Episode 4 Operation Ouch!

He's Dr Chris.

He's Dr Xand.

And, yes, we're twins.

Do you know how brilliant your body really is?

I'm getting better.

Well, we're going to show you.

Oh, there you go.

In this series, we're pushing our bodies to their limits...

This is my sick.

..by doing extraordinary experiments on each other...

-You look really funny.

-You look funny.

..to uncover what goes on inside...

Ooh! That just came out of my ear.

..and out.

Wow, that's amazing.

From the bizarre...

Can we get a sample of your snot?

..to the incredible.

It's time to find out what you're made of.

Hello?

Coming up...

..on Operation Ouch!

This man reveals a terrifying secret.

That's amazing.

I discover what happens when you lose your senses.

So now I am seeing things and hearing things.

And we reveal an amazing trick your body does every time you swallow.

All right down there?

Nearly half a million people come into Accident and Emergency

every year with a sporting injury.

Here's another one.

Eight-year-old Mason is in Accident and Emergency

with his mum, big sis and dad.

He's not too happy though.

Because he's got a dish cloth on his leg?

No, Xand. Because...

I hurt my ankle.

Let's see it, then.

My ankle's like a balloon.

-And Mason can't bear to look.

-How did it happen?

Check it out.

Mason was trampolining and jumping as high as he could.

-Higher and higher and higher.

-Is that outer space?

It gets worse.

His cousin was on the same trampoline,

going as high as he could, so guess what happened next?

They left Earth orbit and flew to Mars?

Outer space looks a lot of fun.

Ooh, hang on a minute, this doesn't look good.

You're right, Xand. Here's what really happened.

They smashed into each other, toppled down...

and Mason twisted his ankle.

Ouch!

He is just a typical boy, isn't he?

Good as gold.

I'd be amazed if it's not broke.

Here's the very man to tell you...

Take a peek, Mason, you're in safe hands.

Dr Beaves checks the sensations in Mason's foot

as sometimes, with a bad break or bad sprain, swelling can compress

the blood supply and nerves.

But he's happy that they're all OK.

We're going to get an X-ray,

just to make sure there isn't any bony damage underneath.

Personally, I think this is a sprain at the moment,

but the X-ray will tell us a bit more information.

So I'll get that sorted. We'll know what we're dealing with.

So it's X-ray time for Mason.

Although the doc thinks it's a sprain, you never can tell.

That's a pretty good picture, Mason. Well done.

Dr Beaves is checking the bones in Mason's foot.

There's just a small fragment of bone, if you like.

It isn't conclusive, but because of the symptoms

on the side of his ankle,

we're going to treat it like it's a clinical fracture.

So the doc is treating it like a break.

I hope you like the crutches, Mason.

I'm kind of hoping I get crutches, so I'll be popular at school.

What's he like?!

We'll get you back for a fracture clinic in the next day or so.

-Never mind that.

-Yeah, what about the crutches?

Does he keep his weight off it?

Yeah, we'll give him some crutches as well.

See how he gets on with them.

Result! But wait...

There's no guarantee you get to take the crutches,

cos if you can't handle the crutches...

-MASON'S MUM: Oh, he can.

-Yeah. I've been practising...

-OK. OK, good.

-..for when this day comes.

Ex-squeeze me? Practising? That's keen.

But at eight, Mason's a bit young for crutches, and even though

he could do with them, first, he has to prove he can use them.

Got what I wanted. Crutches.

Not yet, you haven't.

We don't really see them again

once we give them to the kids, unfortunately.

But... But, yeah, they seem to find them exciting.

I'll be the second one in my school to have crutches.

First one in my class.

And what's so good about that?

Girls.

You'll have girls?

I'll have all the girls going,

"Oh, you all right? You all right? You all right?"

I'll be like, "Yeah."

Playing it cool, Mason?

BOTH: Nice!

But first, Mason has to take his test.

They're not taking my crutches away.

Join us later to see if he passes the test.

And now to our lab...

Wow!

..where we do incredible experiments...

Oh, it's disgusting!

..to show you how your body works.

Watch this!

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

BOTH: Aaah!

Your mouth and throat are awesome and we're going to show you

one of the cleverest tricks your body does every time you eat.

Swallowing.

And if you're thinking, "What's the big deal with swallowing?"

Well, here's the thing.

Your lungs and stomach actually share part of the same tube.

Your mouth and throat go into one tube that then splits, so that

you can eat and breathe through the same hole.

Now, you might be thinking,

because everything goes in through the throat, this could get

pretty disastrous, with all your food ending up in your lungs.

-Right?

-Wrong.

-He's right.

-Never fear.

You actually have a super-duper clever bit of body kit

that stops this happening.

It's called the epiglottis.

And to show you how it works,

I'm going to put a camera up Chris's nose and down into his throat.

This is a trans-nasal oesophagoscopic camera.

That's a bit of a mouthful.

But what it means is it can go up through your nose and down into

your oesophagus, which is the tube that carries food to your tummy.

Now, even if you do have a trans-nasal oesophagoscopic camera

lying around at home,

you still shouldn't try this yourself.

We are responsible doctors and only people like us

can use trans-nasal oesophagoscopic cameras.

-You like saying that, don't you?

-Yes.

OK, are you ready?

OK, so we've just gone in to Chris's nose.

You can see a few hairs there, a few bogies.

You might want to save those for tea later.

I can actually see the camera at the back of Chris's throat.

It's like a cave in there.

This here is actually the dangly bit at the back of your throat.

It's called the uvula.

Now we're going further in.

So this, here, that's his tongue.

And just behind that is a pink flap, the epiglottis,

that folds over when we swallow.

Hello, Chris's epiglottis. You all right down there?

Still doing a good job?

Now, at the moment, it's open, cos he's breathing.

It's letting air into his lungs.

But the minute he swallows, it'll really quickly close

to prevent any food or liquid going into his lungs

and divert it all down into his tummy.

You'll be able to see it much better if he has some soup.

-Ready for some soup, Chris?

-Yeah.

-Here we go.

-Wait, wait. Is this carrot and coriander?

-Yes. Your favourite.

-You know I hate that.

What? Here we go. Yum, yum, yum.

So you can actually see the spoon with the soup in it

going into his mouth.

We're putting the soup in, and now

watch the epiglottis when he swallows.

There, it moves really quickly, closes off his lungs completely,

so that all the soup goes down into his tummy.

Let's see that again.

There's the wind pipe.

Here comes the soup.

There, the epiglottis closes -

the soup goes down - yum.

The epiglottis opens. Job done!

You actually swallow about 600 times a day.

Sometimes, when you're eating and sometimes,

when you're just swallowing your own saliva.

So we've shown you how your epiglottis stops you getting

lungs full of food and spit.

But what if you were upside down?

Well, there's another body part that stops your food going up

-when you're upside down.

-You mean down.

-No, up.

From the tip of your tongue to the end of your bum, you've got a long

tube lined with smooth muscle that squeezes food through your body.

A bit like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube.

It even works when you're upside down, and we're going to prove it.

Xandy won't mind being upside down as long as I feed him.

OK, Xand, here's some soup.

Ooh, lovely... Mmm.

Carrot and coriander? My favourite.

Now, it's not a good idea to always eat soup like this.

Imagine what restaurants would look like if we did.

And what's happening now is that the smooth muscle in my oesophagus

is pushing the soup up towards my stomach.

This is called peristalsis.

Waves of muscle contraction,

all the way through my gut push food through my digestive system.

So swallowing works even when you're upside down.

But let's face it, it's not a good idea.

You're going to end up with soup in your hair.

Chris? Chris? Chris?

The bathroom. A place where you can store your toiletries.

-Is this your ducky?

-Mmm.

A place where you can have a bath.

Or brush your teeth.

But the bathroom can also be a place of danger.

-Can't it, Xand?

-Mm-mm.

For example, the water from the hot tap could be...scalding hot.

-Oh.

-Or...you could drop your mobile down the toilet.

Oh!

Or you could run out of toilet paper.

HE GROANS

But apart from that,

there's absolutely nothing to worry about, is there, Xand?

-Uh-uh.

-Oh, look, a spider.

-Oh!

-Ow! Oh... Ah... Ooh.

Oops. A minor injury.

So what should you do if you get a nose bleed?

Do you...

The answer is B.

If you have a bleeding nose,

the best thing to do is sit quietly, lean forward and pinch the soft bit

of your nose for ten minutes, while you breathe through your mouth.

-And remember, it always looks worse than it actually is.

-Hey!

All done! It's all stopped,

and I've even removed the spider...

and put it in Xand's bed.

So remember, if you get a nose bleed, lean forward and pinch

your nose for ten minutes.

But if you're worried, tell an adult.

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

Here's a good one to wind your mates up with.

-Who wants to learn a trick?

-ALL:

-Me!

-Yeah! Me!

-OK, I'm going to show Xand

and I want you guys to watch and then you'll do it.

We'll get Xand's arm, as if you're cheering a football team, OK?

-Really, really get your hands revving up like this.

-Yeah!

So quick as you can. Really do your hand hard.

Hard as you can, so your arm starts to really ache.

When I say, you're going to put your hand together like that

and put your fingers apart, OK, ready? Three...

-BOY:

-I know that one.

-..two, one, go.

'I'm trying to stop my fingers touching, but I can't.'

-That's really weird.

-And what happens?

My... This finger's moving towards that one.

Does it work for everybody? Let's have a go.

The most important thing is to really wind your arm up

as hard as you can, then put your hands together, fingers apart,

and watch what happens.

One finger should start curling toward the other.

What do these guys think?

It worked.

Well, everyone seems to know how to make it work,

but does anyone know why it works?

When your hand is in a fist, it gets used to being in the fist

so when you do your fingers like that, it will curl back in

because it's used to being like that.

Simeon's bang-on!

Because you're winding your arm, you have to clench your fist

really tight and the muscles to those fingers get used to

contracting, so when you stop and put your hands together,

that finger wants to keep on squeezing.

So you've got to make a tight fist for it to work.

If you let your wrist go all loose, your fingers will fly off!

Earlier, Mason came to Accident and Emergency after injuring his ankle.

Let's catch up with him.

Back in Sheffield,

eight-year-old Mason is in with a badly swollen ankle.

Mason was trampolining and jumping as high as he could,

but his cousin was on the same trampoline.

They smashed into each other, toppled down,

and Mason twisted his ankle. Ouch!

Dr Beaves has X-rayed Mason's foot and has seen a small fracture.

Mason's going to need to have a plaster cast on for a few weeks,

so why is he so happy?

Got what I wanted. Crutches.

But before he can get them, he needs to prove he can use them.

First, he needs to get his plaster cast on.

I'm never going on a trampoline ever again.

Really, Mason? Can't imagine why(!)

Ooh, that's nice.

Ooh, I think he's enjoying this, Chris.

Oh, I can feel it setting already.

All done.

Mason's quite young for crutches, hence the test.

Getting my crutches now?

Yeah, but it all depends on if you can work them.

She says you're a bit little, but because you're so tall,

they're going to try it.

They're my crutches.

The moment of truth has arrived.

It certainly has, Xand.

Wahey!

Mason needs to show the nurse

that he can get about on the crutches without falling over.

Let's do it.

He's styling it!

-Success!

-Yeah!

So, armed with his new crutches, Mason speeds off,

ready to impress the girls.

Was there ever any doubt in your mind?

Little wobble, but nowt major.

And what has he learned?

Don't never try and do as high as you can on a trampoline,

cos that's what happens.

Careful, Mason.

-Bit stumbly, but off we go.

-BOTH: Bye!

Still to come...

We learn how a bash turns into a bruise.

Why this girl's ear lobes split in two...

And I face a sensory deprivation challenge.

It's all very strange.

But first, did you know you use 12 muscles to smile,

72 muscles to speak,

and a whopping 300 muscles just to stand still?

That's amazing!

So is this.

This might look like a typical man wandering along a typical street,

but don't be fooled. In fact, he's a 13-time world champion,

famous for his extraordinary face.

OK, nice moustache, but what's he doing to impress this bunch?

That's amazing. Truly amazing!

Wondering what's causing all the commotion?

-Well, take a look at this.

-Argh! He's an alien.

No, Xand, this is Tommy Mattinson and he's the World Gurning Champion,

which means he can contort his face into the most amazing expressions.

Gurning's based on transformation,

so it's basically how you look

and to what you turn into.

It's impressive. He's an ugly man though.

I've never seen a face like that before.

Like, that was just incredible.

But how does Tommy's unusual face do this?

Behind the skin, there's around 40 facial muscles.

By stretching and contracting them,

it's possible to make more than 4,000 different expressions.

Over years of practice, Tommy has built up his muscles so much

that he can move his facial features much further than most people,

creating some truly incredible expressions.

And Tommy can turn himself into a werewolf!

HOWLING

Because they're quite scary, people are, you know,

can be taken aback with that,

which the Queen was when she saw that face.

Her Majesty the Queen was taken aback?

-DR CHRIS MIMICS THE QUEEN:

-Now, that's amazing!

What are you doing?

-What are you doing?!

-Oh!

I'm trying to block out the rest of the world.

-There's a much better way of doing that!

-Really?

Time for Investigation Ouch!

We all have senses. They tell you what's going on around you

and then your body knows what to do.

Like...

telling your feet to dodge people in the street,

looking both ways before crossing the road.

It's all about your brain receiving data and deciphering it

to help you function in our busy world.

Even the smell of that bread is making me hungry.

Your brain is like a super computer,

receiving around 2,000 bits of information a second

and processing it all without you even noticing.

But what if we were to completely shut off all the data

that your brain receives?

Just like pulling the plug on that computer.

Well, I'm about to do that to my brain right now

and I'm a little bit scared!

I'll be doing it in here. This is an anechoic chamber.

Normally, it's used to test sound equipment, but scientists

often use these chambers when studying sensory deprivation.

It's designed to deaden any noise,

so there's absolutely no sound inside at all.

This is totally alien for a human being.

I'll have to be careful.

This foam all around me absorbs all the echoes.

Now, you might not have noticed this, but you hear echoes all the time.

They allow you to tell whether you're in a sports hall

or whether you're in your bedroom, even with your eyes closed.

But in here, it's completely different.

This room will prevent any

outside sound from reaching my ears.

So when that door closes, it's silence.

And soon, I'll be finding out what that's like.

But worse still, the lights are going to go out too.

I'll be practically senseless!

How will I cope? Let's speak to an expert.

This is Dr Oliver Mason.

He's a psychologist at University College London

and has done lots of studies on what happens to the brain

inside anechoic chambers.

So what do you think's going to happen to me in there?

Your sense of hearing may become more sensitive.

In fact, all your senses may alter. You may even hear things that,

-strictly, aren't there.

-You mean even if there's no sound,

I might still hear things?

That's right. Because our mind may create something for us

to experience because there's nothing actually happening.

In fact, it can be so disturbing for the mind

that some people totally freak out.

So we've taken some special precautions.

Oliver and James are going to be monitoring me while I'm in there.

They've given me a safe word, which is "ouch",

and I can say that at any time and they'll let me out.

Now, I've got this camera with me, so you're coming too. Let's go.

Some people manage up to half an hour in this alien environment.

Some just a few minutes, before they shout their escape word.

Let's see how long I last.

I'm now watching it close. It's actually pretty scary.

Everything is now very quiet.

It's hard to imagine there's anything

outside this room now.

I can't hear any other noises.

So the first thing that is really strange about this is...

it feels like my brain almost can't stay still,

so I'm listening very, very hard for noises.

I really want to hear things.

So I can hear something like...

birds chirping.

Or like a waterfall, maybe.

Like a high-pitched kind of chattering sound.

That's because my brain is trying to make sense of this place.

It thinks there must be sound, so it hears it.

But there's nothing here.

Starved of sensory data, I'm developing Spidey Senses.

I can hear my heart beating in my ears.

I can still hear my voice, but it's not my normal voice.

What happens if I shout?

Hello! Nothing.

It's really, really weird.

So it's like I'm shouting into a huge valley and nothing comes back.

Everything I say disappears immediately.

Now, most of the information

the brain receives is through sight,

so what would happen if I had none?

It's something I'm about to find out.

So he's probably even more disoriented now.

He not only can't hear anything, he can't see anything either.

I can hear my stomach gurgling.

I can see little flashes of light at the corners of my eyes.

I can hear these other noises in my ears.

It's all very strange.

So now I'm seeing things and hearing things.

Deprived of its normal data, my brain is reaching out

to make sense of this alien scenario, but without its main stimuli,

it's confused and I'm becoming disoriented.

I don't know how big this room is any more,

but I feel like I'm in

a very big forest

that just goes on forever.

I really don't like it in here.

I really would like that door to be opened.

Ouch.

'Did they hear me?'

Hope that'll make the door open.

'Are they still there?'

That is a welcome sight.

I feel like a bit of a baby now.

I wasn't really scared.

Wasn't scared, actually.

Half an hour in there felt like a lifetime.

It is very bright out here. And the other thing is, it's really loud.

I can hear my... I can hear lots of other sounds, but I can mainly hear

my voice very loudly, like it's echoing off everything.

Um, yeah, I am very pleased to be out.

So I quite enjoyed the 15 minutes in the light,

but when the lights went out, it was like a nightmare.

Nightmare is a really good point of comparison,

because your brain's probably in

something of a similar state in there.

It's got nothing to go on and everything comes from the brain.

That's right. We've shown the brain needs sensory data to function.

It just shows how much information my brain's getting every single

minute of the day and processing without me even knowing it.

So when you take those things away, things get very weird indeed.

Of course, I'm not really afraid of the dark.

When you get injured, your body is brilliant at mending itself.

This next boy should know - he's always having accidents.

# If there's a bone to break, he'll break it

# If there's a knee to graze, he'll graze it

# If there's an ankle to sprain, he'll sprain it

# He's the Unluckiest Kid! #

If your body takes a knock,

it won't be long before you get a whacking great bruise.

A bruise is when your little blood vessels break,

causing the red blood cells to gush out.

Whoa, that looks like the best waterslide ever!

Your red blood cells have nowhere to go, so they fill up in-between

your normal skin cells.

But the area becomes so cramped, the oxygen's cut off,

turning the red blood cells blue.

You look a bit off colour.

Tell me about it! I can hardly breathe.

Then your body breaks down the leaked blood cells.

Your bruise then turns greeny yellow because the blood cells

have been turned into bile and bilirubin,

the same stuff that makes your poo brown.

Finally, it's slowly absorbed back into the body and your skin

goes back to normal.

Oh, dear!

Each year, around half a million people come to Accident and Emergency

with a sporting injury.

Here's another one. Well, sort of.

In Sheffield, 11-year-old Chloe

is in Accident and Emergency with her gran and mum...

oh, and a freaky-looking ear lobe.

Well, my ear just ripped unexpectedly at an ice hockey match.

What?! That IS unexpected.

-So is it sore?

-No, it just feels normal.

Ears don't just split on their own, so how did this happen?

Chloe was at an ice hockey match with her granddad.

Ooh, nice shoulder pads, Chloe.

Ooh, I'd love a hot dog.

Her favourite team, the Sheffield Steelers, were playing

and the stadium was packed.

With the game in full swing and the goals flying in,

Chloe was getting more and more excited.

Everyone was excited.

To top it off, her favourite player scored, slamming the puck

into the back of the net.

Chloe jumped up and threw her arms in the air.

Her sleeve got caught in her earring

and ripped her ear lobe in two.

Ouch!

It was so unexpected and I started to cry.

I don't blame you.

After having her wound cleaned up by first-aiders, Chloe's now off

to find out what can be done about her flapping ear flesh.

Over to Dr Hannah Hardisty.

-So which ear have you done?

-This one.

That one. Oh, you have, haven't you?

Dr Hannah takes a closer look at Chloe's ear lobe

to see what damage has been done.

Fine, OK. It will heal back together.

You just might have a little bit of a nick in your ear

-and that's all, OK?

-OK.

Hopefully, what we can do is, we've got some magic glue,

a bit like super glue, that we can just stick it together.

If that doesn't work, then we'll have to re-evaluate

and look at whether she needs a stitch to hold it together.

Something tells me Chloe's hoping the glue will work.

I don't want stitches.

Thought you might say that.

No way.

Let's hope Nurse Sammy-Jo Grayston

can wield her magic with the glue.

That's it. Squeeze it till it sticks.

-Oh, wow, I didn't feel that.

-There you go.

It looks like it's come together well.

So does that mean the stitches have been avoided?

We were just experimenting really to see whether

the glue was sufficient enough to keep it closed.

It's held really well, actually,

so we're happy to send her home like that.

I think someone will be relieved.

No, not you, Gran.

I am really happy because I don't have to have stitches.

So stuck back together, Chloe's off home to practise

a new style of goal celebration.

Er, hang on, isn't that the move

that got her into trouble in the first place?

Next time on Operation Ouch!

What would happen if your ears had no wax?

-I can see right through to the other side.

-Really?

Has this girl swallowed something metal?

BEEPING

And we meet a man who grows spare body parts.

I wonder who's going to end up with this!

That's it till next time.

BOTH: Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd