News stories

A ground-breaking new six-part series based at University Hospitals Birmingham tells the stories of remarkable life-saving operations taking place in our city.

Filmed close up with extraordinary stories of surgical skill,  Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death, puts a spotlight on UHB’s highly skilled theatre teams, working each day to change and save lives with complex and awe-inspiring procedures.

Each highly immersive episode follows both clinical teams and their patients minute by minute, as they battle with the challenges of highly complex cases.

The programme, which starts tonight on Channel 5, provides an unrivalled perspective to split-second decision-making in a fight against the constant risk to life – revealing the cutting-edge techniques of the expert surgeon’s craft as never before

The first episode, airing this evening sees an urgent referral to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for 53-year-old Stephen, whose rapidly growing and aggressive mouth and jaw cancer, is a cause for critical concern.

For surgeons Mr Prav Praveen and Mr Sat Parmar, there simply isn’t a moment to lose. They need to urgently perform an extraordinary and radical procedure - removing and discarding Stephen’s jaw, two thirds of his tongue and his bottom teeth, while rebuilding the jaw using bone from his leg and creating an entirely new tongue from his own tissues.

Across the hospital, 71-year-old Hilary is facing an equally complex procedure. She’s suffering from a rare carcinoid tumour which requires immediate cardiac surgery to replace two valves and close over a hole in her heart. Without surgery, consultant Mr Ahmed Ashoub knows that Hilary’s life expectancy could be as shortened severely. The problem? He needs to stop Hilary’s heart to do the operation.

Across in the emergency department, the newest member of the Major Trauma Service is four hours into her shift, and receives a trauma alert – a 17-year-old male arrives by air ambulance after being hit by a car while riding his motorbike. Nikki needs to immediately prepare him for surgery so that the team can realign and stabilize his broken tibia and fibula before the opportunity for infection sets in.

Chief Executive, Jonathan Brotherton said: “This documentary is testament to the skills of our entire workforce - our anaesthetists, surgeons, Operating Department Practitioners, nursing, medical, booking and operational teams and beyond, I am sorry if I have missed anyone out,  but it is clear, they are all working together to provide inspiring levels of care for our patients, and in the process, they have been able to support the production of this impressive documentary series.

“I’m so proud of this series and how it shows the sheer brilliance of just a small portion of our incredible teams who are working day in, day out, to do their absolute best for the people of Birmingham and Solihull – this is a must watch.”

The six-part series starts tonight – viewers can catch up on My5, or watch live on Thursdays at 9pm on Channel 5.