Episode 4 Operation Ouch!

VOICEOVER: He's Dr Chris.

He's Dr Xand.

And 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.

Huh! You've cut him in half.

We've got incredible experiments.

Whoa!

And real life medical emergencies.

The doctor's going to make it a lot better.

Ouch!

We'll be turning our bodies inside out.

Oh! Yuk!

To show you what you're made of.

TRUMP SOUND You should see a doctor.

Better go find one.

XAND CLEARS HIS THROAT

Dr Xand. Hmm.

HE SIGHS

-Coming.

-Up.

-Today.

-On.

-Operation.

-Ouch!

We find out how you taste...with your nose.

Next patient, please.

The clinic is open for business, to solve your medical mysteries.

And we check out a printer...with a difference.

The possibilities with 3D printing are limitless.

But first...

What started off as a normal day for our first patient

has ended up with a trip to accident and emergency.

Don't worry, Xand. She's in the right place.

Phew!

In Liverpool, 12-year-old Khadijah

is in accident and emergency, with her dad.

I've hurt my hand.

Well, let's see it then.

Ooh! How'd you do that?

Khadijah was on her way to the bus stop. Rushing to get to school.

Suddenly, she saw her bus coming down the road.

It's going very fast.

She's going to have to race to catch it.

She did. Khadijah and the bus were neck and neck.

Then the bus went faster.

So Khadijah took a sneaky short cut, through the supermarket.

She ran down the aisles. Past the breakfast cereal.

Out the door and into the car park.

Ooh! Good tactic!

Look, she's ahead of the bus.

She's going to make it.

But then...she tripped.

And she cut her hand on some glass.

Ouch!

Before anything else, Khadijah is sent for an X-ray of that hand.

OK. All finished.

Then, it's off to see...

for an examination.

Can you make a fist for me?

Lovely. And stretch your hand out for me. Excellent.

I was checking to see if she had a full range of movement

to her hands. And checking to see if she had normal sensation.

She had a little difficulty with moving her thumb.

Your hand has 27 bones in it.

As well as ligaments, that hold everything together.

-They're not really blue, by the way.

-Then there are the nerves,

that give us feeling. And the tendons,

that allow the hand to move.

Some tendons and nerves are very close to the surface of your skin.

And a deep cut like Khadijah's can easily damage them.

You could lose feeling, or not be able to move your hand at all.

Which is why a bad cut often needs surgery to fix it.

What I'm going to do, I'm going to have a little look at your X-ray.

Before any treatment, it's important to check for anything

that might still be in the wound.

I can't see any obvious glass.

I'll go and have a little chat with Dad.

So I think what we need to do is give it good clean.

Put a lovely dressing on it.

Start on some antibiotics.

And I'm going to ask you to come back in the morning.

We might need to get plastics to have a little look at her.

Khadijah will be back in the morning,

so a specialist can have a look at that cut

and see if she's done any major damage.

We'll catch up with her then.

And now, to our lab.

Ouch!

For some amazing body experiments.

Ugh!

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

Take a look at this.

This is an MRI scan of my tongue

as I'm speaking. And you can see, it's pretty huge.

But speaking isn't the only thing you need your tongue for.

One of the best things it does is help you taste.

Your tongue is covered in small hair-like projections.

As I'm going show you.

Right, Xand, open your mouth nice and wide.

Ugh! Not hair like that.

I said, "Hair-like projections."

Can't see them with your naked eye. So take a look at this.

This is a super close-up of your tongue.

This red blob is called a papilla.

Your taste buds sit on the side of it.

And they contain tiny hair-like

projections, called microvilli

to help you taste.

And if you look at your tongue,

the bumps you can see are the papillae.

And the more papillae you have on your tongue,

the more taste buds you have and the more sensitive to taste you are.

And you have more of them than we do.

Because we're doctors.

No, Xand, because we're adults.

We have around 5,000 covering our tongues.

But you have 10,000.

That's twice as many.

And to prove it, Chris, I've brought in a sample.

This sample is nine years old.

This isn't a sample, it's a child!

Anyway, the point is, we're going to compare Chris' papillae,

with the sample's.

But first, I need to cover your tongues in blue food dye.

'The blue dye will show up all the papillae.'

And now, the sample.

I have a name, you know, and it's Hermione.

Very noisy sample! Give me your tongue.

Nice blue tongue, Hermione.

Xand is putting a glass slide on both our tongues,

to make it easier to count the papillae.

Chris's papillae are those little pale dots, right there.

And these are Hermione's.

You can see that there's way more

on her tongue.

And that means more taste buds.

Good job, Hermione!

As we get older, your taste buds deteriorate

and they aren't replaced.

Which is why YOU will be much more sensitive

to strong flavours like garlic than your mum or dad.

There are certain things though, like a cold...

CHRIS SNEEZES ..that can play havoc

-with everybody's sense of taste.

-But why would having a bunged up nose

affect your taste? Well, we're going to show you.

Xand. Meet Mr Big Mouth.

Hello. Uh! You've cut him in half.

-Why don't you call him Mr Cut In Half?

-Xand.

Now, when you eat food, odour molecules are released

and swirl around your mouth, but also right up into this.

This is the passage that connects your mouth to your nose.

And right up here, at the back of your nose,

are lots of sensors called -

Which sense and identify different odour or smell molecules

and tell your brain what it is you're tasting.

So, to show you this, we're going to use an equally oversized bit of kit.

'The smell molecule blower thingy.'

Also, we'll need our safety equipment

and these polystyrene balls

to represent those smell or odour molecules.

Three, two, one...blow!

We're cheating a bit cos our smell molecules are being blown in.

But inside your body, the smell molecules in food

are released naturally as you chew.

Wow! That went really well.

You can see how the smell molecules race through the back of the mouth

and up the tube connecting it to the nose.

And right onto the olfactory receptors,

which instantly recognise the smell

and tell your brain what you're tasting.

And your olfactory receptors can also protect you

because they can tell if something is bad before you eat it.

As soon as they whiff something, like off milk, they alert your brain

so you know not to eat it.

But, Xand. What would happen if Mr Big Mouth got a cold?

That would be disgusting!

We're going to need a lot of snot!

We're smearing our snot inside the passages of our giant mouth and nose

just like when you have a cold.

Let's see what happens now that Mr Big Mouth has got a big cold.

-You ready?

-Go!

'Look. this time the odour molecules are getting stuck in the snot.

'They aren't getting anywhere near the olfactory receptors.'

And that means no taste.

Yeah, Mr Big Nose wouldn't be able to taste anything at all.

Except for that one tiny polystyrene ball.

So we've shown that, like Hermione's tongue,

you've got twice the number of taste buds as us.

Or your mum and dad, or any adult.

But as good as your tongue is, you also need your nose,

if you really want to savour a flavour.

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. Chris is preparing the clinic,

ready for his first patient.

And Xand is out in the park, to answer your burning questions.

At the clinic, Chris is open for business.

Next patient, please.

First in is brother/sister tag team,

nine-year-old Arman and Tomanna, aged 10.

What has brought you to the Ouch Mobile, today?

I've got a terrifying rotten gum.

-Tomanna, what have you got?

-I think I've got a tooth on top of another.

What's your double diagnosis, doc?

This sounds like a rare case of...

Easy for you to say!

Open wide.

How long have you had this problem for?

As...long...as...I...have...lived.

As long as you've lived.

I don't think you've got an extra tooth,

I think the teeth are crowded.

So that one's being squeezed out.

What can I do about it?

Well, you can see a dentist, is probably the best thing.

OK.

Right, open wide.

Ohh! Look at that!

Ouch! A bad case of tooth decay.

Half your tooth...is missing.

So, Arman, how long do you brush your teeth for?

-50 seconds.

-50 seconds? Tomanna, how long does your brother...

-Five to ten seconds.

-Five to ten seconds.

This could be the reason why Arman's tooth is rotten.

Teeth need looking after.

And that means brushing them

twice a day for about two minutes.

-And how many times a day do you brush your teeth?

-Once.

And how often should you brush your teeth?

Um...twice.

Arman's tooth will need to be taken out.

But to keep the rest of his gnashers, he needs to get brushing.

It can be boring though, so any tips, Chris?

Stand on one leg, for a minute,

while you brush the bottom half of your teeth.

Then stand on the other leg for a minute

while you brush the top half.

I'm impressed! I think I'll try that myself!

Away from the clinic, Xand is Ouch & About in the park.

Dr Xand, I have something that I need to show you.

You've got bleeding under your nail and the blood's got old,

so it's gone black.

That white line is how far your nail has grown, since you injured it.

In about four months, that'll get to the front

and your nail might fall off. But it'll grow back again,

-so you'll be fine.

-Why is it,

when you go upside down on rollercoasters,

does your face go red?

But when you walk normally your feet aren't red?

Cos you're designed to stand up, not stand on your head,

there are actually valves, which only allow the blood

to go one direction around your body. If the blood tries to go backwards

into your feet, it can't go that direction.

-Does that make sense?

-Yeah.

-It's an excellent question.

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

Next patient, please.

And, it's ten-year-old Alex,

who's got some fascinating features on his fingers.

So, Alex, what brings you to the Ouch Mobile today?

I've got a really weird thing, that both my little fingers are bent.

What's the diagnosis, doc?

It sounds to me like a case of...

That's right, Chris.

So, what we can see here

is that the last bit

of the little finger

on both hands...

is just bending in.

And that's cos this bone

has a slightly odd shape.

So instead of being flat,

that's just twisted in.

So do you know what this is called?

Way to go, Dr Alex.

We can also call it...

Ah, yes. The Greek for, um, er...

-Bent little finger.

-Exactly!

Will they ever go back to normal shape?

They're never going to grow straight because the bone in the finger

is a different shape on both sides.

So it...it will always be bent.

Now, it may be possible to have some exercises,

that make the things you want to do a bit easier.

OK. Thanks, Dr Chris.

-That's a pleasure.

-Job done for today.

'Still to come.

'I'm on the road with the emergency services.'

We've been called to see someone with diabetes.

We need to get there...quickly.

-'We show you what to do if this happens...'

-Argh!

And Chris comes face to face with his own skull.

If I do that, it's exactly like scratching my own head.

Back in accident and emergency,

Khadijah is waiting for surgery on her cut hand.

Let's see her get fixed.

In the waiting room in Liverpool, Khadijah's in with a cut hand.

Khadijah was racing for her bus to school.

They were neck and neck but then the bus went faster.

As she chased it, she tripped and cut her hand.

Ouch!

After being patched up,

she's now back to see hand specialist...

He's concerned she may have damaged her tendons or nerves.

Is that OK or not too bad?

Um, that... My finger's OK but I just feel, like,

these little effects coming down here.

So, what's the verdict, doc?

I think this is going to need for us to do a small operation.

OK?

But if we find there are some injuries

to your tendons and nerves,

then we may need to try to repair these.

So it's off to the operating theatre, to get this sorted.

-SURGEON:

-We're going to have a look at your right hand today.

Khadijah's given an anaesthetic, so she sleeps through the operation.

Once they start, they get a surprise.

The wound is very, very superficial.

So it's less likely we're going to need to do anything more

than give it a clean and dress it.

Well, that's brilliant news for Khadijah.

Her hand is fine after all.

So what have you learned, Khadijah?

I've learned to never rush for a bus

or take short cuts in places

that aren't really safe.

Wise words. Bye!

Give us a wave!

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 car.

It's one of a fleet of vehicles that respond to up

to 3,000 emergencies a day here in the West Midlands.

Time to find out what it's like to be

first at the scene of a medical emergency.

On call with me is paramedic Jan Vann.

She can do 20 emergency call-outs in a day!

And a new case has come in.

So, we've been called to see someone with diabetes.

We don't know exactly what the problem is yet.

Their sugar could be high, it could be low.

There could be something else going on.

But what we know is we need to get there quickly.

'Moments later, we arrive at the house.'

-Hiya.

-Oh, sorry.

'Inside, a man, Tony, is having some problems with a medical

'condition called diabetes.

'That means his body doesn't produce a chemical called insulin and

'his blood sugar levels get out of control.'

I've woke up this morning, I've got a blood sugar of 20.

OK.

Checked it an hour later and it's still at 17.

-OK.

-Done another ten units each arm and it's dropped down to 1.4.

-OK.

So Tony's very sensibly called the paramedics because his blood

sugar is too low.

The problem is, earlier in the day, it was too high and he took insulin

to bring it down, and he's taken too much insulin and he can't get it

back up again cos the insulin's still in the system and working.

Once your heart and your blood pressure

have been checked out and they're fine, I can pop a drip

in your arm and give you some...give your some glucose fluids.

'Tony's heart and blood pressure look fine.'

I feel actually a lot better

-than I did when you came through the door.

-Good.

'So Jan can now help boost his blood sugar levels by giving him a

'sugar called glucose.'

He's not able to eat at the moment, and he's vomiting when he does eat,

so he can't maintain sugar levels for himself.

So that's going to raise his sugars up hopefully enough

that he can cope at home.

If it drops again, then he'll have to go to hospital.

8.7.

-Get some food down you.

-Yeah.

-Please.

'As Tony's blood sugar levels return to normal he can hold down

'food and start to manage his diabetes on his own again.'

When it's really severe like it's been today, then you need

a little bit of extra help.

So, when we arrived, Tony's blood sugar was dangerously low.

Now he's much more relaxed and crucially he's safe

and he hasn't had to go to hospital.

And that's all thanks to the emergency services.

With hundreds of rapid response crews in the UK, if you have

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

So you'd better look after that skin of yours!

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love making things.

But even in the safety of the classroom, there's still

-a lot of potential danger.

-Oh!

For example, you could cut yourself on a piece of paper.

I don't think so, Chris.

Or you could end up covering yourself in glue.

Doesn't seem very likely.

Anyway, I'm finished.

So am I!

HE IMITATES PLANE MOTOR

Or, finally, I guess you could make something

so bad that your twin brother ends up laughing at you.

Ha!

I'm going to tell the teacher!

Ah!

Oh!

My head!

Uh-oh! Looks like an injury alert.

-So what's the answer?

-C.

-Why?

Cos you need to put pressure so it stops bleeding.

Yes, Issa is absolutely right.

Now check this out.

So, I'm just... What it is going on up on top of that building?

That's really weird.

Oh, Xand! You've cut your head!

Aargh!

So you know what we'll do now, we'll get a cloth.

If you don't have a tea towel, get a shirt. You could

tear off a bit of shirt and press hard on the area that's bleeding.

And then it stops bleeding, and you get an adult.

Aargh!

I'm trying to press hard with just my thumb on the one spot

where he's bleeding. OK. So, do you guys want to have a go?

KIDS: Yes!

Ah! I'm hurt.

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

but it's always best to find an adult.

Quick, quick, quick!

-Put pressure.

-That was very quick acting. That was great.

I'd get my thumb in the tea towel and I press quite hard like,

like that.

Do you think it's likely she might be feeling a bit faint?

-Yes.

-Yeah. So what should we do if she's feeling a bit faint?

Sit her down.

-Do you want to sit down?

-Yeah. Ow! Ow! It hurts! Ow!

What are we going to do now?

Call and ambulance.

No, ask for help.

I think ask for help. Ask for an adult.

'So that's it.

'If you have a bleeding gash on your head, use a piece of cloth or

'your shirt to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.

'Sit the patient down if they're feeling faint and tell and adult.'

I'm sorry I laughed at your spaceship, Xand.

That's OK. You're forgiven.

Good. Well, in that case, I'll tidy up.

Are you sure I'm forgiven?

Yes. Totally!

Xand. What are you up to?

I'm a bit busy at the moment, Chris.

What you busy with?

I'm trying to do 3D printing!

Xand, that's not how 3D printing works.

Well, how does it work if you're so clever, Mr Smarty-pants!

Time for Investigation Ouch!

Do this.

Feel your own head.

It's the easiest way of getting a sense of what your skull is like.

But wouldn't it be better if you could actually see it?

Well, today, I'm going to do just that.

I'm about to come face-to-face with my own skull!

First stop, an MRI scanner.

It takes pictures of your body including your tissue,

blood vessels, organs...

And mostly important today - my bones.

The MRI takes thousands of images.

It's almost like slicing the skull and taking a picture of each slice.

On here, I've got loads of pictures of my head.

And we're going to do something that

until recently would have seemed like science fiction.

That's right, I'm going to print my skull!

This is a 3D printer.

It's not like a normal printer with ink and paper.

This prints things you can pick up and use.

But one of the most amazing things it can do is print replacement

body parts. And to prove it, I'm going to print

an exact copy of my skull.

My MRI scan images are sent to this printer, which then prints

each slice of my skull as a thin layer of blue glue in this

bed of powder until the complete skull is created.

In charge of 3D printing at Nottingham University

is Dr Glen Kirkham.

So that's your skull.

'Now they've printed the skull in blue, just for me.'

It's very, very creepy actually.

If I do that, it's exactly like scratching my own head!

He may not look a lot like me,

but, in fact, the shape of your skull enormously influences

the way you look because no two skulls are alike.

Your skull is the only one of its kind in the world.

And did you know you have a hole in the back of your head as well?

-That?

-Yeah.

Is that just a glitch with the printer?

No. You have a little hole in the back of your head.

What's a bit odd is I can feel it with this finger

on the printed skull and then I can feel exactly the same

little hole with this finger on my real skull.

That's not right!

But 3D printing isn't just fun, it's got a real medical use.

Scientists are now 3D printing more complex bits of the body.

Even something that seems simple - like your nose has a bony bit

at the top and then soft tissue at the bottom -

and the latest 3D printers can do both.

Meet the mind-blowing, megatastic master of 3D printing.

What makes this incredible piece of technology different to the

one that printed my skull is that it not only prints hard bones

using a special plastic and powder, it also prints soft tissue using

a gel filled with live cells which could become real working organs.

But to do that, the printer needs to know which order to put

the cells in.

So, if you want to print a heart, then you need to get the billions

of cells in your body into the right order to make a heart.

And if you want to make a kidney, then all the cells need to be

put in a different order.

The way scientists do this is

by moving the cells on a computer tablet.

This is our digital tweezer system.

So this lets us grab individual cells

and move them around wherever we want them to go.

So, unbelievably, my finger is moving cells that are under a

microscope in another building.

That is awesome.

The possibilities with 3D printing are limitless.

Even within your lifetime, it might be possible that

if you damage a bit of your body, we could simply print you another one.

Isn't that amazing?

'I think I'd look better in green though, Chris.'

In the UK, over five million people have to visit the emergency

department every year.

And our next patient is one of them.

In Manchester, four-year-old Benji has arrived with a cut on his eye.

Oh! How did he do that?

I was being a pterodactyl and stuff.

A pterodactyl?

A dinosaur, Xand.

-BOTH:

-We've got to see this.

One day at school, Benji and his chums were playing at being

dinosaurs.

Jurassic-tastic!

Uh, there weren't cavemen in dinosaur times.

It's just pretend, Xand.

Shannon was a triceratops, Christian was a sauropod

and Benji was a pterodactyl.

What's that, they're on, Chris?

-Stilts.

-Dinosaurs on stilts?

Well, this is fun.

Hang on a minute though, Xand. On Benji's next step,

one of the stilts flew off his foot and into his face, cutting his eye.

-BOTH:

-Ouch!

It was bleeding.

Now it's not bleeding any more.

-Great.

-Here comes...

DINOSAUR GROWLS A dinosaur?

No, Xand, it's Dr Adam Whitehead.

First, he makes sure there's no damage anywhere else.

Nothing wrong there. Now for the cut.

Oh, yeah! OK. We've got a little bit of a hole here, haven't we?

He's given himself a big bruise, a big shiner above his eye,

and there's a little cut in it.

Sometimes a cut needs to be stitched up, but in this case...

I think I've got some good news for you.

It doesn't look deep enough for us to need to put stitches in.

What we might be able to do is glue you back together.

Special medical glue is good for fixing wounds.

It's just like superglue but for humans.

But will it work on a dinosaur, though?

It's very sticky and very strong.

I think that's sorted, isn't it?

All fixed, Mum.

Super star!

The good news is you don't need to wash your face for five days.

Well, that doesn't impress Benji.

That swelling will go down over the next couple of weeks

and it will disappear.

Nor does that!

Now I can be a dinosaur again.

That's more like it.

Raaah!

Oh! Scary!

I think he's the first probably real life pterodactyl I've ever treated.

LOUD STOMPING

Gosh, maybe he really is a dinosaur.

DINOSAUR GROWL

-BOTH:

-Bye!

Next time on Operation Ouch...

'Chris spends a penny in the lab!'

And you can't see his bladder any more at all.

Completely empty.

'We've got more first aid tips.'

Uh-oh! Xand's gone pale and unresponsive.

'And Chris has a rather unusual hospital appointment.'

It's like being inspected by a really nosey robot.

So we'll see you next time for more...

-BOTH:

-Operation Ouch.

Would the... Wha... Sorry.

We're going to compare Chris' papillae with the samples.

But first I need to cover

both your ties in blue food dye.

Both you ties?

That's the wrong... That's not the right word!