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Beyond Tomorrow – Episode 39 (2006)

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clip A medical miracle

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Professor Nagy Habib has invented a device that is saving lives in the hospital operating theatre. The Beyond Tomorrow medical reporter, Dr Caroline West, explains how it works. It’s a device called the Habib Sealer that seals the tissue in the liver to prevent the massive bleeding typical of this organ. The liver can be sliced open to remove deadly cancers without the patient losing so much blood that their life is at stake.

Curator’s notes

This story is filmed at London’s Hammersmith Hospital with Dr Habib himself operating to remove a huge cancer from a patient’s liver. The filmmaking team have been given amazing access to the operating theatre and the reporter is even able to speak with the surgeon during the procedure. It’s a breakthrough technology whose use in operations is well illustrated and clearly explained to a non-medico public by a medical reporter who knows her subject. It makes for riveting television.