'The best part about my role is the people' | Watch the second episode of Saving Lives in Cardiff on Wednesday
Watch the second episode of Saving Lives in Cardiff on BBC One Wales and BBC Two on Wednesday, 16th April to get a behind-the-scenes insight into the incredible life-changing work being carried in paediatrics, neurosurgery and breast surgery.
In the episode, consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon Ms Clare Carpenter will return to the programme, treating nine-year-old Dafydd who has been waiting for an operation to reconstruct his dislocated hips. Dayfdd uses a wheelchair but because of the discomfort it causes, he can’t sit in it for long and now spends a lot of time in bed.
As a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, Clare is involved in assessing and treating children who have an injury or were born with abnormalities affecting their skeletal system. Working within a busy multidisciplinary team at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales, Clare finds her job extremely fulfilling.
“To be able to treat and potentially change the course of a child’s life and to see them grow into adulthood knowing you’ve improved their condition is incredibly rewarding,” she said.
“The reason we did Saving Lives in Cardiff was to show the public what these families of children with complex conditions have to go through. This episode was a real opportunity to show an absolutely amazing family and what they do to make their child’s life as amazing as it can be.”
This episode will introduce consultant neurosurgeon Miss Whitehouse and her patient Eifion, a retired miner. Eifion as a large benign brain tumour, known as meningioma, and it is putting him at risk of becoming paralysed on one side of his body.
He needs surgery, but Miss Whitehouse and her team are faced with a problem — the tumour is also growing into a major blood vessel in Eifion’s brain.
Miss Whitehouse and her team of consultants, specialised nurses, anaesthetists, intensive care doctors and therapists work with a broad range of patients with brain and spinal problems, from emergency situations to patients with longer-standing, degenerative conditions.
Miss Whitehouse said: “Neurosurgery is a particularly popular topic in programmes like Saving Lives in Cardiff, but it always seems to showcase men in this field. I took part in the programme as I wanted to show that women can succeed in this speciality too.
“The best part about my role is the people. My colleagues are great and determined to help people as much as possible, and a lot of the patients I see on a day-to-day basis are lovely, interesting people and it’s a pleasure to help them.”
The Breast Centre at University Hospital Llandough treats than 400 cases of breast cancer in a year. In this episode, we will meet 33-year-old mum-of two Jade who carries a faulty gene, giving her a 40% risk of getting the disease. Jade made the difficult decision to have a double mastectomy to significantly reduce her risk.
Consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon Ms Eleri Davies returns to Saving Lives in Cardiff and along with her team, will try to reduce Jade’s risk of developing breast cancer.
Eleri is the clinical director at the Breast Centre and diagnoses and treats breast cancer patients. Mostly, Eleri prioritises urgent cancer operations, but once a month allocates a surgical slot to risk-reducing surgery — removing the breasts of women who carry gene mutations that make them more likely to develop breast cancer.
Eleri said: “These patients who carry the breast cancer gene have a very high lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, up to 80%. They have often experienced seeing family members have breast cancer and at times sadly die of breast cancer. By being brave enough to face this life changing surgery to remove their breasts, the risk can be reduced to 2-3%.”
Eleri decided to take part in the second series of Saving Lives in Cardiff to highlight the importance of preventative health care.
Watch Saving Lives in Cardiff on Wednesday 16th April at 9pm on BBC One Wales and BBC Two. You can catch up on the first and second series of Saving Lives in Cardiff on BBC iPlayer.