31/10/2011 Inside Out East Midlands

Tonight, Inside Out goes behind the scenes at the regions' heart unit.

We meet the staff changing lives and the parents under pressure.

this hospital isn't able to support her and we have to go to

Newcastle... There is not going to be enough time to get her there.

Also tonight, remembering a day out with a difference. It was the Alton

For parents with children born with heart problems, life becomes an

emotional rollercoaster few of us appreciate and hopefully most of us

will never experience. Now many fear a shake-up of the country's

specialist surgical centres will put the lives of the most

vulnerable patients at risk. The East Midlands Congenital Heart

Centre here at Glenfield is one of those centres. For one day, they

allowed our cameras into their intensive care and theatre to see

what impact those changes could have. As I found out, it's not just

One in every 133 children in Britain is born with a heart

condition. For some it's life threatening. And the early care

they receive is critical. Everything is indexed... We never

know when we are going to have an emergency. So every day is

different. Others may need treatment for the rest of their

life. But in the future, it might not be so close to home. If you

haven't got that continuity of care, it in itself could rip the family

to pieces. As the Government reviews child heart surgery in

England, it's now the survival of the fittest for all ten specialist

centres. Without cardiac surgery here, this intensive care unit

would close. For parents with critically ill children, emotions

are high as a decision draws closer. If this hospital isn't able to

support her, and we have to go to Newcastle or somewhere like that,

she'd... There is not going to be enough time to get her there.

if childrens' heart surgery stops here, one of the biggest weapons in

the fight against a deadly virus moves, too. And that could affect

us all. Any dramatic change in moving ECMO around is likely to

have unforeseen consequences. you see on for scene, do you mean

It's the end of a long night shift and the start of a new day at the

East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre at Glenfield in Leicester.

On intensive care, it is a usual day. It is fairly busy. We cater

for children, zero-18 years of age that have got congenital cardiac

abnormalities. We have eight physical bed spaces and nursing

staff for seven of those beds. It is a one-to-one nursing ratios so

it requires at least seven nurses to staff one-bed in a 24 hour

period. She has been spiking temperatures. She has got a probe

underneath her right arm. In a side room, two-year-old Anna Wright from

Whetstone in Leicestershire is waiting to join the ward. She has a

tracheostomy. That was put in because of the pulmonary arteries

crushing her air waves. There is the extra risk of bleeding as you

go into the chest. And there are some congenital syndromes

associated with this which make the use of blood product slightly more

complicated. Everything adds a level of difficulty as you go down

the list. It is a very nervous day for us, obviously. But she is in

good hands and we hope they will be Every year, around 5,000 babies are

born with heart defects and thanks to the biggest baby boom in two

decades, that number is on the rise. The plan today is to try to

complete this compares it -- this operation which may mean putting in

a craft -- a graft. At Glenfield in Leicester, surgeon Giles Peek and

his colleagues will do around 300 operations a year. We are seeing

more and more children with more and more challenging disease. And I

think as our ability increases and as the technology improves,

children crew, maybe 10 years ago, would not have had any attempt at

an operation are now managing to be treated. So it gets more and more

complicated. Anna is on her way to theatre. For her parents, it's the

end of weeks of waiting and the start of a whole load of new

worries. How long will this operation take? Most of the day. So,

it is... What time is it? It is 10:40am. Hopefully, we will be out

by tea time. In the future, children like Anna may have to

travel further afield for their ongoing care. Experts want fewer

centres with more surgeons spreading their workload and

experience of complex surgery to improve care in years to come.

Glenfield might not be one of them. We are all committed to the idea

that we want to do the best job we can and we want to work in teams

that are strong enough to be safe and sustainable. So, yes, the

review is a good thing. But, obviously, it is very worrying

because we know what a great job we Glenfield's central location and

easy access have helped secure its position as the preferred choice in

the current review. Unlike many other centres, is also has

overnight accommodation for parents. But there are three other options

and Glenfield doesn't feature in any of them. It's by no means a

done deal and senior staff are We are one of the smaller units and

we are not a dedicated children's hospital. There has been a lot of

emphasis on a dedicated children's hospital. However, we have

something additional to offer. We have all the services for their

patients -- we have all the services for patients. Without

cardiac surgery, this intensive care unit would close. The reality

is the majority of them would go to Birmingham children's hospital. And

for the adults, the future is more uncertain. Expertise will be lost,

that is my worry. The speciality and for children that have

congenital heart disease. It will take time to train a new people.

People with years of expertise will move into other areas. If we drop

her blood pressure significantly, you will be afflicting seed flow. -

- affecting the flow. Paediatric consultant Suhair Shebani fears the

patients she's seeing on her ward round today won't get the best if

they have further to travel. will be completely fragmented.

Something taking five days would take a month to be sorted and the

patient will go to the back Q. We have surgeons on side. It will

never be the same for the patients and this is the Boric. You are from

Leicester. Is it important for you to have the unit so close by?

Otherwise we would have to travel out of the city for appointments

and everything like that, so it is good that it is so near. We are

from Nottingham so it is about 30- 40 minutes to drive. If it was to

move, our closest would be Birmingham or London summit would

be a trick. Where are you from? Uppingham. It is just down the road.

Does it matter where the centre is as long as they are providing the

best care? The Midlands has a population of 11 million. That

requires more than one centre. There is 9 million population in

London and it has been -- it has been decided they need two centres.

We need Birmingham Children's Hospital and we need this centre as

well. Albert Tansey has just turned two. Born with an extremely rare

heart condition, every day is precious. His condition's

hyperplasic left heart syndrome. It's known as half a heart. One of

his pumping chambers is useless. It is there in some very small shape,

but it cannot do the job it is meant to do. So you learn this is

one of a number of conditions, but it is probably at the end of the

scale of how bad it can get. From meningitis, to thinking we are

wasting for an -- wasting their time, to heart failure, that is

heartbreaking. We went through some intensive care and the only way was

to go through some dangerous surgery. The Tansey family live

mid-way between Leicester and Birmingham, at Burbage. Albert was

taken to Glenfield. We live relatively close to Birmingham, but

the difference between knowing Birmingham and Glenfield, it is

worlds apart. You can be there, you can park, you can go off on to the

road networks, wherever you need to go, so that family and friends,

whoever, they can come in from all areas of the country to visit and

there will always be a car park space. Back at Glenfield, the

waiting game continues for Matthew and Sally Wright. It has been a

long day. We have done quite a few laps of the hospital, round and

round. Lots of sitting about and waiting. Lots of clock-watching.

So many people for one very small girl. The quality we have got here,

which is true in all the units, probably, is not down to me but how

we worked together as a team. That takes years and years to build up.

But only a few seconds to destroy. Beautiful eyelashes. I can't wait

to see what she looks like because it is hard to tell. Three-year-old

to paediatric intensive care was only 50 miles. But that was almost

too far. They didn't think she was going to be around very long. And a

three-way conversation between Chesterfield, Leeds and Leicester

meant that they thought she was a definite candidate for ECMO. If

they didn't get her to Leicester in time, she was going to die. Georgia

needed ECMO, a specialised life support to rest her heart and lungs.

Doesn't matter how far you have to travel, but when you're putting

your daughter's life in jeopardy, then, yes, it does matter. I have

seen Georgette in this sort of scenario before. And this time has

been the worst. And if it wasn't for ECMO, she would not be here now.

It has saved her life. Glenfield is the only place in the country that

can also treat adults on ECMO, like Gus from Luton. When I met him,

he'd already been on ECMO longer than any other patient in the UK as

doctors tried to find out why his lungs had failed. You have been in

hospital now for three months? How is it going? It's all right.

it hard being in hospital so long? Yes. How do you feel about being

attached to this ECMO machine? get frustrated at times. But I am

all right with it. I had never heard of Glenfield Hospital before

and ECMO, never heard of it before. Not until the night when the doctor

came to pick him up. That is when the doctor explained to me what

they were going to do. That is the first time I heard of ECMO. And

Glenfield is a world leader in ECMO treatment. It's also the NHS's main

provider. Not so long ago, nearly every bed was full. It was a major

issue with swine flu, because of the age of patients that were

affected. This swine flu epidemic was quite different to previous

H1N1s in that, it wasn't the older population and the very young who

wear primarily severely affected. What would have happened to those

patients, if they hadn't been able to have ECMO? Well, many of them

would have died. Richard Furman brought ECMO to this country more

than 20 years ago. He and his team at Glenfield coordinated the

treatment of swine flu patients up and down the country. We ended up

receiving between 20-30 referrals a day, which we triaged between the

various hospitals that were doing ECMO for swine flu. So we had one

nurse-coordinator, basically acting like a Bangalore call centre, and

just triaging all these patients. If children's heart surgery stops

at Glenfield, under the current plans, ECMO would move to another

centre. The country's leading swine flu expert says it's a risk we

can't afford to take. 20 years experience in anything is good. 20

years experience in something like intensive care, in ECMO, it must be

at the top of the pyramid. So, one would not want to, unless there was

an amazing reason, for it, one would not want to tinker with that

pedipyramid, with that structure. That has been so carefully built up

over the years. So, tinkering with it, messing it around, I am sure

could lead to things we wouldn't want to see. My son is number one.

And I'm going to be with my son as long as he needs me. So I don't

know what's going to happen after that. Gus's mum stayed by her son's

After seven hours in theatre, Anna Wright is on her way back to

intensive care. How did it go? it went very well. The approach,

using the incision across the chest, was good because it helped the

tracheostomy, and down, we managed to get in, without making a hole in

the heart, which is always good, and we did exactly what we hope to

do. The next few days will be quite crucial. She has got a long road

ahead of her, really. And hopefully, once she gets the drains out and

things, she will move on to the ward, and, all systems go,

hopefully. At the end of a long day, the nightshift begins. Some

patients that have had operations yesterday may well go back to the

ward tomorrow. We are also planning for a patient that has been here

for quite some days to go back to another hospital tomorrow. And the

others, as they get better and no longer require intensive care, will

hopefully move on to the ward, and hopefully home. Three weeks later,

Anna was back at home in Georgia was transferred to

Sheffield the next day. A decision on the future of the country's

child heart centres is due, soon. Staff and parents just hope their

views will be heard. What I hope, and what I believe will happen, is

that we will stay as a congenital heart centre. We will build on our

strengths, we will expand and take even more children from the East

Midlands and from slightly beyond. I think we have an excellent team,

and I want to see that continue into the future for our patients.

The fact that it's children, and it's very sick children, it's made

it a real hot potato, that someone then has to make a decision on, and

they may feel the need to make change, bu but we will see whether

that really is sensible, now. viruses are a huge threat, and not

just flu, either. They are a huge threat. It is mother nature at her

worst. We have got ourselves organised at the present time,

working pretty well. This would be my biggest fear, that another

pandemic comes along in the next six years, which is quite possible.

And meanwhile, we're not as prepared as the last one. That

would be an awful situation to be in. This is actually real life.

It's not TV. And it's what I have had to deal with for the past three

and a half years. I need to know, as a parent, that my daughter is

going to get the best possible care. And I'm not sure that that's going

The Department of Health tell us a decision on the future of the

country's specialist heart units should be announced by the end of

the year. Our thanks and best wishes to all the children and

parents who to park in took part in our film. And now the remarkable

story of a time when lions roam the Leicestershire countryside, and it

wasn't so very long ago. Our tale takes us back to the 1950s, when

the owners of crumbling stately homes had to come up with ever more

inventive ways of raising cash. Now, Stapleford Hall near Melton Mowbray,

that meant a day out to the member. And for one baby boomer, Tony Rowe,

those memories are as fresh as ever. The 1950s was a tough time for the

English country house. Over a thousand had been burnt down or

blown up in the first half of the century, as owners could no longer

afford their upkeep. Many that survived this cull were forced to

move with the times and open to the hoi-polloi. NEWSREEL: Has there

been a more popular sideshow than this? The duke's stepdaughter, the

duchess, and the duke himself, selling souvenirs. All this gets

the Duke of Bedford about 130,000 visitors ahead of his nearest

rivals. Not to be outdone - and out of necessity - in 1953, Lord

Gretton opened Stapleford Park in Leicestershire. But this was to

turn into a very different day out, to dusty house tours and cream teas

on the lawn. So along with a few others, I'm reliving a day from my

childhood. The thing I remember most about Stapleford is that I

grew up on the doorstep. I lived three quarters of a mile away. And

when I was little I thought it was a natural thing to hear lions

roaring for their breakfast first thing in the morning. It was quite

a novelty in the Midlands at that time to have a safari park nearby.

And I remember especially bank holidays, cars would be queuing for

miles to get in. When I was a small child, it was amazing, turning up.

You'd turn off into the parkland and then all of a sudden, out of

the woods came this little steam train and you got on, and off you

went. Lord Gretton used public openings at Stapleford to indulge

his favourite hobby - trains. And he did this on a grand, and small,

scale. There were two miles of track winding its way through the

parkland. With bridges and tunnels, signal boxes and sidings. Lord

Gretton built four stations, employed seven men and commissioned

three scaled-down steam engines. The highlight was a 15 minute

cruise on one of two miniature luxury liners. It was a grand day

out. But it cost the Grettons a small fortune. While the trains and

boats pulled in the punters, big cat, at big houses like Longleat in

Wiltshire was a new idea not to be missed. Lord Gretton and the

Chipperfields became business partners and it was an instant hit.

I'm meeting two men who were involved in looking after the

animals at the Stapleford Safari Park. Untrained and unprepared,

were they simply "thrown to the lions"? Being a wildlife ranger,

you would imagine you would have to have a lot of training? I'm sure

that's true today, Tony, in 2011, but certainly, it wasn't, back in

1970. Training then was pretty rudimentary, as I recall. We were

dropped in at the deep end, if you like. On a day-to-day basis, how

did you operate? What was your job? We drove ancient Land Rovers, much

like the one we got here today. And I suppose duties were threefold. We

had to keep the lines away from the cars and away from other prides, in

fact, because the four prides had to be kept distinctly separate,

otherwise they fought like the blazes. The other aspect was making

sure that people didn't open car window, which they frequently did,

to take nice photographs, you see. So we had to keep an eye on the

public and on the lions. Wasn't there some sort of warning? There

was a sign, as visitors came into the reserve, saying, "do not leave

your car. Survivors will be prosecuted." While Richard worked

in the reserve, his father, an amateur movie-maker filmed his

visits. And he wasn't the only one with a camera capturing events.

Pathe and the BBC made regular visits with the stars of the show

being Leicestershire's new lion pride. Gosh, that's a pretty

boisterous welcome, John. He has my finger, yes, I know! You take the

food away from a lion, you've got to get it in quick. You can't get

much closer than this. We had taken a cage along, so that the whole

film crew could get close up pictures without being in any

danger. We were a bit surprised when the Lions took very little

notice of us. They ran through the other end of the paddock. And there

was only one thing for it. We had to follow. As the years passed the

lion park expanded into a bizarre menagerie, boasting everything from

British badgers to wild bears. As well as the untrained rangers,

locals in nearby villages had close encounters with escapees.

brother, when he was seven years old, was playing in the village

with his friend, David, and he remembers that the Rangers drove

around the village with a tannoy, announcing that the lion had

escaped from Stapleford, and that everyone was to stay indoors. And

Michael and David promptly went to try and find the lion. Despite the

success of Stapleford Safari, Lord Gretton's passion was always the

trains, even if that meant not making much money from his ventures.

We are talking about a huge investment made by Lord Gretton at

the time, into building this, though, aren't we? In today's

values, you're talking about �500,000. I wouldn't like to put a

value on it, to be quite honest. But to build something like this is

an awful lot of money. There's no two ways about it. When he died in

1982 the estate shut its gates to the public, the great house was

sold, the boats scrapped and the trains mothballed. But this wasn't

the end of the line for Stapleford's Railway. You must have

been quite sad when it all sort of stopped. Oh, yeah, it was very sad.

It was quite a big attraction of its time, as well. It was the Alton

Towers of this area, in some ways. Everybody used to come from all

over, in buses, used to come for It's a toy train set, isn't it?

I've got a toy train set, I must admit, but it's not quite the same

So 30 years since it shut up shop, it's nice to be back. And to think

back to a time when lions roamed in Leicestershire, little cruise

liners sailed on the lake and scaled down steam trains chugged

their way through parkland. It's as much fun now as it was back then.

lot of nostalgia. I mean, I'm a local lad., Who travelled this way,

to school, and yes, it's lovely to see. It brings it all back. It's

been a source of humour for some time that, on my medical records,

it actually says mauled by a lion. It was a full afternoon treat. It

was great. There was everything here. I suppose today it would seem

very simple, but, to us, it was Lions in Leicestershire. Follow

that! And if you've got any interesting stories from around the

East Midlands, with or without wild animals, let me No. But that's it

from Glenfield Hospital in Leicestershire. See you next Monday.