Surgeons: At the Edge of Life

[Sertchgi123]

Anyone else watching this?

It's totally amazing what they can do but I do have some reservations about the bone surgery on the guy who has prostate cancer. What does anyone else think?

What a great programme. I was amazed how they drained that lady,s blood out. Brave lady.
The man, Well I thought that because he was bleeding so much that the cancer would of spread into his blood stream. But although he died , the operation was fascinating to watch and will probably help others in the future. Maybe I was wrong about cancer going into his blood stream, but I and dh said that before the end of the programme.
But wonderful surgery in both operations. And I thought both surgeons had a lot of empathy for their patients.
Can't wait for next week.

This is so wierd it's not available yet on iplayer :-(

Which channel was it on?

It's on BBC2 on Tuesday at 21:00.

Amazing programme. We watched the last series, which was following patients in Birmingham.

Re the man with the crumbling pelvis - our hunch was that because this is experimental surgery, the surgeon is operating on cases that other surgeones won't touch, and building up the research evidence which could end up with other surgeons around the world doing similar operations.

In that case, the man had been leading a very full and active life, especially for a 76yo, right up to his very sudden decline in health and cancer diagnosis. He wanted to get back to his job and out to his archaeological dig. If he'd turned the surgery down he'd have been unable to walk for the rest of his life, so no more digs probably. I'm not a medic but I wouldn't be surprised if being chair or bedbound would have shortened his life, for both physical and mental health reasons. I hope he had no regrets. It was such a huge operation that it must have taken him a long time to recover.

all Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g. I think they announced at the end of the programme that his cancer was worse than they expected and sadly he died a few months later. But it's truly amazing what the surgeons can do isn't it. I love the programme.

Yes, I saw that. Very sad. That's why I hoped he had no regrets. If he could walk for a while before the final decline it would have improved his quality of life a lot.

Yes, let's hope for a while he could do as he wanted. Such a shame. There was another prog last night on channel 5 called critical condition, that also was good. You would prob enjoy that too.

Marking my place. This is one of the rare programmes we watch as a family. Must catch up with the new episode.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Amazing programme. We watched the last series, which was following patients in Birmingham.

Re the man with the crumbling pelvis - our hunch was that because this is experimental surgery, the surgeon is operating on cases that other surgeones won't touch, and building up the research evidence which could end up with other surgeons around the world doing similar operations.

In that case, the man had been leading a very full and active life, especially for a 76yo, right up to his very sudden decline in health and cancer diagnosis. He wanted to get back to his job and out to his archaeological dig. If he'd turned the surgery down he'd have been unable to walk for the rest of his life, so no more digs probably. I'm not a medic but I wouldn't be surprised if being chair or bedbound would have shortened his life, for both physical and mental health reasons. I hope he had no regrets. It was such a huge operation that it must have taken him a long time to recover.

They said at the end that it took him three months to recover and he died five months after the surgery.

I have very mixed feelings about what they put this gentleman through. I feel he was used as a guinea pig, rather than a human being.

There's also the costs involved. We weren't told who paid for this but if it was NHS then it doesn't seem fair on all the hundreds of patients waiting for routine surgery, such as hip or knee replacements.

It is now on iPlayer. Both very brave patients. I also have reservations about the man with the cancerous pelvis.

Oh it's interesting to read you all have reservations about the cancer one
I took from it that like someone said above he'd rather take the chance than be not able to walk at all. As he was quite active and wanted to get back to his job.
But it was very sad the ending.
He looked like he'd aged after the surgery

The programme is fascinating and so scary at the same time

I think my reservations are more, that he already had stage 4 cancer. I don't know how quickly It progresses, but from the condition of his pelvis it was very advanced. They clearly weren't expecting him to almost die on the table.
Obviously he felt it was the right decision for him, but is using that huge amount of resources on a patient with a terminal disease, the right thing. I'm not saying we shouldn't but, it needs to be considered.

This week's was really sad story about the brother who died ☹️
Sad that 30 per cent of people never get the transplant they're waiting for

Scary episode

And so fascinating and amazing watching the lungs being put in and hearing the research they're doing for alternatives

Finally remembered it's on tonight. My kids are always engrossed by it.

Such a brilliant programme! I work in the NHS near there and regularly see letters from the consultants featured on the programme - it was lovely to put faces to names! The plastics guy, Prof Malata, who reconstructed that man's chest with a lot of microsurgery, has THE most beautiful neat signature, much like his sutures

I have a hunch that the experimental pelvis metalwork operation was not entirely funded by 'us'. There are so many research and science companies around Cambridge and there is a kind of symbiotic relationship between them and the hospitals so I suspect the programme was a good advert for more than just the NHS. But I do think the patient will have been very aware of his prospects and didn't seem to have been under any delusions of it being a miracle cure. It gave him his mobility back for the life he had remaining...and was a good thing for medical progress. Maybe he saw that as a win-win?