Radio Times: Review by:; Alison Graham

“Every patient who survives is standing on the shoulders of people who didn’t,” says paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Martin Elliott. We’ve just watched him and his team perform an eight-hour surgery on Shauna (15), born with a heart defect and just one lung. Her windpipe is slowly closing and has to be replaced by one grown in a lab. The main thing Shauna would dearly love to do is to be able to go swimming.

The episode is all about how far surgeons should push boundaries. They are at the forefront of radical surgeries like Shauna’s, and those of babies Muhammed and Joshua. Both are so small, yet undergo huge operations.

About this programme

6/6. The hospital's cardiothoracic surgeons assess the benefits of using experimental procedures to treat children who cannot be cured using conventional methods. They consult with the patients' parents and explain why using such techniques might be the only way to save their children's lives - but must also make clear that such practices carry a much greater risk than traditional treatments. Last in the series.