Original subtitles

WOMAN: Ambulance. What's the emergency?

WOMAN 2: Quickly. We're at Southport.

OK. Southport.

NARRATOR: The Gold Coast, where the lights burn bright

and the sunshine never ends.

While many Aussies call it home...

..every year, 12 million tourists come to play

on this stretch of golden coastline.

WOMAN: He was surfing when he got bitten on both legs by a shark.

I don't think I'm going in the sea again.

But the good times... WOMAN: We need some medical staff!

..can often turn ugly. Pelvic binder on him, OK?

And when they do... Maybe you've had a heart attack.

..these are the people you want on your side.

This is Princess Charlotte, so we've got her a room with a view. Good.

If this guy doesn't die, there's a good chance

he's gonna end up with a horrible brain injury.

Whether you're just visiting... Love you.

..or you live here... This got attacked by a buffalo.

She's biting me. (GROANS)

Are we getting any sort of a blood pressure?

He could still lose his leg. ..these are the real stories

You OK? Yep.

..of the cutting-edge medical teams...

Do not move your head. We need to get that clot out.

Good work, guys. ..who pick you up...

OK, let's get moving.

You may get some chest pain. We're inflating the balloon now.

..patch you up... Superpower!

The fairy dust, it's very magical and it fixes all sorts of things.

..and put you back in paradise.

Where else would you rather be?

Tonight, on Gold Coast Medical,

top surgeons take on a challenge...

We often do cases together. It's a concert.

It's a concert without a conductor. Yeah. (LAUGHS)

..to perform a life-changing miracle on this gentle giant.

A police officer watches over surgery

to see what this man has inside his body.

WOMAN: OK, I need whoever took the bullet out

to actually give it to actually the policeman

in a pot as chain of evidence.

And a new life... Want me to catch it?

..that doesn't start as planned.

('WILDEST DREAMS' BY TAYLOR SWIFT PLAYS)

As the Gold Coast has grown from holiday town to big, bad city...

MAN: Ambulance. What's the town or suburb?

WOMAN: Surfers Paradise. Tell me what's happened.

She's been stabbed.

..sadly, so has its rate of violent crime.

This morning,

the hospital's Director of Trauma Services, Dr Martin Wullschleger,

is leading a team trying to save the life of the latest victim.

There is a 31-year-old that's got a gunshot to his upper abdomen.

He's not doing very well.

He's unstable so we have to go to theatre straightaway

and fix him up.

The man was shot at close range in the stomach.

Now he's on the operating table

in front of trauma surgeon Dr David Parker.

As soon as he arrived, we got him up to theatre very quickly.

And then, once we had him stabilised,

we performed a laparotomy, which means we opened his abdomen.

The bullet is still inside somewhere.

But finding it isn't the first priority.

When we got in, we found about two litres of blood,

and then it was a case of just what we call 'damage control surgery',

where we just try and pack things and try and stem the bleeding.

The man has lost two of the five litres of blood

that an adult male typically has in their body.

Right now, the only thing stopping him from bleeding out

is a constant supply of transfusions.

We had to go looking for the actual bleeding.

If the team can't find and stop the source of bleeding,

the man will die.

With bullets, you never know where they go in the body.

Because we didn't have an exit, we didn't really know where it went to.

While most people on the Gold Coast

lap up the sunshine whenever they get the chance,

one man is covering up and sticking to the shadows.

51-year-old Ronnie suffers from a rare disease called porphyria.

Porphyria is the basis

of the history of the legend of the vampire.

I actually have vampire disease.

Just like the vampires in horror stories,

for Ronnie, sunlight on his skin causes him unbearable agony.

Hey, Fiona. How are you?

It's been a bit of a hard week. Has it?

Ronnie meets with pharmacist Fiona Clark

and Dr Stuart Aitken for treatment.

Good morning. Ah, Ronnie. Have a seat.

Our bodies make a group of chemicals called cytochromes.

We use them for things like our liver enzymes

and for haemoglobin.

Bit of a closer look at what's happening.

But Ronnie's body can't convert these chemicals

so a build-up of toxins occurs on his skin.

I can feel there's a blister coming up underneath it already.

'Cause I can feel when they're starting.

In Ronnie's case,

the chemical that's accumulating, when it reacts with sunlight,

it becomes very toxic and burns his skin.

There's another blister just coming up under here.

And here. And that corner. Then this one.

For Ronnie, it's personally horrifying.

This is a really horrible disease. It's quite disfiguring.

And it's certainly made a big impact on Ronnie's life.

It started all with just one tiny, little blister

that proceeded to then spread.

And then, over the period of a week,

it proceeded to take over most of my hand.

How are you going with staying out of the sun?

I'm hating you. (LAUGHS)

The more time that porphyria sufferers spend in the sunlight,

the more horribly disfigured they will become.

That's that whole vampire thing -

the blood from the mouth, the wounds, the sores,

the not appearing in the sun.

Not having mirrors because they didn't wanna see themselves.

So, Ronnie, if I can get you to pop your arm out for me.

In past centuries,

vampires would drink blood to make themselves feel better.

And the modern treatment for Ronnie is just as ghoulish.

Ronnie, are you ready? No.

Three, two, one.

Appointments are Robina Hospital's breast cancer clinic

are always in high demand.

WOMAN: The bottom line is that one in eight Australian women

is going to get breast cancer, which is 12.5%

So the vast majority of breast cancer that you see

is what we call 'bloody bad luck' breast cancer.

(LAUGHS) In other words, it just happens.

We just got a whole bunch of interesting patients today.

We've got a lot, hey? We've got 14.

Dr Rhea Liang started the breast clinic seven years ago,

driven not only by profession,

but also a very personal connection to breast cancer.

There's breast cancer in my family.

So my grandmother, who's now 103 - turns 104 next month -

she had breast cancer.

I have an aunt who also had breast cancer.

And my aunt had it around the time I was coming through medical school.

No, the funding has actually changed. It's back with the GPs now.

It strikes young, old, rich, poor, any race, any group.

You know, it's just indiscriminate.

Every day, women like 46-year-old Kirsty come to the clinic

to begin treatment for this all-too-common disease.

So your waiting area today is down by 19-27.

Oh, OK.

Fortunately, Kirsty's cancer was picked up

before she even had any symptoms.

I went for a routine mammogram and I got a call about four days later

to say that they had found something in my right breast.

And they wanted me to go back in.

What the mammogram found

is an early form of breast cancer that grows fast.

Hello, Kirsty. Hi.

I'm Rhea. I'll be your surgeon.

Come and take a seat.

So Kirsty's at the hospital today to begin her treatment with Dr Liang.

Now we've received...

Breast cancer is different from a lot of other cancers.

There's no other cancer that I can think of

that threatens a woman in so many ways.

The breast is a sexual organ,

it's part your physical characteristic

that identifies you as a woman when you go out in public.

It's an organ of nourishment for babies.

But just up there is where you've been feeling the tenderness?

Just kind of in...

So there's that very complex mix of things

when they first come to clinic.

I'll give you the beginner's guide to breast ultrasound.

Thank you.

And you feel a particular connection

with the women who are suffering from it

'cause you could so easily imagine

that it was your mother or your sister,

or in my case, my aunt or my grandmother.

So that's what breast tissue looks like.

See that honeycomby stuff? That fluffy white stuff?

Today, Rhea is hoping Kirsty doesn't add her name to the list.

As we scan around here, you'll notice something else pop up.

That's your cancer. Oh.

Mmm.

51-year-old Ronnie is suffering from a rare disease called porphyria

that causes painful lesions on his skin when it's exposed to sunlight.

RONNIE: Porphyria is the basis

of the history of the legend of the vampire.

I actually have vampire disease.

Extreme sensitivity to sunlight

is the latest in a long history of health problems for Ronnie,

caused by HIV.

I've actually contracted by HIV when I was 23

so, basically, it's been predominantly my whole adult life.

I was part of the initial onset.

I lived inner-city Sydney then.

And, basically, it was horrific in those days.

