David Jenkins, a world-leading surgeon at Royal Papworth, performs one of surgery's most technically demanding, and extraordinary, operations. Called a pulmonary endarterectomy (PTE), no other hospital in the UK offers this procedure.
Surgeons perform two high-risk operations, including a chest wall reconstruction and brain surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma.
Surgeons Marius Berman and Pedro Catarino take on one of the most difficult transplant procedures at Royal Papworth: the double lung transplant. With donor organs in such short supply, there is even more pressure to execute the operation perfectly.
Surgeons must balance the considerable risks of a procedure against the risks of not treating a patient's condition. Maureen has an enlarged aorta which could be fatal if it bursts, but the operation to fix it is also very high risk.
Addenbrooke's head and neck surgeon Ekpemi Irune takes on a challenging case where a cancerous tumour in the face and neck is growing so fast, it's threatening her patient's life.
Addenbrooke's neurosurgeon Rod Laing performs what is probably the most difficult spinal operation there is, removing a slipped disc deep in the spine that is pressing on the spinal cord and threatening the patient with paralysis.
Shaun Dooley
Narrator
Simon Kerfoot
Producer
Richard Bond
Gaynor Davies
