Episode 7 Operation Ouch!

-He's Dr Chris.

-And he's Dr Xand.

Yup, we're twins.

The human body is amazing. We're going to prove it.

We'll push our bodies to extremes...

..show how the strangest of injuries get fixed...

I've got a poorly finger.

..uncover the secrets behind the most amazing bodies...

..and experiment on each other...

..to show you how your body works.

BOTH: Coming up today on Operation Ouch!

I go on call with paramedics to help save lives.

Find out what's amazing about this man's body.

And we take a trip up Chris's nose and down his throat,

to see how our voices work.

-You sound ridiculous.

-Well done, Squeaky!

But first...

In the UK, over five million people

have to visit the emergency department every year.

But some cases are more complicated than others.

In Liverpool, nine-year-old Claudia has come into

Accident and Emergency looking...

I think the technical term is "fed up". So what's wrong, Claudia?

-Every time I eat...

-Yes...

..after like, 15 minutes after,

my tummy starts going funny.

It's been sore there...

So when did the pain start?

After my lunch today. I started feeling the pain in my tummy.

Let's stop you there and get the full story.

The last few days, whenever Claudia eats, she ends up with tummy pain.

-She'll happily tuck into something...

-Like burger and chips?

Yes. And the food happily makes its way down to her stomach.

That's the weird contraption there.

Right. But even though she's enjoyed it - see, she looks happy -

15 minutes later, sharp pains erupt in her tummy.

Ouch!

And I couldn't walk last night, cos it was

sore, and painful.

Meet Dr Sarah Pyper.

Let's get solving this mystery.

Time to examine the evidence.

-Can you show me where your tummy's sore?

-There.

Dr Sarah tests for tummy tenderness,

because Claudia's family have a history of stomach problems.

That could be a clue.

It's probably a bit of a viral infection.

-I think a virus is definitely a suspect, don't you?

-Yes.

But we may need to rule out a few other things first.

She's pointing more to the liver area,

which is where your gall bladder is.

Especially when it's after meals -

is it something to do with the gall bladder?

-So the gall bladder is a potential suspect too.

-Mmm. It's possible.

This is the gall bladder. A small organ next to our stomach

that helps digest the fat in our food.

Sometimes, if there's too much fat in the gall bladder,

pebble-like deposits called gall stones can build up,

causing pain after eating.

And this is what Claudia may have.

My concern is, is this a gall bladder problem?

It's a very rare problem in children, but she's got

a family history, so we're just doing some tests to make sure.

Yes, we need to get to the bottom of this.

-Claudia's having some blood tests.

-Just a little pin prick...

And she'll be going for a special scan,

that will hopefully let us get this mystery solved.

We'll be back later to see if we get to the bottom

of Claudia's tummy troubles.

And now to our lab, where we're putting our bodies to the test,

to show you how your body works.

Just don't try any of this at home!

Today, we're looking at the voice.

When you're young, your vocal cords are short and thin,

so your voice is high-pitched.

HIGH-PITCHED TWANG

When you get older, they get longer and thicker,

so your voice gets deeper.

DEEPER TWANG

(But when you whisper,

-(you don't vibrate your vocal cords at all.)

-Sssh!

But what do vocal cords look like, and how do they work?

Well, this nifty medical gadget is going to show you.

This is a nasendoscope. It's a very small camera,

that I'm going to put up my nose and look at my vocal cords.

The best way for doctors like us

to access the vocal cords is through the nose,

because if the camera went via the mouth

the patient would start to gag and feel sick.

So feel your throat - you'll feel a hard gristly bit at the front,

that's your voice box or your larynx.

That's where your vocal cords sit.

I can see the camera really well at the back of your mouth.

It is like there's a little spaceship exploring the inside of your mouth.

Chris's tongue looks a bit alien too! But let's keep going.

Now put it down to the back of your throat,

and show us your vocal cords.

OK, so we're going past the back of Chris's...

Oh, that's really good - there!

What we can see now is Chris's vocal cords.

They look like flaps or webs going across his windpipe.

What happens is, as your lungs force air up your windpipe,

these flaps start to vibrate, and it's the vibration that causes noise.

So let's see them in action.

So Chris, can you hum a high note? HE HUMS A HIGH NOTE

Now hum a low note...

HE HUMS A LOW NOTE

So when Chris hums a high note,

what you see is the vocal cords tightening.

That means they vibrate faster and make a higher note.