I lost most of my friends.

Nearly three decades of potent medications has kept Ronnie alive,

but taken a toll on his liver.

I've been a guinea pig for some trials that were horrific.

I still don't know what half the things that went in my body then.

But indirectly or directly, they've affected my liver.

So, Ronne, if I can get you to pop your arm out for me...

Porphyria sufferers often become anaemic

because the iron in their blood collects in the liver.

In the past, the best way to top up your iron levels

was to drink animal's blood.

OK. Ronnie, are you ready?

No.

Three, two, one.

For Ronnie, the modern treatment is the opposite.

He's having his blood drained.

The way we treat Ronnie is by removing some of his blood.

By doing that, we're removing. The iron stores from his liver

The build-up of iron in his liver is worsening this underlying process.

So we're improving his liver function,

it's improving his liver's ability

to clear some of those toxic compounds.

Ronnie has had weekly bleedings

over the two months since he developed the condition.

We've been treating him quite aggressively,

more aggressively than usual, 'cause he's had quite severe disease.

If we continue as aggressively as this,

we're going to cause Ronnie to become anaemic,

we'll take too much blood.

So we're sailing the fine line between controlling his porphyria

and not causing him anaemia.

We're sort of approaching that stage at the moment

so we've gotta go very, very carefully.

At the limit of his ability to cope with the blood loss,

Ronnie must now hope his agonising lesions begin to heal

so he can come out of the shadows.

I'll give you the beginner's guide to breast ultrasound.

Thank you.

46-year-old Kirsty has been referred to the Robina Breast Clinic

after a routine mammogram came back with abnormal results.

There's a little bit of fat there.

And it doesn't take long for Dr Liang to confirm the findings.

That's the skin stripe, the fat,

this fluffy stuff all round it is the breast tissue,

and then in amongst the breast tissue, you can see this lump,

which isn't supposed to be there.

That's your cancer. Oh.

Mmm.

Already 2.5cm across,

Kirsty opts to have the lump taken out as soon as possible.

I don't want to wait.

I just want to get it over and done with.

Typically, around the 2cm to 3cm mark is where women start to feel it

as a separate lump from the rest of their tissue.

And more likely than not,

the tumour would have started spreading by then,

gone to the lymph glands.

And once it goes to the lymph glands, of course,

it starts going elsewhere - liver, lungs, bone.

By the time it reaches that sort of stage, we can't cure it.

Right now, we have to save your life first, and...

Kirsty has done everything right

but it's still possible that this cancer may be life-threatening.

The most important prognostic factor

is whether the cancer has started travelling.

And we'll know that after surgery.

Down in the operating theatre,

a trauma team is trying to save a man from bleeding to death

after a close-range gunshot wound.

An X-ray reveals the slug that entered through the man's belly

has lodged right near his spine.

When the bullet went in from the front,

it must have hit something harder -

most likely here at the vertebral body -

and just blew up a bit.

The bullet tore a path of destruction.

The bullet actually ruptured the bowels.

One piece was nearly fully ruptured.

And the other, the small bowel, just two holes, an in and an out hole.

Dr Wullschleger is able to pass his finger right through the bullet hole.

Because it's high energy, you can't salvage this bowel,

so we took that off.

But even with the damaged sections of the bowel removed,

the blood continues to pool inside the abdomen.

Vascular surgeon Dr Mark Jackson arrives

to help stem the life-threatening flow of blood.

There's a laceration on the aorta behind the pancreas.

So we just need to get some control of the artery.

It turns out there's not one big bleed,

but lots of smaller ones.

The bleeding was coming from deep down in his abdomen,

the area that we call the retroperitoneum.

And essentially, the bullet had hit a number of big veins

that come from - big veins and arteries that supply the bowel.

The bullet is still lodged near the man's spine.

But before they can try and remove it,

the team must first close off every leaking blood vessel.

We clamed the aorta and that gave us good control

and enabled us to suture the bleeding

and get control of the bleeding.

What's his pressure, Simon? Pressure is 110 systolic.

Yeah... (SPEAKS INAUDIBLY).

