Episode 5 Operation Ouch!

I'm Dr Chris.

And I'm Dr Xand.

-We're identical twins.

-Twins.

Do you know, your body does loads of amazing things every day

without you even realising it?

Now, come and have a look at this.

Well, get ready to be wowed.

Smell my armpits.

We've got gobsmacking experiments...

Wow!

-HE CHUCKLES ..mind-bending body tricks...

-Ah!

..and real medical mysteries.

Pushed a Tic Tac up my nose.

So, are you ready to see what you're made of?

Coming up today on Operation...

Ouch!

We try to solve one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

Why does the skin on our fingers and toes go wrinkly in the bath?

Xand is on call with the rapid response unit...

Alan's heart rate's very slow and that's why he's collapsed.

..and Chris explores the world of medical research.

Here, we are looking right into Luke's heart.

But first...

In the emergency department,

the medical team are ready for their first patient.

Well, let's go meet him.

All right. Here he comes.

Nine-year-old Ethan is in accident and emergency with his dad

and step-mum.

So what's with the sunglasses?

Last night, I felt really dizzy.

Then this morning, I went to go give my mum a hug, and I just fell down.

Oh, so are the sunglasses helping with his head?

Well, Chris, I'm glad you asked, cos I've been working

really hard on this one.

Ethan had a severe headache which lasted all night

He woke up in the morning and still didn't feel right.

Wait, is this a poem?

Yes, it is.

Everything Ethan looked at seemed far too bright

So he put on some sunglasses to block out the light...

Ah, so that explains the shades.

He fell over when he tried to stand upright

He was very wobbly and it gave him a fright.

-Yikes.

-So what next?

He's left his mum's, and he's off to his dad's.

Yes, but Ethan couldn't step up to his dad's front door

His head was hurting more and more.

Very good, Xand, but ouch!

Here to find the culprit causing Ethan's mystery headaches

is top doctor Reddy Ilavala.

So, Ethan, how are you feeling now?

-Now, I feel all right.

-All right, yeah.

-But when I were walking earlier...

-Yes.

..I had a really bad headache.

So the headache, you know, if it comes, how long it lasts for?

Well, the last time I had a headache lasted for like two weeks.

There could be many offenders causing Ethan's head to hurt.

It could be a viral infection, sinusitis or dehydration.

But other symptoms, such as sensitivity to light, can mean

something more serious.

So Dr Reddy needs to do some tests to rule this out.

Ah, that's what you look like, Ethan.

First he takes a look at the back of Ethan's eyes.

If there's any raised pressure in his brain, this area could

become enlarged.

My dad is sticking his tongue out.

With the back of Ethan's eyes looking fine, Dr Reddy checks

they're working normally.

N, T, O.

With no obvious problems, further investigation will be required.

We'll have to keep him in hospital and do further tests

and exactly find out what is it.

We'll be back later to see if the doctors can unravel

the riddle of Ethan's mystery headaches.

Ready to see some amazing experiments?

Yes. A triumph.

We're going to show you how your incredible body works.

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

Today we're looking at a big skin mystery.

You OK, Chris?

Yes, I'm just helping my body to get rid of a few thousand dead

-skin cells.

-Er, OK.

As I scratch my skin, the top layer is flaking off into the air.

Yes, I can see that, Chris, but why?

Your body already does that all by itself,

to make way for new skin cells.

In fact, as it grows, skin sheds

50,000 dead cells every single minute,

totally replenishing itself every four weeks.

Yes, I know, Xand. I know all your skin facts.

I told you most of them.

OK, well, why are you flaking off your skin, then?

Because, Xand, I am trying to solve once and for all a question

that has puzzled humankind throughout the ages.

Since ancient times, we have searched, nay, quested...

Yes, that's right, Chris.

Throughout history, legions of scientists have been

desperate to answer this one burning question.

What is the question?

Yes, I have always wondered about that.

Exactly. The answer just has to be out there somewhere.

Well, I have heard tell of a new scientific theory in which

you may be interested.

This, Chris, could hold the key that unlocks the riddle.

Really?

And it's all to do with this.

-Now, take hold of that.

-Ugh.

There has been a big new research study into this skin mystery

and their results suggested that our fingers

and toes get wrinkly to help you grip wet things.

Like the grooves on this tyre,

the wrinkles in wet skin create little channels for the water

to escape, giving you more grip on a wet surface.

Well, I don't believe it.

I didn't say, "Put the tyre down." I think the only thing for us

to do is put it to the test like proper scientists.

-Can I put it down now?

-No.

HE GROANS Ah, there we go.

Xand, what are you doing?

