Every surgery starts with a cut. One sharp incision – splitting skin, fat, and muscle. From this moment, there is no return, no pause and no room for anything other than the job. Cut the skin, explore the tissue, fix the problem.
In the heightened world of the operating theatre, the world slows down for the UK’s top surgeons as they work to save lives. Each second is counted, every movement is recorded, every millilitre of blood tracked. Nothing can slip. Concentration is king.
Welcome to the most extraordinary place in the hospital. The four walls where lives change and bones crack, where hearts are opened and broken.
Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death brings us remarkable access at one of Britain’s biggest hospitals – the University Hospitals Birmingham. Featuring three extraordinary life-saving procedures per episode, the series provides an unrivalled perspective to the challenges and split-second decisions that staff face on a daily basis.
Going behind closed doors in one of its 73 theatres, this series has access to some of the most ground-breaking surgical procedures being performed in the UK. Inside these walls, we watch as a patient’s face is peeled back and an entire bottom jaw is removed along with teeth and tongue. We are witness to the some of the most cutting edge treatments available – where hot chemo washes are poured straight into a patient’s open abdomen on the operating table. Along these corridors, we watch as staff rush a new liver to transplant to a patient suffering with a rarely seen disease.
Each programme is visceral, immersive and highly engaging – delivering a perspective on life-saving that reflects the reality experienced by doctors and surgeons across the NHS - all in the pursuit of delivering ground-breaking cures to its patients.