Yeah, the clamp's fully off.

The open tummy gets packed with absorbent towels

and temporarily closed.

It's now time to deal with the most precarious part of the surgery -

to remove that bullet lodged right near the young man's spine.

Which arm are we doing? The left's better.

Over the past three months,

Dr Stuart Aitken has been draining Ronnie's blood weekly

to stimulate liver function so his body will get rid of the toxins

caused by the vampire disease porphyria.

His blood tests show that his bloods

are getting almost perfectly into the area

where we want them to be.

It's his last day of treatment, but despite the liver improving,

there's some bad news for Ronnie.

Getting rid of the disease is going to take

a few months of absolutely no exposure to the sun.

I recommend gloves when you go out.

Gloves? Mm-hm.

I'd recommend not going out in direct sunlight at all.

And if you do, gloves.

Every time you have any sun exposure,

those lesions will get worse.

Until they're gone? Yeah.

And then? And then the gloves can come off.

I didn't really wanna hear that. Mmm. Yeah.

OK.

Any sun exposure and the skin will blister.

OK.

It's understandably upsetting.

I'm sure that any of us, if we had to wear hats, long sleeves, gloves

every time we went out into the sun, it would get to you.

You'd probably be able to do it for a few days without much of an issue,

but after it goes on for months and months,

that would get very annoying,

and would have to affect your psychological state and your mood.

Ronnie has bravely battled health conditions related to his HIV

for 28 years.

But to be denied access to sunshine is perhaps the cruellest setback yet.

No sun, sit inside, no work, can't be too active,

I may as well get in a box.

Do you know what I mean?

That's how it's feeling with just that last statement.

You know, like, that vampire disease makes it really feel real.

It feels like I should just go lie in a coffin.

There's a gloomy few months ahead

but at the end of it, unlike a vampire,

Ronnie will be able to get back out in the sunshine

and get on with life.

Ronnie's a battler. Ronnie doesn't give up.

The big picture. It's got to be done so I accept that, you know?

Like, as in, that's what it is.

So it's just another little hurdle but I'm jumping

and, you know, as the Olympics of health are going,

I think I'm doing marathons.

So all good.

When it comes to cosmetic work,

the hospital's Director of Plastic Surgery, Dr Raja Sawhney,

is an artist.

But his real interest lies in improving patient's lives

with reconstructive work.

My biggest interest in plastic surgery

has always been hand surgery and upper limb surgery

and I find that extremely rewarding too.

Just a few months ago,

world-renowned hand and upper limb specialist Dr Randy Bindra

joined the international team on the Gold Coast.

I think the hand surgery involves more finesse.

And I enjoy doing finer things.

So he had some trapezial or trapezoidal injury there as well.

Dr Raj and Dr Randy make an expert double act

in the operating theatre.

We often do cases together.

We enjoy working together 'cause we're both hand surgeons.

I do more soft tissue work. Professor does all the bony work.

It's just better when you have

people with more experience in parts of it all working together.

You end up with better results for your patient, better outcomes,

and it's nicer for the surgeons too.

It's a concert. It's a concert without a conductor.

Yeah. (LAUGHS)

The next concert the pair play may just change the life

of single dad Mahmood.

This is Randy. Hey, Raj.

Good to see you.

I have one son and one daughter.

Um, I love them. (LAUGHS)

Mahmood lost his right eye and damaged his hand

in a fireworks accident in Iran more than 20 years ago.

He's been an electrician in Iran and he's tried to get work

but because of these injuries,

some people have thought that he looks a bit scary

and worry about whether there's

a criminal background or something because of it.

All the people think, "This man is really danger man," or like this

but I'm not, I'm not.

I'm very... I'm very peaceful.

That's great. He's a gentle giant.

Yeah. (LAUGHS)

A gentle giant with a working opposable thumb

will be able to go back to working as an electrician

and make a better life in Australia for himself and his two kids.

I'm very thankful of all the doctors,

also all the Australian people and government.

They're... 'cause they provide this.

I'm really respectful to them, thankful to them.

