This week's episode looks at neurosurgery and the work of Ciaran Bolger of Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, along with Charlie Marks of Cork University Hospital. Featuring the story of 42-year-old Rose Slevin a single-mother from Newbridge, Surgeons follows Rose as she undergoes a rare and complex procedure known as an "awake" craniotomy. As Professor Bolger tries to cut out a tumour deep within her brain, Rose is deliberately woken up on the operating table. In Cork, Jim Landers, a GAA official from Co. Waterford, is operated on by Charlie Marks. Jim's brain tumour is dangerously close to a major vein, and Mr Marks has to balance the risks of the operation against Jim's chances of surviving without it. The programme also shows that waiting lists for non-emergency neurosurgery now stretch for over a year - with public and private patients faring equally.
This week's episode moves to Dublin's Mater Hospital and the pioneering cardiac surgeon Freddie Wood. He is joined by Mark Redmond of Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin. At the Mater, Jerry O'Leary from Cork has been waiting for a heart transplant for over nine months. He is kept alive on a machine while the search for a suitable donor heart continues. Late at night, the cardiac unit is told that a donor heart is on its way from another hospital - Freddie Wood must decide which of his patients will receive it. Nine year old Conor Murray from Co. Donegal was born with a faulty valve in his heart. Although he looks as healthy as his twin brother, Mark Redmond has to operate now or Conor will not survive into his teens. His anxious parents accompany Conor to the operation in Our Lady's. Freddie Wood discusses whether the popular image of surgeons as aloof and arrogant is deserved.
Episode Three: Breast looks at the work of Arnie Hill in Beaumont Hospital and one of Ireland's few female surgeons, Margaret O'Donnell in St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin. Last October Linda Burgess, a single mother from Dublin in her thirties, went for a check-up after noticing a lump in her left breast. In Beaumont, Arnie Hill breaks the news that the lump is cancerous and advises Linda that she needs immediate surgery to remove the cancer. During the operation, Professor Hill sends tissue samples from a lymph node under Linda's arm to the lab for immediate testing. If it tests positive he will have to opt for more radical surgery and possibly a mastectomy. Anna Norris from Callan in Co. Kilkenny was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy nearly three years ago. She visits plastic surgeon Margaret O'Donnell to discuss the final part of her treatment. In theatre Margaret will take muscle and other tissue from Anna's back to reconstruct her breast. Margaret O'Donnell discusses why so few women doctors opt for a career as surgeons. The need to spend long periods working overseas to compete for the handful of top jobs in Ireland is cited as a major reason. Margaret and her husband spent the first five years of their marriage living in different cities and even countries while she worked her way up the ladder.
Episode Four: Bones ends the series by focusing on orthopaedic surgeons Frank Dowling in Our Lady's, Crumlin, and Sean Dudeney of Dublin's Cappagh Hospital. Kerrie Leonard is 16 years old and facing an operation to straighten her spine. Paralysed from the waist down at six years of age, Kerry is bound to a wheelchair. Kerrie suffers from Scoliosis, a disease curving her spine, which if left untreated will hinder her breathing and cripple her further. Frank Dowling must weigh the risks of major spine surgery against the quality of Kerrie's life. In Cappagh, Ian Bangham from Co. Wicklow is facing knee and hip replacements. His surgeon Sean Dudeney has to plan this major surgery in detail to give Ian the best chance of regaining mobility.
Transplant looks at organ transplant surgery and the work of Oscar Traynor in St. Vincent's Hospital, along with Freddie Wood in the Mater Hospital. Featuring the story of 34 year old Mike Keohane from Rosscarbery in County Cork. For many years Mike has suffered with a chronic liver disease and his last and only chance of survival is a liver transplant. Surgeons follows Mike as he is told the news that he needs to go on a waiting list for transplant and when he gets the call from the Liver Unit in the week before Christmas we wait to see if the donor liver is a match. In the Mater, 63 year old Frank Donavan from Tallaght, Co. Dublin has been waiting on the lung transplant list for over 2 years now and his condition is highly critical. Frank had been called in for a transplant 4 times but each time got sent home because the lung wasn't suitable. Surgeons sees how this waiting affects his life as his situation rapidly deteriorates and waits with him on his fifth and final call to the Mater.
Brain looks at the world of neurosurgery and the work of Donncha O'Brien and Ciaran Bolger in Beaumont Hospital. Surgeon Donncha O'Brien is one of the country's leading neurosurgeons specializing in Epilepsy. This debilitating condition affects about 40,000 people in Ireland. One of them is 31 year old Deirdre-Anne Wynn Robinson from Tallaght. After years of medical treatment Deirdre-Anne has decided to go under the knife to remove part of her brain- the part Donncha O'Brien believes is the source of her Epilepsy. Carey-Ann O'Brien has been mentally handicapped since she was two, she also suffers from epilepsy and every day her parents must administer a cocktail of drugs in attempt to alleviate her worsening seizures. Her parents have turned to Donncha O'Brien in the hope that a radical technology, the Vagus Nerve Stimulator, surgically implanted in Carey- Ann, could help reduce her dependency on medication and the frequency of seizures. Patsy Brennan, from Drogheda, has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for many years. For over a year two slipped neck vertebrae rubbing against Patsy's spinal cord have caused her extreme pain. In need of an urgent operation she was referred to Ciarán Bolger in Beaumont- a further year has passed and finally a hospital bed has come available for her.
In the final episode of 'Surgeons', we explore the revolutionary and radical surgeries being performed on children today in Ireland. Two year old Darragh Hayes from Killdare was born deaf, his parents Debbie and Flann have been attending Beaumont Hospital with their son in the hope that Darragh is suitable for new technology that might allow him to hear. Surgeon Laura Viani runs the National Cochlear Implant programme, the only facility of its kind in Ireland. For the past 15 years she has pioneered this new technology - Cochlear Implantation - also known as a 'bionic ear', which can in certain cases allow deaf children to acquire hearing. If Darragh never acquires hearing, he will never learn to speak and his hearing family must learn sign language to communicate with him. If suitable for a cochlear implant Darragh could in time be able to hear for the first time in his life and learn to talk. In Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin surgeon David Moore is one of only two surgeons in the country performing radical 'Limb Lengthening' surgery. This surgery - in which a bone is broken, attached to a metal frame and then over a long period of time the frame is stretched- actually makes a bone longer. Chulainn Lewis-Lavery an eleven year old boy from Moyvane in Co.Kerry, has a limp. Due to an infection in his leg when he was younger his right leg is shorter than the other, but also a deformity in his ankle is causing his leg to grow at an angle. If left alone, Chulainn would end up walking on his ankle. David Moore decides to put Chulainn under the knife- stopping the ankle growth and then over lengthening Chulainn's right leg. But to alleviate his problems Chulainn must have his leg in a metal frame for over six months.