running down the street and I fell.

-Do you mind if I have a look?

Ooph! So where's it hurt?

-Like, around here.

-Dr Mark will need to examine Ellie's hand

and wrist thoroughly to find out just what the problem might be.

I'd say the problem's running in high heels.

-Heel, she only had one on.

-That sore, right here?

-Yeah.

The rest is kind of OK. And a little bit here.

OK. There's a little bone and she's a bit tender on that.

I'm going to look at the X-rays and see if we need to fix anything. OK?

The human hand is made of 27 bones.

Your fingers alone contain 14 bones called the phalanges,

then there are five metacarpals

stretching through your palm

and eight carpal bones in your wrist, where Ellie is feeling pain.

The bone I was curious about is this one, the scaphoid.

There doesn't appear to be anything there and there's

no gross deformities, so there's not a particularly obvious break.

Good news for Ellie.

I've had a look at the X-rays

and I can't find any obvious break of the bone, or anything.

In some circumstances, there can be a break that you can't see

in the first 24 hours. but at the moment,

that's unlikely, but we'll go on the side of caution.

To help Ellie's hand heal, she's getting a scaphoid splint.

You wouldn't happen to have that in purple, would you?

It's a supporter to hold the thumb in a nice position.

I'm just glad that they give me that so this might make it better.

Splinted up, Ellie can head home in some nice sensible shoes.

Next time... Chris takes a scary ride to find out

how our bodies cope with fear.

What will this man be doing?!

And we go on a journey inside Chris' body to look at his vocal chords.

We're now going past the back of... Oh, that's really good!

-So see you next time on...

-Operation Ouch!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd