Episode 10 Operation Ouch!

He's Dr Chris.

He's Dr Xand.

Yes, we're identical twins.

Do you know your body does heaps of amazing things every single day?

That is incredible.

And we're going to show you how.

Oh, you've cut him in half!

We've got incredible experiments...

-BOTH:

-Wow!

..and real life medical emergencies.

There's a big chunk of me leg missing.

Ouch!

We'll be turning our bodies inside out...

Oh, yuck!

..to show you what you're made of.

-You should see a doctor.

-I'd better go find one.

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

"Dr Xand"!

HE SIGHS

SIRENS WAIL

Coming up today on Operation...

Ouch!

Our Ouch & About clinic is ready to solve your mystery ailments.

That is just an absolutely classic wart.

And we're going to look back at some of our best bits.

We bare our teeth to reveal what happens when you don't brush.

-HE LAUGHS

-You look really funny.

You look funny!

And I discover the wonders of wee.

-It really smells in here.

-Yes, it does.

And now it's one of our favourite hospital cases.

The emergency team thought they'd seen everything

and then Courtney showed up.

In accident and emergency,

nine-year-old Courtney has come in with her mum, her dad

and something else.

I got a bit of a pencil stuck in my ear.

You what? Did I EAR that right?

I was messing around with it and I put it in my ear.

OK, I did. Now, how did it get there?

Courtney was in her bedroom with her colouring pens and pencils.

One in particular caught her eye. It was the yellow one.

She stared at it, it stared back wondering if it would be chosen.

"Colour in with me", it thought, "I'll be your sun,

"I'll be your sand, I'll be your rubber ducky."

Why would she want to draw a rubber ducky?

Um, I couldn't think of anything else yellow. Just go with it.

-OK.

-"That might fit in my ear", Courtney thought.

Oh, dear. I see where this is going.

So did she.

Ouch!

Here's Dr Julian Warren to investigate.

First, Dr Warren needs to check

exactly where the missing crayon's hiding.

Yeah. We can see that quite clearly.

Thank goodness he's found it. So where exactly is it?

Your ears are divided into three parts - the inner, middle

and outer ear connected by the ear canal.

The ear canal is roughly 2.5cm long

and that is where Courtney's yellow crayon is stuck.

If it's left in there, it could cause damage or infection.

Let's see if we can get that out, shall we?

What's the plan then, doc?

We'll take her through to the procedure room.

We'll try and see if we can get a little metal probe behind it

and hook it out, but hopefully we'll get it out today.

In the treatment room, Dr Warren goes crayon fishing

with his special hook.

But will he catch anything?

It's just a case of trying to see if we can get past it.

The crayon just won't budge, so Dr Warren has to go to plan B.

Find out later what on earth he's going to do with all that liquid.

And now to our lab for some amazing body experiments.

Urgh! Whoa!

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

Take a look at this.

It's a skull that's over 100 years old.

Now, it's from a five-year-old but look carefully

and you'll see why I really wanted to show it to you.

This skull has two sets of teeth.

These are milk teeth

and these are adult teeth.

They're waiting to come through when the milk teeth fall out.

But what's amazing about this is that it's not amazing at all.

If you're still waiting for your adult teeth, just think,

they're already in your head fully grown.

Underneath your skin, your skull will look just like this one.

Both sets of teeth are coated with enamel.

It's the hardest substance in your body.

It's even harder than bone

but it's not indestructible as we're about to find out.

Urgh!

-Does my breath smell bad?

-Yes, it does actually.

I'm not surprised. I haven't brushed my teeth in two days.

-But it's all for a good cause, isn't it, Chris?

-I hope so.

In fact, it was my idea.

While I've been brushing my teeth twice a day, as you should,

I haven't let Chris brush his at all for two days,

but it's all in the name of medical research.

My teeth feel fuzzy.

That's because Chris has a layer of plaque building up on them.

Open wide.

I'm going to show you why plaque isn't something you want a lot of.

When you go to the dentist,

you'll have had your teeth scraped like this.

Going anywhere nice on holiday this year, Chris?

-MUMBLED:

-No.

Oh, lovely. I've been there. It's wonderful at this time of year.

Urgh, Chris, this is disgusting!

Plaque is a mixture of food particles, acid and bacteria.

We've all got thousands of different bacteria living in our mouths

and most of them are harmless but there are some bad ones

that can turn the sugars in the food we eat into acid.

And it's this plaque acid that's the real problem.

It eats away at the tooth enamel and that's what tooth decay is.

Please can I have my toothbrush back now?

Soon! There's more to show you.

'We're both going to rinse our mouths with a special blue dye

'that will show up how much plaque we have on our teeth.

'It's my brushed nashers first. Ta-da!'

-Ha! You look really funny.

-You look funny!

Now, even though Xand HAS been brushing regularly,

you can see that some dye has stuck to his teeth and that's all plaque.

That makes me a bit worried

cos I haven't brushed my teeth for over two days.

-Urgh! Why'd you do that?

-It was your idea.

Well, after a quick rinse with the blue dye,

it's time to check out the state of my unbrushed teeth.

Urgh!

There's plaque everywhere!

How'd you let this happen?

So, if you compare my lovely clean brushed teeth

with Chris' disgusting

unbrushed teeth,

you can really see the difference.

And all that plaque has built up in just two days!

That's gross!

I feel quite disgusting. I would like my toothbrush back.

Nope!

I want to get a much closer look at your plaque, Chris,

which is why I've put a dollop of it under this microscope.

Look at this.

Wow!

So these bacteria are the ones that live in my plaque

and although we can't tell which are the good ones

and which are the bad ones,

some of them are the ones that produce the acid

-that is rotting my teeth right now.

-Yep.

And if you just leave plaque, it hardens like cement.

That's called tartar and it builds and builds.

It can damage your gums

and give you rotting teeth that look like this.

Not a good look. That's it. I've had enough.

I am going to brush my teeth.

No, he's not.

That's over 70,000 times a day.

And thank goodness you do!

Otherwise you could choke on your own saliva, urgh!

As doctors, we're big believers in healthy living

and that includes healthy eating, doesn't it, Xand?

Xand!

Yes, Chris.

Now, preparing your own food is so much better

than ready-made meals but it can also be full of potential danger!

-Can it?

-Yes.

For example, that burger could have given you an upset stomach.

And you've got to be really careful chopping your own vegetables.

Well, Chris, I'm playing it safe. I'm not chopping anything at all.

HE CHOKES

'Uh-oh, Xand's choking!'

Looks like an injury alert.

Or C, send a small and expertly trained mouse into their mouth

and get it to push the blockage from the other side.

Melissa, what do you think it is? Which option?

Option A because I think it will help if you pat them on the back

cos it will help the food to come out from your mouth.

Melissa is totally right.

Have a look at this.

So, Xand, turn around, bend over

and I'm going to hit him with the heel of my hand

hard between his shoulder blades.

So we're going to give him up to five hard blows, OK?

Has it worked?

XAND COUGHS

Now, in real life, I'd be doing that much harder to Xand.

Right, now it's your turn. Everyone have a go.

And remember, we're showing you what to do in an emergency

but choking can be very serious so it's always best to find an adult.

-Where do I hit?

-OK. So that's where you want to hit him.

So right between the shoulder blades.

-One more.

-Yeah. So you can hear him breathing now. He's stood up.

Is it out yet?

HE COUGHS

So hit, then check.

-Are you fine?

-Yes, thank you.

But don't hit your little brother if he's not choking!

So, remember, if you see someone choking,

hit them on the back up to five times.

Also remember carrots can be a lot more dangerous than you think.

And that's why I'm sticking to something a lot safer,

like this yogurt.

Still to come...

Xand is on call with the emergency services.

Ooh, darling, you need to keep still for me.

Oscar gets his broken nose fixed.

And I've got wee with secret powers.

That really works well.

Earlier, we saw Courtney in accident and emergency

with something lodged in her ear. Let's see how the team get it out.

Back in Sheffield,

nine-year-old Courtney has a crayon stuck in her ear.

Courtney was in her bedroom with her colouring pens and pencils.

She liked the look of that yellow one.

"That might fit in my ear", she thought.

Ouch!

To remove it, first Dr Warren tried to hook it out like a fish...

but never caught a thing.

So far, the crayon just won't budge.

Dr Warren's decided to call in a colleague who's a dab hand

at flushing things out with water.

-Who's that then, Xand?

-You'll see.

Have we got a towel?

Yellow crayons, watch out!

Sister Julie Morcombe's about.

Sister Morcombe is an expert at this procedure.

And don't worry, this isn't painful, it just feels weird.

If you just put the fluid in under pressure then what tends to happen,

the water flushes behind and pushes the foreign body

closer to the entrance to the ear canal

and then it just comes out with a second go.

There you go, out it comes. Pop.

-Hey-hey!

-All done.

She came, she saw, she flushed it out.

Want to check there's nothing else in behind and I'll leave you to it.

Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Julie.

Courtney's happy she's got her yellow crayon back.

We've got it out now. She looks much more comfortable.

Watch what you put in your ears now.

Especially yellow crayons. Bye!

If you have a medical emergency...

There are teams of paramedics all over the country on standby

ready to spring into action.

We're on call with the UK emergency services

showing you what it's really like on the front line saving lives.

This is a rapid response vehicle.

It's on standby 24-7 to respond to whatever emergency calls come in.

Today, I'm going along for the ride and you're coming with me.

On call with me is paramedic Jan Vann.

She can do 20 callouts in a day...

..and a new case is just in.

We've just been called to an emergency and we know it's a man.

They've fallen in the garden and they've got blurred vision.

Minutes later, we arrive at the scene.

And just as we get there, the man, Peter, falls again.

Right...

Darling, you need to keep still for me.

PETER LAUGHS

Oh, at least you're laughing.

God, you just gave me the fright of me life!

It's stupid, this!

'Joking aside, Jan quickly gets him sorted

'and makes an immediate assessment of his possible injuries.'

-Yeah.

-Squeeze me.

-If I can find them.

-Not too hard.

I need my fingers afterwards.

'He can do some things well but there's a problem.'

I can see about half of you. The rest has disappeared.

'Peter's not seeing properly.'

The thing we've got at the minute is his eyes aren't moving together,

they're moving separately so we need to find out why that's going on.

OK. All right, look at me.

I'm going to shine a little light into your eyes.

So what Jan's just done is have a look at how the nerves

in his head and face are working.

We want to see if he's had a stroke,

if he's had a blockage in a blood vessel to his brain

that may have damaged a little bit of his brain which controls his eyes.

'A stroke is worrying because it's potentially life-threatening

'but then things change again.'

-Yeah. I can see now.

-Follow my pen again. Keep your eye nice and still.

Keep your head still, follow the pen.

Peter's symptoms seem to be improving.

And that shed looks like it's in the right position again?

-Yeah.

-His eyes are together now.

-OK.

-Initially they were separate.

They were miles out.

It's taken about half an hour from when his symptoms started

to going away again. It's just about completely gone.

And that does suggest that it's likely to be what we call

a mini stroke and what's good about a mini stroke is they do get better

but they do suggest you're at higher risk of having a bigger stroke.

And a bigger stroke could be more serious.

The danger of that happening again is there at the minute

so we'll get him checked over.

'So it's an ambulance for Peter.'

-I'm not sure he's at... Whoa!

-Steady. Steady.

-I'm not sure he's 100%.

'He's still very unsteady but it's vitally important

'that potential stroke victims are checked over as soon as possible.'

-Good luck, Peter.

-See you in a bit.

So what Jan's able to do really well there is examine Peter,

figure out where he needs to go to get the best treatment

and get him there quickly.

It's what the emergency services do really well.

With hundreds of rapid response crews in the UK,

if you have an accident,

an emergency service like this won't be far away.

Now we're getting Ouch & About with our mobile clinic.

Today, we're at a theme park to help solve your medical mysteries.

If you're anxious about an ailment,

or curious about a condition,

then the Ouch-mobile is the place for you.

That is incredible.

Xand is preparing the clinic ready for his patients

and later, he'll be out in the park to answer your burning questions.

At the clinic, Xand is open for business.

Can I have the next patient?

First in is nine-year-old Byron

with a question about some interesting bumps on his body.

So, Byron, why have you come to the Ouch-mobile today?

To show my warts and my wart on here.

-You've got two warts?

-And they won't go away.

What's the diagnosis, doc?

Ah, sounds like to me like a case of...

Double trouble.

Let's have your thumb here.

Now that is just an absolutely classic wart.

Can we have a look at the one on your foot?

Does it hurt at all? No?

What can you do about warts?

Well, a lot of warts just go away on their own, but for some people,

they don't like the way they look or they take a long time to go away,

and in that case, you can either put some chemicals on

and that'll get rid of them or you can use a freezing treatment

and that breaks the cells in the warts,

that means the warts die and go away. But as long as you have got a wart,

although it's not really a problem,

you don't want to spread them onto other people, so if you go swimming,

you want to put a sticky plaster over the wart on your thumb

and the one on your foot and that'll stop them spreading.

It's a busy day for Xand.

He's leaving the clinic to go Ouch & About in the park

to solve your medical mysteries.

Why do you always feel sick after a rollercoaster?

When you're on a rollercoaster, your ears, eyes and body

are actually getting really different bits of information

cos you're looking at things, things are all changing, going upside down,

and your brain gets confused, and it actually thinks that

you've eaten something poisonous that's making you crazy and so

the response to eating something poisonous is to make you sick.

That's actually why you're sick after being on a rollercoaster.

Dr Xand, today I scratched my eye on a ride.

Why does it go red?

What happens is when you scratch the skin, you slightly injure it

and your body's way of fixing injuries is to send blood

to the area and that's what makes it look red cos blood's red.

The reason your body does that is cos, in the blood,

there's all sorts of good things like white blood cells and other things

which help mend the injury, so I think you're going to be fine.

Back at the Ouch-mobile, there's a new case in the waiting room.

Can I have the next patient?

And it's 11-year old Lucas with fascinating feet.

So, Lucas, why have you come to the Ouch-mobile today?

Well, I've got flat feet.

What's the diagnosis, doc?

Sounds like a case of...

Well, that wasn't tricky to diagnose.

So how long have you had flat feet for?

Well, it's been about six months.

OK. Now while Lucas is taking off his shoe,

I'm going to do exactly the same thing

so that we can compare his foot to my foot.

So what you can see is that almost all of Lucas' foot

is touching the ground. I've actually got quite a lot of room under here

and that's the arch of your foot. And here Lucas' is just a bit collapsed.

-So what actually causes flat feet?

-If you imagine your foot

as a structure that has to hold the whole weight of your body,

especially when you're running and jumping,

there's bones, ligaments and muscles all holding it together.

If all these muscles holding that together weaken,

gradually your foot can flatten out.

But if they're causing you pain

then your doctor can suggest some treatments,

such as an insole in your shoe.

For the majority of people, it doesn't cause any problems at all.

Job done for today, clinic closed.

The answer is B, your kidneys,

and they make about 1.5 litres of it every day,

but did you know your wee holds special powers?

It's time for Investigation Ouch.

PEEING

Now, I know what you're thinking,

"You should have flushed the toilet, Dr Chris."

Well, you're wrong.

I didn't use the toilet...

but I am going to wash my hands.

'I'm actually taking my wee to Bristol...'

It's here somewhere.

Can you get out the map?

'..because apparently it contains hidden powers.'

This is the Bristol Robotics Laboratory

and some scientists here have decided that rather than

flushing their wee down the toilet,

they're going to use it as a power source

and that's why I've brought mine all the way from London.

I suppose I could have just gone when I got here.

Come on, wee-wee.

We're off to meet Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos.

He's the brains behind the pee power.

So, Ioannis, I've got something for you.

-Oh, wow! Thank you very much, Chris.

-It's my pleasure.

So the first thing said about being here is

-it really smells in here, huh?

-Yes, it does.

It's basically a bit like...

Imagine if instead of leaving your classroom to go and pee,

everyone just peed on the floor,

that's a bit like what it smells like.

But you're putting the wee here to slightly better use, aren't you?

Yes. So we use urine as a fuel for electricity.

Yep, you heard right!

They're turning wee into electricity.

So how do you do that?

So, we will take this urine

and we will add it into microbial fuel cells

which are something like batteries,

only they have living microorganisms inside, living bugs.

The bugs living in the microbial fuel cells, or batteries,

feed on the sugars and proteins in urine, breaking them down

and this process creates electricity.

In fact, this four litres of wee could create enough power

for 20 minutes of talk time on a mobile phone,

but that's not all it can do.

Time to see my wee in action.

So this is basically a battery, is that right?

Yes, a very complicated one.

And what do you use it to power?

At the moment, we use it to power a remotely controlled car.

-A remote controlled car?

-Yeah.

That's quite cool. I love remote control cars.

To get the car moving, we first need to top up the battery.

So each one of these things that I'm putting the urine into

is a microbial fuel cell and there are bacteria in there

that are going to eat the sugars and proteins in the urine

and turn them into electricity which is then going to charge this car.

That really works well!

At the moment, it takes a very large battery to power a very little car,

but hopefully it won't be long before the batteries get smaller

and the things they can power get bigger.

Ioannis, that is amazing, but what's the future?

For the future, it's about developing the technology

so that it can be implemented into developing world countries

and provide electricity.

So, one day, urine will hopefully create power for people in

developing countries to light their homes and cook their food with.

Obviously, this doesn't mean that you can go and pour urine

into all the electronic kit in your house and expect it to work,

that would be both incredibly dangerous and very, very smelly.

But what we have seen is that scientists have invented a way

of producing power from urine.

Now, if they can only invent a way of getting rid of the smell.

It's time to meet our next patient.

And this is one of our favourites.

In Manchester, 11-year old Oscar has been brought to hospital

by his mum when he came home from football with a sore nose.

I was playing football yesterday, someone elbowed me by accident

and it felt like it just went on the side.

Well, I'd definitely stop prodding it then!

So, how exactly did this nose-bending accident happen?

CHEERING

It was football training at school and Oscar was in goal.

His team were one up.

-They look a bit out of breath.

-And the crowd were going wild.

CHEERING

But the opposition were putting the pressure on

and the ball was heading Oscar's way.

Where's the defence? He's clean through!

Oscar ran out to kick the ball clear...

When all of a sudden there was a smash

as his nose collided with his opponent's elbow.

Yellow? I'd have gone for red

but I guess ref NOSE best.

That was terrible, Xand.

Oscar's nose might not look that bent but with an accident like this,

there's a good chance it could be broken.

It feels weird.

I bet it does.

So let's get that weird-feeling nose seen to.

Over to ear, nose and throat specialist,

Mr Baskaran Ranganathan.

He'll find out if anything's damaged.

-Is it sore down here?

-No.

OK. The nasal bone is probably just broken at one point

so that has shifted that bone to one side.

With a break like this, that means only thing - an operation.

Inside your nose, the tip is made of flexible cartilage

but higher up there are two thin bones which make up your nasal bone.

When these get a bang, it can break easily

and need surgery to push them back into place.

Oscar's had a general anaesthetic so he can't feel a thing

and now it's down to Mr Baskaran to straighten his sniffer.

The doctor uses forceps to pull the bones back into line.

This might look nasty but if the bones aren't straightened up,

Oscar could have breathing problems for life.

There's a few final adjustments...

and before he NOSE it, his nose is normal again.

Strapped up with support strips across the bridge of his nose,

it's all over.

And an hour later, he's woken up.

You look strange now your nose is straight.

Well, Mum's happy, but what do you think?

It's straight now and I can play football.

Hold your horses! Your nose needs six to eight weeks to heal

before you can get back in goal.

But for now at least, you're off home.

-Bye!

-Bye!

On this series of "Operation Ouch!", we've been on fire...

-BOTH:

-Wow!

..showing you how your amazing body works.

-FART

-Urgh! Xand!

-Urgh!

-This is delicious.

Cor, that's great.

Accident and emergency has been jam-packed with your injuries.

Cheek looked like a hamster cheek.

That will do.

'We've had incredible investigations.'

Urgh!

Isn't that amazing?

'We've been on the road with the UK's paramedics.'

My fingers are stuck to your head. No, not really.

'We've opened the door of our Ouch-mobile...'

Next patient, please.

'..to solve your medical mysteries.'

-Why is my birthmark shaped like Britain?

-That is incredible.

It's an excellent question.

'And we've turned ourselves inside out...'

Oh, you've cut him in half!

Urgh! That is horrendous!

'..to show you how incredible your body really is.'

Whoa!

This is a real heart.

And digestive biscuits should only be enjoyed as a treat.

XAND MUMBLES

LAUGHTER

-So you take care of yourself...

-And that brilliant body of yours.

-BOTH:

-Bye!

-Ha! You look really funny.

-You look funny!

Carrots can be a lot more dangerous than you think.

And that's why I'm sticking to something a lot safer,

like this yoghurt.