Episode 6

Cardiac surgeon Aaron Ranasinghe receives news of a donor heart for mother-of-three Katie. Less than 200 heart transplants are performed each year in the NHS, and Katie has spent over three months in hospital waiting for a match. Aaron must work quickly to remove her old heart, prepare for the new one, and then get blood flowing through it as soon as possible. There's a tense wait to see if the heart will be strong enough to keep Katie alive. Surgeons also prepare to operate on Edward, a 75-year-old grandfather who needs life-saving surgery for aggressive kidney cancer. And in the neurosurgery theatres, surgeon Alex Paluzzi aims to end Carole's five-year struggle with extraordinary debilitating pain in her face, caused by a blood vessel pressing on her trigeminal nerve and wearing it down with each pulse of her heart.