Returning function to the thumb

won't just be good for Mahmood and his family,

Raja and Randy will enjoy every minute of it too.

I like these ones. I got no ears so...

I wear.. I don't have ears. Here, use this... Oh, OK.

(BOTH LAUGH)

I don't think I ever operated with a turban on.

No, I don't think I ever did. Gets a little hot.

But at least when you bang your head on the lights, it don't hurt.

(LAUGHS)

Anna and Steve are expecting their third baby tomorrow.

And they are determined the baby will arrive on time.

I've got an appointment with Pauline for 12:30.

I'm due tomorrow, which is my dad's birthday.

All of our children have been due

on one of their grandparents' birthdays.

So we're hoping that the baby will arrive on its due date

but the other two didn't so that probably won't happen.

Not wanting to have history repeat itself on the eve of her due date,

Anna is going to try every non-medical way

of getting labour going,

starting with a cervical stretch and sweep.

(LAUGHS)

Alright, so just drop your bottom.

Relax your legs.

OK, and just look at your man's face and he can keep you occupied.

OK, so stretching now, stretching now.

And just another sweep.

I've got the shortest fingers in midwifery.

Yeah.

There's no guarantee this circular action in the cervix

will bring on labour.

And Anna is not taking any chances.

Hi. How are you?

So next up is some pregnancy pampering.

With her bump buddy Abby.

Oh, is this on, this chair?

Rumour has it a pedicure could do the trick.

Yeah, they said that it can stimulate labour.

So I'll have it on, yeah.

While the girls feet are being made fabulous,

they make sure they've covered every baby-bringing method in the book.

Yeah, I had a friend telling me

how she got one of her labours kick-started

was walking up and down stairs sideways.

(BOTH LAUGH)

I've been eating dates. Oh, have you?

Yeah. Did you do that last time at all?

Yeah. (BOTH LAUGH)

They do say being intimate with your partner, of course.

Yeah, it comes out the same way it got in.

Yeah, I don't think that works. (LAUGHS)

But before she heads home, there's one more stop for Anna.

And that's acupuncture.

Hi, Anna Hi, how are you?

I've heard acupuncture works, but it didn't in my last two pregnancies

so maybe third time lucky.

Haven't had a baby in this room before

but, you know, you go right head.

Nice and relaxing atmosphere.

So far, so good?

It'd be nice for the baby to share its birthday with my dad tomorrow.

The last two women I've treated have laboured overnight.

So... That night?

Yes.

Tonight, Anna will be keeping everything crossed

in the hope that tomorrow brings a double celebration.

It's just a few days since 46-year-old Kirsty

discovered she has a 2.5cm cancer growing quickly in her breast.

Today, she will have a large section of breast tissue taken out

by Dr Rhea Liang and her all-female surgical team.

More often than not, we are female predominant.

This is Maddy, who's my intern.

And we've got Kim, who's the registrar... scrubbing.

So we've got an all-girl team for Kirsty today.

It almost sits just behind the nipple, doesn't it?

Treating breast cancer is one medical specialty

that attracts a much higher proportion

of female doctors and nurses than any other.

Does it make a difference to the women?

It may sounds sexist but I think it does.

I think it is innately more comfortable to talk to a woman

about your womanly bits.

I think that women make really lovely surgeons.

You know, just the delicacy with which they hold the tissues

and their sort of natural feeling for how to communicate with people,

dealing with the emotional and social aspects.

I just think that women do that just a little bit better than the blokes.

Not biased at all. (LAUGHS)

She just went for a mammogram. She's got no symptoms at all.

But, you know, in the end, that'll probably end up saving her life.

Rhea will remove the lump and enough fatty tissue around it

to make sure she hasn't missed anything.

But there is another procedure to do first.

What we need to know is whether the cancer has started spreading.

And the first place to check is in the lymph glands under the arm.

A blue dye injection will show Rhea

which of Kirsty's lymph nodes is most at risk.

Pop the tracer dye in and we massage that into the breast

and it follows the same pathways that the cancer travels down.

And so we follow those down into the armpit

and take out the first one or two nodes that the dye hits.

There she blows.

That's good. So you can see it just down there.

Yeah. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

Rhea removes the dye-injected node and sends it to the pathology lab.

OK, that's cool.

Sentinel node can be sent.

Those nodes get sent down to the pathologist,

the pathologist looks at them under the microscope

and gives us a phone call

to tell us whether there's cancer in them or not.

I'll grab that off you. Thanks.

A positive test result will mean that

the cancerous growth in Kirsty's breast has already started to spread

and she'll be facing a long difficult fight for her life.

A trauma team hard at work on a gunshot victim

have stopped his internal haemorrhaging

and now they're going after the bullet lodged near his spine.

We knew that the bullet is just under the skin on the back

so that's why we decided to just roll him quickly -

he was stable now -

roll him quickly, get the bullet out.

The bullet entered the man's stomach,

tore a path of destruction all the way through his body,

ricocheted off his spine,

and stopped just under the skin of his back.

With the X-ray to guide him,

Dr Wullschleger is able to open a small incision near the bullet

and pop it out.

WOMAN: OK, I need whoever took the bullet out

too actually give it to the policeman, in a pot,

as chain of evidence, OK?

The instant it's out, a detective from Queensland Police Service

is waiting to collect the evidence.

It's not every day a police officer is in the operating theatre.

And Dr Wullschleger must personally hand him the slug.

Today's surgery has got the man out of danger of bleeding to death.

But there's still plenty more work to do on his injuries.

The plan from the surgical point of view

is to take him back tomorrow or the day after

because we didn't close the abdomen.

So we have to have another look.

If there is more bleeding, stop that bleeding,

clean it out, wash it out well.

Then we have to anastomose the bowels back together

and then probably close him up.

The man will spend tonight under police guard in intensive care.

It will take more than a month of surgeries and recovery

before he's released from hospital.

Relax your legs.

OK, just look at your man...

There's not much Anna didn't try yesterday to bring on labour -

cervical sweep, massage, pedicure and acupuncture -

and it seems to have worked.

It's one in the morning in the hospital's birthing centre.

Anna, her husband, Steve, and Anna's mum, Lizzy,

who's flown in especially from the UK,

are all hoping the baby will be born today

so it will share a birthday with Anna's father.

It's been like this now for about an hour and half - every two minutes.

That's a head. That's definitely a head.

She had very quick births with her last two babies,

um, four hours long.

We'll see what happens this time.

I reckon it will be good this time as well.

No drugs. You can do it.

Anna's waters haven't actually broken yet

but she's determined to have this baby without the use of medication.

Right, where are we going walking?

Right, so you can walk here.

Sometimes it's just that walking and stretching your pelvis...

That's it. Good. (BOTH LAUGH)

But as the night wears on, Anna keeps trying.

Clearly, the baby didn't get the memo about the arrival time.

Start. I did.

Alright.

And the contractions timing app

calculates that she's still a long way off.

It's just a waiting game.

Jump on your mat there. On your mat.

It will start happening soon and then...

We'll see.

I'm falling asleep.

Let's just watch over the next half hour

and see what's happening with these contractions.

And as dawn breaks over the Gold Coast,

there's no sign that baby is going to share a birthday with Grandpa.

Dr Rhea Liang has just removed a lymph node

from under the arm of breast cancer patient Kirsty.

Sentinel node can be sent.

I'll grab that off you.

The node has gone for a cancer cell check at the lab

while Rhea gets on with removing the cancerous lump from Kirsty's breast.

Lovely.

So you may as well keep hold of those

'cause now we chase the cancer top-side.

There it is.

Lovely. Alright.

Dr Steven Weinstein is responsible for assessing the sample,

with a bit of help from his technician, Brendan.

So, what Brendan is doing, he receives the node fresh,

and then I come in and cut that in half,

put it in a little plastic boat,

then Brendan puts it on the cryostat,

which is a frozen section instrument.

It's -20 degrees or something like that.

The idea is to take what they call a section,

which is just a very thin piece that we can attach to the slide,

and then we'll stain it.

So when you stain it, it'll show up the cellular features.

It'll show up the tissue that's in the lymph node

and if there's any tumour there.

It's come up pretty good.

If the team in the lab find signs

that Kirsty's cancer has been spreading,

then her chances of surviving this scare take a massive hit.

So we're kind of three-quarters of the way around.

And I just need to get this last little bit here.

Working in medicine came very naturally for Rhea.

I've come from a long line of doctors.

Yeah, my father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather.

Almost there.

So I grew up in one of those households where there was a feeling

that medicine was a calling, a service

that you do to help other people.

(PHONE RINGS) Ooh! Is that the pathologist?

Just as Rhea gets the lump section out,

Dr Weinstein rings with the results

of his cancer check on Kirsty's lymph node.

Hello?

(PHONE RINGS) Ooh, is that the pathologist?

Just as Dr Rhea Liang removes a cancerous lump

from Kirsty's breast,

she gets a call from the pathologist with the results on the lymph nodes.

Hello?

It's good news. There's no sign of cancer cells.

Oh, that's fantastic. Thank you so much.

We're super happy about the sentinel node.

The fact that it's come back negative is really good news for us.

So that's a win. Yeah.

Bye now.

Negative. Excellent.

Hooray!

Let's move on. Yeah.

So let's mark the specimen now.

Kirsty will lost about one cup size from her breast in today's procedure,

and for the next five years, she'll be monitored closely

for any recurrence of cancer.

Her decision to have a routine mammogram, and Dr Rhea Liang,

have saved her from a life-threatening illness.

Lovely. There we go.

KIRSTY: Oh, Dr Liang is awesome. She's just fantastic.

And she's done a fantastic job. The scar's very small and neat.

And, uh, I'm very thankful.

36-year-old single dad Mahmood lost the function in his right thumb

in a fireworks accident when he was just a teenager.

Doctors Randy and Raja have cut away the scar tissue in Mahmood's palm.

Now they're preparing a transplant of tissue to fill the gap.

Randy frees up a spare tendon from the index finger

that will be used to give movement back to Mahmood's thumb.

This is my tendon. See it?

So we're gonna pull it through back here now.

There we are.

So you've got the tendon here. You can see it's still attached to him.

I've gotta get it back over here.

I don't wanna go in a pocket. I wanna go deep. Here.

Making the tendon pull the thumb closed

means tunnelling it to the front.

OK.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

Yep. Good. Hold the hand for me.

Grab it. Gently pull it through.

With the tunnel made, Randy feeds the tendon through

and connects it to the loose end of the tendon in the thumb.

So I've gotta secure the tendon into this tissue here

so it can pull on the thumb.

Some temporary pins are put in to hold the joint steady

while things heal.

And then Raja moves his big skin graft into place.

Now, you can see how that's just fitting in nicely

to fill in that defect.

Now, the good thing with this tissue is you can see it's expansile

so when he stretches open, it can stretch with it

and it's a nice surface for his flap.

That'll do him well.

You can see that tissue there's quite bulky at the moment

and that will stay bulky for a while.

But down the track, I'll do some liposuction on it,

depending on how it looks, and contour it more if need be.

But we'll do that down the track.

But that will allow him the opening up his web,

which is what we wanted to do.

Prof's done all the rest, as we spoke about,

with the tendon transfer and ligament reconstruction.

So this will give him a good chance of getting some decent function back

and the idea is now he can open his hand

he should be able to grasp and, hopefully, grab a can of beer.

If all goes well with Mahmood's recovery,

he may be able to land his first job as an electrician

since leaving Iran four years ago.

(LAUGHS) Nice one.

I'll see you on the weekend, I'm sure.

After two previous births involving doctors and drugs,

Anna and Steve are hoping for a drama-free delivery

for baby number three.

But after eight hours of labour,

midwife Pauline and Anna's mum, Lizzy,

can't see any sign that baby is about to be born.

Was that contraction a bit different?

No. No. Same as before?

Basically, she's had her waters broken.

Now her contractions are coming more frequently.

She's now had some gas.

