All patients benefit from life changing treatments offered by NHS. The Imperial College Healthcare Trust hospital’s see to patients of all ages throughout the day many of whom need specialist care to save their lives. This episode focuses on the pioneering treatments offered to both ends of the spectrum, the oldest and the youngest.
We meet John, a 98-year-old man who arrives at Hammersmith Hospital for a heart operation. Receiving a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation, as he is deemed not fit for open heart surgery, an artificial valve will be inserted through an artery in his groin, up through the body and into the heart. John is the oldest person to receive this procedure and without it is unlikely he will live for much longer. Unfortunately the operation doesn’t go to plan and another surgical team has to be called in to save John’s life.
St Mary’s Hospital is the base for the Trust’s specialist paediatric centre where 18-year-old Debbie is waiting for her surgery. Due to her sickle cell disease she has spent a lot of her life in hospital; she is now in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. Although just a 50 percent match, her brother Sam will be donating the marrow she needs to save her life. With the treatment only offered to patients under the age of 19, doctors have warned that this is Debbie’s last chance.
Hospital, Wednesday, 9pm – BBC Two