When he hums a low note, the vocal cords relax, they're much floppier,

they vibrate more slowly and you get a lower note.

Have a go at feeling the vibrations of your own vocal cords,

by putting your fingers on the front of your throat, and humming a note.

So - we've shown how the sound of your voice changes

depending on the speed your vocal cords are vibrating.

Now we're going to try breathing in two different gases that will

change the speed at which our vocal cords vibrate,

and show you the effect it has on our voices.

This gas is lighter than air.

This will make it easier for my vocal cords to move,

meaning they'll vibrate faster.

So will my voice sound different?

SQUEAKY VOICE: My voice does sound different.

And that's because this gas is thinner or less dense.

So it allows my vocal cords to vibrate more quickly,

and that makes the pitch higher.

Chris's gas is thicker than air,

so it'll be harder for his vocal cords to move,

meaning they'll vibrate slower.

-DEEP VOICE:

-This gas is thicker or denser than air.

And that means my vocal cords can't vibrate as easily.

Which is why my voice sounds deeper.

You sound ridiculous.

Well done, Squeaky!

The vocal cords work by vibrating, and the sound that we make

when we talk is all down to the speed they're moving.

The faster they go, the higher pitched sound we make.

And the slower they go, the lower our voices become.

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 out on the front line to help save lives.

And today, you're coming on call with me, to see what it's like to be

one of the first at the scene of an emergency.

This fast medical service is on standby 24 hours a day,

ready to help you in an emergency.

On call with me today is paramedic Kat Ellis.

We've got a 999 call to see a lady who's fallen.

The way she's called us

is she's pushed a button that she keeps around her neck,

and that summons the emergency services.

So it could be anything. We've got to get there quick and look after her.

Kat, what sort of things are you thinking about

when you're on the way to see someone who's fallen?

Have they got any obvious injuries, any serious pain anywhere?

The most important thing is that they're awake,

they're talking to us, they haven't hurt their neck or their back.

So what Kat's very good at doing is making decisions quickly

about what needs to be done based on not very much information.

I've got James with me filming. How are you doing, James?

And then I've got a camera as well so I can get you right in close

and see what's going on.

'It's 9:30 in the morning

'when we arrive at the house to find our patient -

'a lady called Kathleen, who is in a lot of pain after a fall.'

Hello there. What's happened, Kath?

I don't know, I just come in, and I went flying.

-OK.

-Must have been over the step.

Just stay still for a second and I'll have a feel of your neck.

What Kat's doing now is examining her back.

There are lots of other things she needs to do,

but the most important thing is to check if she's got a back injury.

That's potentially very serious.

You said you've got some pain?

-Is it here that it hurts, the top of your bottom?

-Yeah.

-Your pelvis is quite fragile. How old are you?

-86.

Bones can break quite easily when you're 86.

It might be worth sending you to hospital for an X-ray,

to make sure you haven't damaged your pelvis or your hips at all.

'It's possible Kathleen has broken her hip -

'a common injury for elderly people.'

Before the ambulance arrives, we need to get her more comfortable.

We're using gas and air to do that.

You're doing a really nice job there. That's good.

'The ambulance arrives to take Kathleen to hospital,

'and this is a nifty bit of kit called a scoop

'which helps lift her off the floor as painlessly as possible.'

What Kat is now finally able to do

is have a feel of the actual hip bones themselves.

What do you think now, Kat?

It's quite swollen around the joint itself.

There's possibly a fracture in the hip joint.

'The medical team take Kathleen off in the ambulance

'to get her hip checked out.'

Because of the emergency response button,

because Kat the paramedic was able to get us there really quickly,

we're likely to see a really good result from this.

With hundreds of rapid response crews like this across the UK,

it means that if you have an accident

medical care can be with you in minutes.

-Still to come...

-Find out why we're staring at this picture.

We go on duty in a busy Accident and Emergency department.

And I take a scary ride, to see how our bodies cope with fear.

-Really? That's amazing.

-So's this...

An ordinary town, with ordinary people.

Hang on, who's that?

-He's a superhero, Xand.

-Wow!

What's his special power? Wait, let me guess.

-Legwarmers... Is it ballet?

-No, Xand.

-Ah. A mat. It's yoga.

-Not exactly.

Don't worry, you're about to find out

why this man has an amazing body.

-Oh, I get it. He's an amazingly bad dancer!

-Wait for it...

PARRP!

Did he just do what I think he did? He's going to be so embarrassed.

