Surgeons：At the Edge of Life

Specialist maxillofacial surgeons Tim Martin and Sat Parmar prepare for a marathon operation on 53-year-old Teresa. Four weeks ago, Teresa was diagnosed with a fast-growing cancerous tumour in her face and she will die within weeks unless it is removed.

The extraordinary stories of clinical trials being carried out at the surgical unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon Tim Martin and his operating partner Sat Parmar are planning a marathon operation on former police officer Loretta. They believe they are the first UK surgeons to operate on the disease Lorettas suffering from.

At Birmingham Children’s Hospital, surgeons must transplant a kidney from a father to his two-year-old son, while a three-year-old girl needs a life-changing heart procedure.

Surgeons take on major trauma operations at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They have just minutes to save a woman with a life-threatening bleed on her brain.

Addenbrookes and Royal Papworth hospitals in Cambridge are renowned for the expertise of their surgical staff. At both centres, surgeons undertake some of the most complex operations in the world, where technical skill is paramount.

Surgeons have to balance the considerable risks of a procedure against the risks of not treating their patients conditions at all. Maureen has an enlarged aorta which could be fatal if it bursts, but the operation to fix it is also very high risk.

Operations to transform patients’ lives. Surgeons at Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth take on a high-risk spine procedure and perform open heart surgery on an 80-year-old patient.

Surgeons at Addenbrooke’s Hospital take on life changing surgery that takes two specialist surgeons two days to perform and involves removing all the organs in the patient’s pelvis.

Addenbrooke’s major trauma team and surgeons treat some of the countrys most critically injured patients. Multiple teams must decide whether a mans damaged arm can be saved.

Surgeons at Addenbrooke’s Hospital perform brain surgery on a patient who is awake and attempt to repair a section of the body’s biggest blood vessel that’s threatening to burst.

Addenbrooke’s surgeons take on two high-risk operations; surgery to excise tumours near the spinal cord and a procedure to remove a dangerous mass off the body’s largest vein.

Surgeons at Addenbrooke’s Major Trauma Centre must operate on two road accident victims who have suffered life-changing injuries so serious they could lead to an amputation.

At University Hospital Southampton, surgeons perform life-saving surgery: taking out a patient’s eye and the tumour behind it and removing an 83-year-old man’s cancerous bladder.

Surgeons at University Hospital Southampton face complex surgery to reconstruct a patient’s jaw and remove a cancerous oesophagus.

Three surgeons operate together on a motorcyclist at University Hospital Southampton’s major trauma centre after a crash leaves the patient with life-changing injuries.

Surgeons battle to save a patient with an aggressive tumour and a patient whose aorta – the body’s biggest artery – could rupture at any moment.

Surgeons attempt to save a patient’s life and her ability to smile, by removing a tumour in her cheek and reconstructing her facial nerve.

Doctors at NHS Lothian perform high-risk surgery to save their patient’s sight, and three specialists work together to treat a complex case of advanced ovarian cancer.