Another wonderful documentary series from RTE set in a hospital. This is what real reality TV is all about. Hope, joy, fear and sadness in every moment. The successes of the operations balanced against the broken health system.
Each week the focus on a different speciality. The first week was transplant surgery and it was wonderful to see two people who were terminally ill be cured by liver and lung transplants respectively. The interviews with both the patients and the consultants were genuinely educational and emotional. Whilst we may complain about the way the consultant system works in Ireland, the dedication and love of the craft that these men show was refreshing.
The second week was brain surgery which is even more freak-me-out. They followed three people. One was a mentally handicapped girl with chronic epilepsy. She was given an implant (Vagus Nerve Stimulator) which would hopefully help it. Whilst they did see an improvement it wasn't major sadly.
The second person had a type of localised epilepsy which has been shown to be reduced by the removal of the hippocampus. This was the real "oh my god" part of the programme. The woman's life was so destroyed by the seizures that she was willing to have a chunk of her brain removed to deal with it. Unofrtunately again in her case, the result was not as successful as she had hoped.
Finally a woman with slipping vertebrae in her upper spine was in terrible pain and could even end up paralysed if it progressed. The surgeons amazingly put two scews in to bind the vertebra together. 4mm screws going into 5mm of bone. One tiny slip......
The quotes from the consultants are interesting too. One takes total joy in providing a permanent fix for something through a "simple" operation. Another is enraged at the HSE and thinks they are clearly incompetent. All obviously care deeply about their patients and their profession.
I've loved hospital/medical documentary series since I was a kid. Two have stuck in my head for decades: Chris Searle when he learned to be a mortician and the kid from South America with elephantitis. Whislt this show is not in that league, it is very high quality television. If it makes you shed a tear, learn something, empathise or makes you angry over the useless HSE then it has achieved something.
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