PARRP!

Xand, this is Mr Methane, and he's a superb...well, you get the idea.

PARP-PARRP!

Trumping is something we all do.

But Mr Methane has mastered the art of controlling it.

So he can let one rip...

-PARRP!

-..as and when he wants to.

What I'm doing is I'm expanding the sphincter muscle.

That's a muscle in your bum...

I'm raising the diaphragm, and that draws air in.

PARRP!

And then, I contract the sphincter muscle, and I push it out.

He first discovered he could do this amazing trick

when he was 15 years old.

I have to keep...I suppose you could say, farting fit.

PRRRRRRPT!!!

Breaking wind is a release of gas.

Including, you've guessed it, methane.

From the air we swallow when we eat,

and chemical reactions that happen in our guts.

And their smell depends on what you've eaten...

cauliflower and meat making some of the stinkiest.

Obviously, always practise in a well-ventilated room.

PARP-PARP-PARRP!

Now, that's amazing!

PRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPT!

HE GASPS

HE MAKES TRUMPING NOISES

That is not amazing.

Let's go back to Accident and Emergency,

to see how our patient's getting on.

In Liverpool, detective work is under way on nine-year-old

Claudia, and her troublesome tummy.

To sum up our mystery case, Claudia was at school eating lunch...

Her food was yummy, but after it went into her tummy...

-That's a crazy contraption.

-..sharp pains erupted in her stomach.

-Can you show me where your tummy's sore?

-There.

The pains are in the region of the gall bladder,

an organ near the stomach.

She was sent for blood tests, which came back clear,

and now she's back for a scan.

If you come and lie down on the bed...

Enter Dr Nik Barnes.

He's in charge of the next stage of our investigation, the ultrasound.

-Hi, Claudia, how are you doing?

-Fine.

Great. We're going to do a scan of your tummy.

This is just a little camera, and we rest it on your skin.

And we can see inside you.

An ultrasound scans the body, using sound waves and their echoes.

Echo...echo...echo...

This kit helps doctors find their way around our bodies -

in a similar way that sonar helps submarines

find their way underwater.

So, let's see if it can solve our mystery.

Take a big breath in.

-And out...

-Hello, what have we got here?

That's what you had for breakfast going around.

-What do you reckon? Scrambled eggs?

-Cornflakes, I'd say.

You wouldn't recognise it now though if you saw it.

That's not quite the clue we were looking for. Let's keep searching.

So this is the bit you're really interested in.

Here we are - that black sausage shape is our main suspect.

There's a lovely view of your gall bladder. See it's nice and black?

If she's got gall stones, they're normally very easy to see -

a big bright white line with a shadow behind them.

The gall bladder is looking healthy, which is great news.

-Your liver looks OK...

-And the other organs are looking good too.

We didn't find any cause for your tummy pain, OK,

and definitely no gall stones.

So after a thorough investigation,

the gall bladder has been cleared of all charges.

Leaving only one suspect.

I think it is just a viral infection - the glands

that you get up in your neck, you're getting in your tummy as well

and that's what's causing the pain. So it should settle down by itself.

-OK? All right.

-A virus it is. Mystery solved.

I'm happy, I know what it is. I'm happy, and we can go home.

Another case closed.

Bye!

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

Want to try something amazing with your eyes?

We've got a fantastic optical illusion for you.

Do you know who this is?

-Is it supposed to be Justin Bieber?

-Yes. Trust me. It's him.

We've reversed the colours of the picture,

and we want you to stare at it now.

You need to keep looking for 30 seconds for it to work.

You're seeing this picture

because your eyes send messages to your brain about the image.

Keep looking...

But the longer you stare, the more tired your eyes will become,

and they'll stop sending messages to your brain.

But your brain remembers what the picture looks like,

and that's what we're going to prove to you now.

Keep staring! You mustn't take your eyes off Justin.

Time's nearly up. In a moment, I'm going to get you to look away,

and you'll still be able to see him.

Are you ready to try it?

Make sure you don't blink...

And look away now.

Can you see it?

If you blink, the image will go.

This trick works because when you looked away at the wall,

although your eyes kick-started again, sending new messages

to your brain, it took your brain a few moments to catch up.

And that's why you could still see Justin Bieber,

even though you'd looked away from the picture.

He really does have very good hair.

Now we're heading back to Accident and Emergency -

but this time, we're on duty.

So far on Operation Ouch!

we've seen three hand injuries...

Owww!

