Season 2 2012

A look at Great Ormond Street Hospital's oncology department, following doctors as they face challenging ethical decisions about treating children with some of the rarest and most complex cancers in the country. Doctors must decide how to act in the best interest of their patients whilst handling relationships with the children's families.

An intimate portrait of two surgeons in Great Ormond Street's General Surgery unit. Navigating between ground-breaking success and devastating failure, they must balance the risk of surgery against the chance of success. Treating children with extraordinarily complex conditions, some of whom are old enough to be involved in the decision making, this film follows the surgeons, patients and their families as they embark on a journey of preparation towards their operation and into the unknown.

This episode focuses on Great Ormond Street's heart transplant team. Every year, the number of donor hearts decreases: safer roads, better intensive care and a society reluctant to donate means fewer hearts and longer waits for children for whom transplant is the last resort. The Berlin Heart is a revolutionary machine that keeps these children alive. However, it's a precarious existence as the machine can only buy them time until the rare gift of a heart is made.

Modern medicine means that most sick children will recover in a short time but some become dependent on technology to keep them alive. Parents and doctors must decide when it is no longer right to continue treatment.

Short term survival of newborns with complex heart problems is improving, but a long life is the real measure of success. Doctors and parents must decide whether or not to embark on difficult surgery knowing that in some cases, the outcomes remain uncertain.

For children who cannot be cured using conventional methods, the only option is experimental surgery.