Oh, I'm getting ready to test

the "why do our fingers go wrinkly in the bath?" theory, obviously.

Right, we don't actually need to have a bath to do that, though.

If you bothered to read this research carefully,

then you'd see we simply need to replicate the real

experiment that the other scientists use here, right?

Obviously.

I'm not convinced myself, but let's put this wrinkly finger

theory to the test.

Are you ready, Xand?

-I'm ready.

-Go.

Using just our thumbs and forefingers, we're moving

wet objects from one bowl to another through the screen.

First we're timing how long it takes us with smooth, non-wrinkly fingers.

I know it's not a race, but I really want to beat you, Chris.

-Yes!

-No.

So my time for smooth, non-wrinkly fingers was 32 seconds.

And mine was 35 seconds.

Now, we'll repeat exactly the same experiment but with wrinkly fingers.

So we need to soak them like when you've had a bath.

I'm thinking I might just use a bowl of warm water

to pop our fingers in.

Now, Xand. Xand? Xand! What are you doing?

I'm having a bath.

You said we needed our fingers to be wrinkly, like in the bath.

Right, but we only need to soak our hands in a bowl of warm water,

not our whole bodies.

Well, now that I'm in, it seems like a shame not to have a soak.

So our hands are having some quality warm-water time, ensuring our

fingers are really wrinkly for the next part of the experiment.

After ten minutes, things are looking super-shrivelled.

Let's put those pinkies through their paces.

Three, two, one. Go.

If the new theory is right, our wrinkly fingers will be

better at gripping, and so will do the experiment quicker than before.

-Done!

-Yes! Oh!

Well, Xand, it may have been a dead heat,

but how did our non-wrinkly fingers compare to our wrinkly fingers?

Well, I can reveal that we both had the same wrinkly finger time,

which was 41 seconds - slower than before.

Which means the answer to the mystery of why your fingers

go wrinkly in the bath is... still a mystery.

And talking of baths, I think

my fingers need just a little more bath time.

Chris!

It's not just emergency teams in hospitals that are ready to

-help you.

-I know.

There are medical crews all over the country on standby, 24/7.

We're on call with the West Midlands Ambulance Service, showing

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

On call with me is paramedic Jan Vann.

This is a rapid response car and it's one of a fleet

of vehicles that respond to up to 3,000 emergency calls every day.

Time to find out what it's like to be

first on the scene of a medical emergency.

And a new case is just in.

All the information we've got at the moment is that somebody has

fainted, so that could be an infection, it could be heart,

it could be brain, it could be loads of different things.

We don't know their age, if they're a man or a woman.

We just have to get there as quickly as possible, to see

if we can sort them out.

Within minutes, we arrive at our destination.

-Hello, sir.

-Hi, there.

Do you remember what happened this morning?

I just went dizzy. I don't remember anything else.

82-year-old Alan was walking home from the shops

when two workmen saw him fall over in the street.

But we were just there working here and my mate said,

-"He's hit the floor." He hit his head there.

-OK, OK.

So, it's actually quite a cold morning

and he's lucky that these builders saw him fall down,

because if he'd knocked his head and been unconscious for a long

time, he could have got very cold, and you end up with many problems.

A head injury, hypothermia

and whatever led to the fall in the first place.

-Any heart problems?

-No.

Your heartbeat's going a bit slower than it should be,

so I'm going to do a quick heart tracing.

So what Jan's doing now is taking a tracing of his heart,

and the reason for that is we don't know why he's fallen -

but if it's his heart that's made him fall,

before we move him we need to make sure he's OK.

Now, I'm going to give you a drug to speed your heart up, OK?

Jan's found Alan's heart rate's very slow

and that's why he's collapsed.

It's really good that Jan's been able to figure out the problem

and we know that he needs an ambulance and to get to hospital.

While Jan administers a drug called atropine to speed up Alan's heart,

the ambulance arrives.

Alan's slow heart rate is a real concern and Jan has to

administer more medication on the way to the hospital.

OK, sweetheart. This drug's going in now.

So Jan's giving Alan a third dose of atropine to try and

get his heart rate up.

It's really important that your heart keeps beating strong

and it keeps beating quickly enough to get blood around your body

and particularly to your brain.

What's amazing about Jan is all the things she's done for Alan -

ECG, blood glucose, she's talking to him the whole time -

she's doing while we're moving along about 30 or 40mph.

Fortunately, we arrive at the hospital quickly, because Alan

takes another turn for the worse as he's wheeled in.

That was a bit hair-raising. My biggest concern happened.

His heart stopped, er, for about a minute

but it's restarted again now and he's talking again.

Alan actually got a lot more sick as we got to hospital.

He's feeling much better now, but it's so good that he's here

so quickly and that's all thanks to Jan being on the scene quickly

and the really, really good, quick drive here.

He's in the right place and things are looking good for Alan.

During a short stay in hospital, Alan had a pacemaker fitted

and he's now happily back at home.

Still to come...

Keep an eye out for today's Mindbenders.

What is this? You know I can't stand wearing blue.

Our mobile clinic is open for business.

Can I have the next patient, please?

And Chris discovers why Luke is working out like this.

Are you sweating yet?

Earlier, Ethan came into accident and emergency

with mystery headaches.

Let's see what the doctors do next.

Back in Sheffield, nine-year-old Ethan is in hospital suffering

from severe headaches.

He was having to wear sunglasses as the light made his head hurt.

It got so bad he wasn't even able to walk properly.

Earlier, Dr Reddy carried out a series of checks on Ethan to

find out the cause of his headaches, but so far they haven't found

anything unusual.

With the culprit for the headache still at large, Ethan is sent

for a CT scan to rule out anything more serious.

A CT scan is a special kind of X-ray.

It gives clearer and more detailed pictures of the inside of

your body than a normal X-ray.

CT images of Ethan's head will give the doctors vital information

about his brain, soft tissue and blood vessels around it,

to make sure that everything is working properly.

This is the kind of the base of the skull and then follow this,

his brain in the middle.

Do you know what it felt like?

What did it feel like?

It felt like a freezing cold spaceship.

Well, if you're going to go into space, why not go in your onesie?

Dr Reddy takes a look at Ethan's scan.

I'm just looking for if there's any bleed, you know, or a tumour,

just to rule out those things, really.

For my eyes, it looks OK to me.

So the doctors have ruled out anything serious going on

inside Ethan's head.

And it's time to deliver the good news to our patient.

Well, the scan is all right, yeah, I think.

He's been reported as normal.

As an emergency department, we just wanted to rule out the basic,

you know, worst scenarios

and then I'll write a letter for the GP to follow him up.

With Ethan feeling better, he's off home.

Since Ethan left hospital, he hasn't had any more headaches

and all is well.

Now we're going to mess with your mind...

-It's weird.

-..scramble your senses

and baffle your brain.

Today's mind-bending trick is one for your eyes

but to do it, Xand and I need to change colour.

Ooh. I don't remember saying you could do this!

You know I only ever wear green.

All right, calm down, it won't last forever.

Three groups of children at this school are here to play one

-of our mind-bending tricks.

-We're going to show you this picture

and we're going to make you look at it very hard

and then we're going to switch it to a black-and-white picture.

-Are there any colours in this picture?

-No.

In order for it to work, you have to keep looking at that dot

and even when the picture changes, and you'll want to look at

the rest of the picture, you still have to keep looking at the dot.

-Does that make sense?

-Yes.

You can play at home too. Are you ready?

Just remember, keep your eyes fixed on the dot in the middle of

the picture.

And don't move your eyes when the picture changes.

Keep focused on that dot.

Keep looking.

Ready for the change? Don't move your eyes.

Do you see this photo in colour?

Now move your eyes.

Do you see it's actually in black and white?

Whoa!

THEY CHATTER OVER EACH OTHER

How did this lot get on?

-I saw blue.

-I saw blue and green.

You saw us in colour, basically. Yes.

And all the group saw it.

So, just to be clear, guys, at no stage

is that black-and-white picture ever colour. There's no colour.

It just goes from weird orange to black and white.

So why do you think we had to show you weird colours?

-Because they were negative, like.

-What do you mean by negative?

Like the opposite colour.

Omar's got the right idea.

First we showed the negative image, which has

the opposite colours of all those in the original.

As you can see, on the colour wheel, the opposite to blue and green

is orange and red.

So our blue and green tops have become orangey red.

So why did we then see colour on the black-and-white picture when

there is none?

At the back of your eyes, you have cells called photoreceptors

and they detect light.

And you have different photoreceptors for different

colours. But when you've been looking at one colour

for a long time,

the photoreceptors that deal with that colour get tired

and switch off a bit.

So when you're looking at our image, the photoreceptors in the back

of your eye that deal with orange and red get tired and

they take a little break.

When it flips to black and white, your brain isn't getting

signals from the orange and red ones any more, so your blue and

green receptors step in to provide the missing colour.

Chris, I'm glad you put me back to my normal colour,

but wait a minute...

Aargh! You've done it again. I mean, what is this?

You know I can't stand wearing blue.

I'm going to go and get my bottle of green clothes dye

and I'm going to fix this once and for all.

Honestly, it was just an absolutely disgrace.

That's over ten million times a year. Wow!

We're at a theme park to solve your medical mysteries.

Xand is preparing the Ouchmobile for his first patient.

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

Wow, I'm impressed.

At the clinic, Xand is open for business.

Can I have the next patient, please?

Aye-aye, it's double trouble -

siblings 11-year old Harry and eight-year old Maya.

So, Harry, Maya, why have you come to the Ouchmobile?

I've come because I've got a squint in my right eye.

And I've got a squint in my eye.

What's the diagnosis, Doc?

Sounds like a case of...

I agree.

Can you open the eyelid, and we'll see if we can see it?

It's quite hard to see but it is visible.

Maya's right eye is wandering off a little bit when she looks up.

It's not quite pointing in the same direction as her left eye.

Now, Harry, can you make it happen?

Oh, yeah, look at that.

What kind of things have you done for the squint?

I've had to do these eye exercises.

I've had to have patch therapy,

which is putting a patch over my eye.

That's been quite annoying.

Do you guys have any questions for me?

What's actually happening inside your eye?

The problem is that one eye isn't working as well as the other eye,

and that means the brain decides to ignore the image from one eye

and concentrate on the good eye, at which point it stops

controlling the muscles around your eye and it begins to wander off.

Well, thank you very much for bringing your amazing

-eyes to the Ouchmobile.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Away from the clinic, Chris is "ouch" and about answering your

burning questions.

Why do you get shorter during the day?

What, do you mean you're tallest when you wake and up

-and then as you walk around all day you get shorter?

-Yes.

That is a really good question.

Because between each one of your vertebrae, which is the bones in

your spine, you've got a jelly-like disc and over the course of the

day, that gets squeezed and it gets shorter and shorter and shorter.

Why did you care about whether or not you were

shrinking at a theme park?

Because of the height restrictions.

-Oh, so you can go on the rides.

-Yes.

Can I have the next patient, please?

Back at the Ouchmobile are brothers

ten-year-old William and eight-year old Callum.

So, William, Callum, why have you come to the ouchmobile?

-BOTH:

-Because we've got bendy fingers

and we can stick our shoulder blade out.

What's the diagnosis, Doc?

Sounds like a case of...

Easy for you to say(!)

So, William, can you open up the eyelid on the Ouchcam?

OK, now let's have a look.

So that's amazing.

Both Callum and William have got what we'd call hyper-mobile joints,

meaning they've got a bigger range of motion than most other people do.

So, William, can we have a look at your shoulder blades?

Oh, wow. So, put it back.

And then pop them out again.

-So can you do the same thing, Callum?

-Yes.

Have you got any questions about that for me?

Why can we do it?

The reason that you can do it is probably

because you've got very stretchy collagen

and collagen is the molecule that holds your whole body together.

It's your body's equivalent, really, of elastic bands.

So some people are held together by,

if you like, very strong elastic bands.

And then you guys are held together by much more stretchy

-elastic bands. Does that make sense?

-Mm-hm.

-Yeah.

William, Callum, thanks very much

for bringing your amazing bodies to the Ouchmobile.

-It was great, thanks.

-Thank you.

Job done for today. Clinic closed.

Your body is amazing but sometimes it needs fixing.

All over the UK, there are special teams of professionals

trained to tackle medical mysteries.

The heart is the most important muscle in the body.

Between beats it relaxes and fills with blood,

like I've filled this tennis ball with water.

And then, when it contracts, it squeezes the blood out of it,

forcing blood around your body.

Now just like squeezing the tennis ball,

your heart pumping is hard work and so, to do exercise

without getting out of breath, your heart has to do be really strong.

But not everyone has a tiptop heart.

Every year, around 4,600 babies are born with a heart defect.

This is 14-year-old Luke.

He's one of those who's had heart problems since birth.

So, Luke, tell me about the issues you've had with your heart.

Well, Chris, I had four things wrong with my heart

and one of those was a hole in my heart.

When your heart is working normally, it's incredibly powerful.

Blood flows through its four chambers and is then pumped

to every part of your body.

But when you have a hole in the heart, there's a little

opening between two of the chambers.

This means blood doesn't flow as well as it should and so less

oxygen gets pumped around the body.

What was the effect it had on your life?

I was lacking in energy.

Whilst I grew up, my friends got faster and stronger.

I was staying the same, possibly getting weaker.

Two years ago, Luke had major heart surgery which allowed him to

do more exercise.

It made me fitter and stronger so I've been able to get out there,

do more things and just enjoying myself.

And now Luke is helping others by participating in research

into how much exercise is safe for children with heart conditions.

Dr Guido Pieles is running the research at Bristol University.

Today, Luke is going to do some exercise under the close

supervision of Dr Guido and his colleague Craig.

This is the first time children's hearts have been monitored

like this while they're exercising.

Here we're looking right into Luke's heart and then

we see Luke's heart muscle because, after all, the heart is a muscle.

-OK.

-And we can see this muscle contracting, relaxing

at around 80 beats per minute.

Luke also wears a mask so Dr Guido and his team can measure

the amount of oxygen he uses.

-Feeling comfortable?

-Yes.

-Good.

OK, so we've got a heart scanner, so we can take pictures of the heart,

we've got the electrical trace of the heart,

so we can look at the rhythm

and then we've got the oxygen mask on, so we can see how fit Luke is.

-Are you sweating yet?

-A little bit.

Faint drops of sweat.

So your heart rate's now up at 115, so it's gone up quite a bit.

Monitoring Luke's heart allows Dr Guido to see how well it's

coping whilst exercising.

There we've got Luke's heart again

and we can see that Luke's heart is contracting faster.

Working much harder but it's working well.

As you can see, the ultrasound image on the left shows Luke's heart

beating faster when he's exercising compared to the one on

the right, when he wasn't.

And would you say he's safe to continue doing

the kind of exercise he loves to do?

Yes, because, after all, exercise is good for our heart.

It keeps us healthy and makes us lives longer.

If you have a heart condition, always check with your doctor

before exercising.

Although Dr Guido's research is only in its early stages,

he's hoping to come up with some recommendations which will

allow children with heart conditions to exercise safely, like Luke.

Our next patient's day was turned upside down by a bizarre accident.

-Better.

-Let's go meet her.

We're at Liverpool's accident and emergency,

where 12-year-old Carmen has a jaw that's giving her gyp.

What's the problem, Carmen?

I dislocated my jaw while eating.

Oh, yeah, it IS looking a bit wonky. How did you do that?

It was lunchtime at school and Carmen was with her friends

-in the canteen.

-Gosh, there's a long queue, Chris.

I know, Xand, but don't worry, it's moving quickly.

Phew. But what was she getting for lunch, a triple-decker BLT?

Nope.

A jumbo pineapple?

No, Xand, a bread roll.

With a burger in it?

-No, Xand, just a big, white, crusty bread roll.

-Oh.

And when Carmen bit into it, she dislocated her jaw.

Ouch!

Are you sure there was nothing in that bread roll?

It had butter on it.

Hm. I don't think we can blame the butter.

Best get Dr Shrouk Messahel to have a look.

-Can you open your mouth at all?

-Not really.

-No?

-Oh, dear.

-That's about as much as you can do?

-Yeah.

I'm just going to have a little look in.

It's clear that her jaw is dislocated, it's out of place,

and what I need to do is relocate her jaw.

I need to put it back into place.

Inside your head are 22 bones,

-which make up the skull.

-And two of them are in your jaw.

There's the mandible, which is the largest and strongest bone in

-your face.

-And the maxilla.

They're linked together by a hinge which allows you to open

-and close your mouth.

-And Carmen's hinge has become unhinged.

Dr Shrouk needs to get to get to grips with that sore jaw.

I'm going to have to get on top of her, almost,

and push really hard down and back.

This may look uncomfortable but Carmen's had painkillers,

so it won't hurt.

-Good girl. Good girl.

-Really well.

-Try not to bite me.

Yeah, Carmen. She's not a bread roll.

-Well done.

-Does that work, Doc?

Good girl. Bite.

-How's that? Better?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Yay! That's what she usually looks like.

How do you feel, Carmen?

I feel sick after that, cos she was, like, pushing

and it felt like it was going to crack the other way.

And a quick X-ray shows that Carmen's jaw is A-OK.

What we're going to do now is we're going to let you go home.

So no big burgers or bread rolls or anything like that.

Nothing hard, nothing that you need to really, you know,

use your jaw for.

What are you going to eat now, Carmen?

I don't know. Bread rolls are, like, the only nice thing.

Hasn't that bread roll taught you anything?

-Bye.

-Bye.

Next time...

we show you how your kidneys work.

Scalpel, please.

Xand gets new specs in Mindbenders.

And there's a new patient in A&E.

I've got a stone in my ear.

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

Operation Ouch!

My sister, she goes, "Ah-ahem! Dr Xand."

XAND LAUGHS

That's one of my favourite bits. And the other day someone in the crew

was literally saying, "Oh, I need a doctor," and I went, "Ah-ahem."

And they'd completely forgotten.