Two head casualties...

I fell over in the school.

A locked jaw, a stone in an ear,

lots of broken bones...

and a possible toenail up the nose.

-I sniffed it up.

-OK...

It's all in a day's work

for the staff in an Accident and Emergency department,

and Chris and I are going to help the teams

that deal with over a thousand patients a week.

We're starting with Xand, who is on duty with nurse

Nicola Evans, at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool.

First in through the doors is Lexi, who's taken a tumble off her scooter.

I'm going to shine my light in your eye. Keep looking at my nose.

Nicky's looking at the functions of all the nerves

coming out of Lexi's brain,

and making sure they all still work, because she had a knock on the head.

Can you follow my light with your eyes?

They're all working fine.

That's good news, but before Lexi can go home

we have to look after the cuts on her face,

and the best way to get Lexi out of one sticky situation

is to get her into another one.

We're just gluing Lexi's nose closed.

It keeps the cut clean

and allows it to heal really nicely.

So Lexi's going to have exactly the same scar as me, just right there.

Only you got yours from walking into a tea tray!

Over in Manchester, I'm on duty

with Professor Simon Carley,

where a football injury brings James in with a hurt wrist.

You're not completely straight with that arm.

We'll take a picture of your wrist,

because that's where the pain was,

but also a picture of your elbow. I think the problem's here.

-Did you think you might have broken something down here?

-Yeah.

Yeah. But actually, he may have transmitted the force

-up his arm, and broken a bone in the elbow.

-Absolutely.

So - it's an X-ray for James.

Your elbow doesn't just bend there.

There's another joint there that lets you turn your wrist like that.

And that's what we think James has injured.

And there's a nerve that goes around a bit of that joint,

then ends up in your hand.

If you hurt the nerve there, you can get pain in your hand.

Now it's back to Professor Simon for the verdict.

There's lots of swelling within the joint,

and that pretty much always means that there's a fracture in there.

So this IS a broken elbow.

And those two bits of bone will just heal back together,

-they'll grow back together?

-Oh, yeah. Particularly at your age.

So it's a sling for James,

and now over to Liverpool to see how Xand's getting on.

There have been lots of cases through the doors here.

We've treated two sprained ankles, and a broken collarbone.

Next up, Lily May comes in with an infected ear piercing.

Pus has gathered behind her ear.

I think we need to get it out, really.

Now, Lily, it's going to feel very, very cold...

Lily's having gas and air and a cold spray to numb her ear.

Then, it's pus time!

-Fantastic...

-Oh, you're doing a really good job, Lily, that's great.

She's good, isn't she?

So this is really satisfying, because we're getting all the pus,

which is dead bacteria, out of Lily's ear.

And that means it can all heal.

Tell you what - on this side, Lily, it's quite exciting.

-You're very brave.

-Can you give me a high five?

Yay!

So Lexi, James and Lily have been patched up and sent home.

All in a day's work for a busy Accident and Emergency department.

Do you know what happens to your body when you go on a rollercoaster?

AAAAAAAGH...!

AAAAAAGH!

Eurgh...

Not exactly what I was looking for.

This is a case for Investigation Ouch!

Being scared. You might love it, or you might hate it.

But whichever it is, big changes happen with your body.

I'm going to show you what those changes are,

by riding on one of Britain's scariest rollercoasters.

Rollercoasters are exciting.

Sometimes we scream, sometimes we puke.

So why do we keep going on them?

We've evolved over millions of years,

to either fight dangerous things or run away from them.

It's the reward that our brain gives us when we survive something

that FEELS dangerous, that keeps us coming back for more.

I'm taking on a terrifying ride at Alton Towers,

to see how my body deals with fear.

I'm going to be wearing this sensor, which is going to be

measuring my heart rate, my heart rhythm, my breathing rate,

loads of different stuff that is going to be telling me what's

happening with my body and measuring essentially how frightened I am.

OK. That's my heart rate there.

At the moment it's a normal,

resting heartbeat. Keep an eye on it.

Let's see what happens when I take on this scary ride.

Now, very quickly my body has started to feel fear.

And when you're scared, your heart rate rises.

Look at my beats per minute. They're going up rapidly.

That's because my body has started to release adrenaline,

a hormone that prepares you to deal with a dangerous situation.

Adrenaline comes from the adrenal glands at the top of your kidneys.

It tells your liver to release more glucose to your muscles,

to give them energy, and make sure you're charged up

and ready to face your fear.