Another contraction? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

So just give us a push down. Sorry, sweetie.

Are you feeling as if the baby's pushing down on your cervix?

No, just it hurts. OK. Relax.

Oh! (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

OK, so you've still got cervix there.

And what I'm trying to figure out is how much.

OK, so you're about 7cm.

(WHIMPERS) Yep.

I really need you to stay with me, OK?

Anna is disappointed that she's only 7cm dilated

after 10 hours of labour.

It could be many more hours before she finally delivers her baby.

So Pauline suggests a change of plans.

Oh! Oh!

OK, just breathing in and out.

So basically because we've been contracting all night, alright,

and we're getting where we need to be -

I think the baby's just turned in a funny position -

um, so, what I need to do now

because it's getting to the point where we've tried everything,

I think what we need to do is get the doctors to come and have a chat.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

This is how we get our daily exercise, hey, guys?

On his rounds this morning, Dr Randy Bindra drops in

to see how Mahmood and his rebuilt right hand are doing.

(LAUGHS) Good to see you, mate.

You're smiling. That's great. Yeah.

Honestly, I feel, changed my life.

I feel they absolutely changed my life.

To... better life.

The key to the reconstruction was giving Mahmood an opposable thumb

that will allow him to grasp things and pick up small objects.

What do you think? How may percent thumb can move in the future?

Before, you had no movement, OK?

If everything heals well, I think you'll have, like 60%, 70%.

70%? 60%, 70%, yeah.

Awesome.

Absolutely awesome.

Good. Thank you so much.

I think the most satisfying is if somebody comes to the clinic

and says, "Thank you.

You've... I feel much better now than I have in a long time,"

or, "Thank you, I never though that I would be able to do this again,"

or, "play golf again,"

or "do my knitting again, but now, thanks to you, I can do it."

I think a simple thankyou is what makes it all worthwhile. For sure.

In the birthing centre,

third-time mum Anna has been hoping for a drug-free water birth.

But an extended labour has forced her to reconsider.

Please, give me morphine.

OK, so just let's see what's happening.

OK.

Owww!

After a long night of contractions but little progress,

Anna was given an inducing drug, and it seems to be working.

Ahhh!

OK, good job. Want me to catch it?

While the Irish are normally known for their humour,

tonight, Steve's jokes are falling a little flat.

Oh! Right, just keep it going.

Anna, really important you keep things nice and calm.

Breathing in and out.

Oh, Anna, good on ya.

In and out.

Well done. Oh, baby... (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

Oh, yes. Good.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Well done, Anna.

Oh!

Anna's baby boy is out but she can't relax until she knows he's OK.

I can't hear crying. No worries, yeah?

Yeah, your baby's moving, Anna.

He's... he's moving!

He's moving.

The long and difficult birth is not what Anna and Steve were expecting,

and it's left everyone feeling exhausted.

(TEARFULLY) Sorry.

What are you sorry for?

I don't know. Don't be sorry.

Don't be sorry. Well done.

Sorry... What are you sorry for?

I don't know.

(SIGHS)

You're alright.

Oh, wow.

Anna's mum, Lizzy, came all the way from England to be at the birth.

Far more traumatic than I thought it would be.

Yeah. It was a lot more traumatic than the last two.

It was just a bit more complicated and... yeah, just, ooh... terrible.

Hello. Your biggest birthday present has arrived.

You've got a little grandson.

Despite baby Romeo's difficult arrival,

he shares Anna's dad's birthday as planned.

And Anna is keener than ever to keep growing her family.

In fact, soon as she's rested after delivering number three,

Anna starts planning to have four, five, six and seven.

It wasn't quite the candlelit water birth

that I'd said I was gonna have.

But never mind. Next one.

I'd like seven, but... uh...

Don't know... (LAUGHS)

I'm too easy going, you see?

No, they're too lovely. Look at them.

I know. That's it.

If Romeo does end up with six brothers and sisters,

at least he'll be able to say that he's the first in the family

to share a birthday with Grandpa Johnny.

Next time we see you, goodness knows.

I know. You're gonna be running around, probably.

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