Surgeons: At the Edge of Life

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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Meet the world-leading surgeons pushing science - and the human body - to its limits.

Transforming patients' lives, at the cutting edge of medicine. Meet the world-leading surgeons pushing science - and the human body - to its limits.

Series  3

BBC Two England

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Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

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Shaun Dooley

Jo Hughes

Ros Ponder

Richard Bond

Daniel Barry

Alex Kohler

Katherine Lee

Isabelle Burn

Nick Shaw

Rohan Latchman

Howard Holloway

Emily Bunt

Dragonfly Film and Television

Barrie Pease

Surgeons: At the Edge of Life: Series  3: Episode 2

Episode 2

BBC Two - Surgeons: At the Edge of Life, Series  3, Episode 2

Two surgeons and a team of 25 operate for 18 hours to salvage a high-risk procedure.

Following marathon procedures at Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth hospitals in Cambridge. Two surgeons and a team of 25 work for 18 hours to salvage a high-risk procedure.

Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth hospitals are two of the country’s leading centres of medical excellence, and they are situated just metres apart on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe. Over the past 100 years, approximately 50 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, physiology or medicine have been associated with Cambridge and, while many of the 40 thousand operations carried out here each year are routine, some are so unusual and complex that only surgeons at the top of their game can perform them. This episode focuses on two operations that push their skills and stamina to the limit. 

At Royal Papworth, senior consultant thoracic surgeon Aman Coonar calls on the skills of Addenbrooke’s plastic surgeon Charles Malata to undertake a chest wall reconstruction - a complex procedure that is scheduled to last at least 12 hours. Their patient is a former builder, 59-year-old Kevin, who has been suffering for 15 years since having a cancerous lung removed. The cancer was cured, but the cavity left in his chest has never healed, and Kevin has had to live with an open hole in his back.

At Addenbrooke’s hospital, another marathon operation also requires the skills of two different specialties - Richard Mannion, one of the hospital’s leading neurosurgeons, and consultant ENT surgeon Patrick Axon. Their patient, 47-year-old father of four Gulraiz, has a rare type of tumour called an acoustic neuroma growing at the back of his brain on the hearing nerve. The tumour is growing so fast it is pressing on Gulraiz’s brain stem and affecting his ability to walk and speak. If it is not removed soon, he will die. 

Surgeons: At the Edge of Life: Series  3

BBC Two

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Surgeons perform extraordinarily complex and risky procedures to transform lives.

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Surgeons: At the Edge of Life

Series 3

Episode 2

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