That was completely terrifying!

My heart rate's very high.

But as I finish the ride, it goes up even further.

Let's find out why.

As the ride starts, my heart rate remains fairly flat

because I basically don't think

rollercoasters are that frightening,

But the ride is so cleverly designed that I become completely convinced

my legs are going to be chopped off and I'm going to die.

That's when my heart rate almost doubles, and I'm totally terrified.

My body is responding in exactly the same way it would

if I was being attacked,

and that is the fear response.

But here's the thing.

At the end of the ride, this point here,

my heart rate goes up another ten beats,

and that's because I'm so happy I survived the dangerous situation.

That's the reason we love these scary rides.

Because once you've survived it,

you get that feeling of extreme happiness, and a spike

of adrenaline, and that's what makes your heart go faster at the end.

So what happens to your body

when you go through the same scary experience a second time?

I'm going to go on the ride again.

So with frightening situations you can either make it worse

and get more frightened every time it happens,

you can learn that actually nothing bad is going to happen to me

on a rollercoaster - I didn't die last time -

so this time I'm going to control my fear, and be less frightened.

Here's the beginning bit, where my heart rate previously was normal,

and this time, it is a bit exciting.

On this second ride,

my heart rate isn't jumping up as quickly as the first ride.

And that's because I know what to expect,

and therefore, my fear response is not as dramatic.

Now I've learned that nothing bad happens,

I can really control that fear all the way through it.

You can do that with exams, you can do that with films -

you can just realise that actually very few things are really dangerous

and you can stop being frightened.

If you're not frightened, you can keep your head together.

So during the second ride, my heart rate only goes up to 112,

during the most exciting bit of the ride,

and at the end of the ride, I don't get that extra bump in heart rate.

And I didn't feel that amazing euphoric sense of

"I've survived something really dangerous,"

and that's the thing I'm now craving.

Luckily, there are loads more rides!

In fact the answer is B.

The average heart beats around 38 million times a year.

That's 3,000 million beats in a lifetime!

In the Accident and Emergency department,

-the team are ready for their next case.

-Let's meet him!

Heading into hospital with a sore and swollen elbow

is four-year-old Joseph. Yes, that's you!

-I fell over.

-When he came home, he said he'd fell on his elbow.

-It was still hurting.

-So how did it happen?

The break-time bell rang at school,

and Joseph ran outside ready for some fun.

-Nice gloves!

-A budding breakdancer, he started busting some moves.

Good eyebrow action.

The footwork was flowing, the crowd were going crazy. Gorilla included.

When suddenly, Joseph tripped, and landed on his arm. Ouch!

He's been saying it's not hurting him

but there's definitely something wrong with it.

Breakdancing isn't actually supposed to break anything,

but it does look pretty swollen.

Yup, I can see it. Thanks, Joseph.

Let's get nurse practitioner Julia Maxted in, to take a look.

-Are you going to tell me what you did again?

-I fell over!

It's quite sore.

Can you put your arms up in the air?

He can't fully straighten his elbow, and it's really quite swollen

so I think he has actually broken something there.

To find out for sure, nurse Julia sends Joseph for an X-ray.

It's the quickest way to spot a broken bone.

An X-ray is like a super-powerful version of ordinary light,

which can pass through your skin.

When they meet bones, X-rays stop dead in their tracks

and the perfect picture can be taken.

With his X-ray done, Joseph just has to wait calmly for the results.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop right there.

Isn't this how you got yourself in this mess in the first place?

Don't worry, the X-ray results are in.

And it looks like there could be a cast on its way.

He's got a little break, just up here where he's sore.

The bone's not out of place, it's just got a little break across it,

and that's why it's swollen.

But at least Joseph's earned himself a sticker.

What does that say? "I have been very brave."

And he's come up with a cunning plan.

If my arm breaks...this one...

Yes...?

-..I'll have two stickers!

-Well, your maths is good.

But it's probably better to have two good arms, than two good stickers.

Someone plaster him up before he hatches any more harebrained plans.

With a sling on, time for a finishing touch. Another sticker.

-I'll put it on there so everyone can see.

-What do you say?

-Thank you.

All right, mate, no worries.

-Phew! And he didn't even have to break his other arm to get it.

-Bye!

Next time...

What's this woman going to do with that box?

I find out how a snake bite affects the human body.

And I make Chris drink his own wee.

What?

So we'll see you next time, on Operation Ouch!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd