Keeping Canada Alive

All Episodes 2015

  • Ended
  • #<Network:0x00007f936f9ec0a0>
  • 2015-10-05T01:00:00Z
  • 45m
  • 4h 30m (6 episodes)
  • Canada
Narrated by Emmy® Award-winning Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland, KEEPING CANADA ALIVE is an epic groundbreaking six-part factual series that gives viewers a powerful snapshot of Canada's health care system as filmed over a 24-hour period in May 2015. More than 60 cameras descended on health and home care locations in 24 Canadian cities to capture incredibly moving and highly intimate stories as shared by the patient as well as the health care provider. The cameras rolled as people sought treatment - and medical professionals did everything they could to provide it. In addition, the companion online experience, which can be found at cbc.ca/keepingcanadaalive, is one of the most ambitious to date and features more than 40 hours of extended breakout footage, original content, and more, as well as an online 24-hour stream of raw footage.

6 episodes

Series Premiere

2015-10-05T01:00:00Z

1x01 Open-Heart Surgery

Series Premiere

1x01 Open-Heart Surgery

  • 2015-10-05T01:00:00Z45m

A three-month-old baby boy in Vancouver gets a hole in his heart patched during open-heart surgery, while his parents wait anxiously for news. In Toronto, a 28-year-old veteran whose neck was broken during a rec hockey game works hard to defy the statistics and walk again; and a teenage girl goes hopefully into a laser treatment for the severe burn scars that have shaped her identity. Meanwhile, an 85-year-old in Charlottetown is rushed to hospital by paramedics who fear he has suffered a mini-stroke. In a Labrador clinic with no on-site doctor, a dedicated nurse gives a checkup with help from an unconventional high-tech assistant, Rosie the Robot. And in Calgary, a brave 73-year-old woman navigates through grief, pragmatism, and hope as she lovingly cares for her husband with Alzheimer’s disease.

1x02 A Warm-Hearted Full Service GP

  • 2015-10-12T01:00:00Z45m

The non-stop day of a warm-hearted, full-service North Vancouver GP takes her from hospital to office to home visits. A Toronto cardiologist works hard to find options for one of the 50,000 Canadians diagnosed this year with heart failure. In Winnipeg, a woman with MS finds out whether her shoulder pain signals the progression of her disease. Nova Scotia’s busiest ER admits a man suffering head lacerations after a car accident. Two Ottawa children receive respite care as their families cope with the challenges of raising a child with a complex illness. And a Vancouver family waits nervously as their 25-year-old son has his second heart surgery in six years.

In Vancouver, an unconventional palliative care doctor helps a terminal cancer patient make one of the biggest decisions of her life. In St. Catharines, a teenager in the process of transitioning from male to female brings her mother to a checkup with her doctor. A Montreal man with a recurring brain tumour has surgery for a fourth time, this time with the aid of his surgeon’s innovative new technology. A Hamilton teen suffering chronic pain has a long-awaited second operation to fix the damaged cartilage in her hip. In Yellowknife, an ER physician treats a man with troubling symptoms who's been flown in from a remote community. And an excited six-year-old receives a new prosthetic arm in Toronto.

2015-10-26T01:00:00Z

1x04 Ovarian Cancer Surgery

1x04 Ovarian Cancer Surgery

  • 2015-10-26T01:00:00Z45m

With her best friend and two dynamic surgeons by her side, an Ottawa cancer patient undergoes the removal and reconstruction of her remaining breast. A Montreal psychiatrist administers electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to a patient with debilitating depression and counsels a woman with psychosis. A doctor in St. John’s examines a long-time patient whose aggressive skin cancer has required major facial reconstruction. In Vancouver, a doctor tends to an immigrant family from Iraq whose elderly mother is suffering from PTSD. A First Nations man who lost part of his foot because of diabetes places hopes for a fuller recovery in a visiting healer in Fort Qu’Appelle. And two years after a heartbreaking stillbirth, a young Kamloops mother faces her fears as she prepares to deliver another baby in the same ward.

During a double surgery in Vancouver, a daughter donates her kidney to her 81-year-old father. Elsewhere in Vancouver, two heroin addicts visit a groundbreaking Downtown Eastside clinic to receive daily injections of prescription heroin. In Toronto, a deaf baby gets her cochlear implant activated and hears her mother’s voice for the first time, while a passionate family doctor practices innovative ways to deliver healthcare to homebound patients. A Hamilton woman with metastasized colon cancer gets a pinpoint-accurate radiation treatment from a high-tech robot. And in the midst of a spring snowstorm, a new baby is delivered by C-section in one of the busiest maternity wards in Edmonton.

1x06 Preamature Baby For Surgery

  • 2015-11-09T02:00:00Z45m

A single mother in Hamilton, whose premature baby was born at only 26 weeks gestation, waits alone as doctors prepare her tiny son for surgery. A former Richmond high school athlete who weighs almost 400 pounds hopes to change his life with bariatric surgery to reduce his stomach size. In Quebec’s far north, a Cree doctor wages her own battle against Canada’s First Nations diabetes epidemic. A profoundly disabled young woman in Wolfville finds ways to live her day to the fullest. And in Vancouver, man’s best friend participates in a clinical trial to detect a life-threatening superbug, while a woman fearing heart failure checks into Emergency.

Loading...