The Supevet S01E04 (2014)
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Deep in the heart of the Surrey countryside
00:04lies an extraordinary vets practice. Okay, let's go.
00:07I'm gonna bring her straight through to PrEP, so you're gonna need to have a seat
00:11right there.
00:11You got a pulse yet? Here, the hardest-to-treat pets from across Britain
00:16are given some of the most advanced procedures available anywhere in the
00:20country.
00:22You have come here from my opinion about whether it's possible to save his leg or
00:26not.
00:26The practice is the brainchild of one man.
00:30Noel Fitzpatrick. Time to move, my friend.
00:33That's not bad, buddy.
00:36Known as the bionic vet, Noel has invented
00:40countless operations to help heal sick animals.
00:44Some people come and they expect you to work a miracle.
00:48Whatever happens, happens for a reason. But most people come
00:52full of hope.
00:55Filmed over a year, this is the story of Noel
00:59and his team as they set out to save our pets.
01:02He's stopped breathing, his heart's stopped.
01:07My finger's inside his chest and his heart now, I'm pumping his heart with my finger.
01:12Breaking new boundaries in medical science.
01:15Come on, able to walk within
01:1948 hours.
01:29At Fitzpatrick referrals,
01:32up to 50 animals a week undergo surgery. And Noel and his team must be ready to
01:38respond in case
01:39any of these patients suddenly take a turn for the worse.
01:42Hello?
01:45Noel, your dog's not looking in the greatest of form. Can you come back down?
01:49Right.
01:53What's the problem with the dog?
01:58We've lied to him.
02:01Shh, he's coming.
02:18I hate you because you still get me with the gag of your dog is dying.
02:22It's Noel's 46th birthday.
02:27He's worked every one since he qualified in 1990.
02:31This place is my life. I eat here, I sleep here.
02:35My team are my family. I love all of them.
02:39But that's my choice. It's my choice to have this vocation because I
02:44really do believe in what we're doing.
02:49Here at his practice, they average at least three emergencies
02:52every day. And today is no different.
02:56Hi. Now what's your first name? Diane. Great, Diane. Can I help you?
02:59Yeah, that's fine. Come on straight in. Hello, Pixie.
03:03Diane's cat, Pixie, has been run over and she's been rushed to Noel in a critical condition.
03:08I'm heartbroken. Oh my goodness. Let's pop her up there.
03:12How old is she? She's 12. Wow.
03:16She doesn't look 12. She's like a little kitten. If only all of us could age that well.
03:20Tell me all about it. What happened? When I got up this morning,
03:25she wasn't around and I decided to go to one of the homes
03:29that I know a lady's got a dog. And she was lodged between
03:33the fence and the side of the garage and I could see.
03:37I knew she'd been hit. I could see the blood and she's dragging her leg.
03:41So you could see blood coming out of this leg here? Yeah.
03:44And so I phoned the vet. Yeah, and I've just received their notes now
03:48and I've just had a look at their x-rays. You've got multiple problems here.
03:52Were you thinking in the car on the way over in terms of euthanasia or no?
03:57I'd rather not if she can have a chance. Yeah. And I adore her.
04:01And unfortunately today as well. I lost my husband 13 years ago
04:07and it was his birthday today. It would have been his birthday.
04:10So all in all. That's awful. I'm so sorry. No, that's fine.
04:14It's life. But all in all, I didn't expect this.
04:18There's one very specific thing I want to assess and that's motor control.
04:22I want to see, can she feel her back legs? Yeah.
04:26All right guys, here we go. If Pixie has no feeling in her back legs,
04:29it would probably mean her spinal cord is beyond repair.
04:33Noel would be left with no option but to put Pixie down.
04:37Pixie is just a character. She's a devil.
04:39She's a street raker. I just don't look at her and think that she's an elderly cat.
04:45She's full of beans and she's got so much energy.
04:49She wasn't ready for the scrap heap in my eyes.
04:54Right, so hit at sometime this morning.
04:59Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
05:04We've got a dislocated right hip, a right ilial fracture,
05:07but she can feel her back legs. Okay.
05:10I'll leave you to it then. I didn't think about her dying,
05:14but at the back of my mind, I suppose, yeah,
05:17there was that chance that she wouldn't make it.
05:20That's why I went ahead and thought she has to have a chance.
05:26Pixie will need a series of scans and x-rays to help
05:29Noel judge exactly what he can do to save her.
05:40Have you seen this big one as well?
05:41I don't know what he is, but he's pretty cool.
05:45Huge, isn't he? He's massive.
05:47He'd have you for dinner. He would, yeah.
05:52Throughout the day, owners and their animals arrive.
05:55Some are just starting out on the road to recovery,
05:58whilst others are ready to go home.
06:01All right, we're not far now, boys.
06:04Katie and her five stepchildren are on the way to collect their five-month-old pointer puppy.
06:11Scout arrived at the practice in pain and limping on her front paw.
06:17Noel and his team treated her with shockwave therapy and physio
06:21to correct the deformed tendons in her front leg.
06:25Three weeks on and Scout is much improved and ready to be returned to her family.
06:31Right, Scout's folks. Oh, the entire family.
06:34Hello, hello everybody.
06:36What are your names?
06:38Joseph.
06:39William.
06:41James.
06:42Matthew.
06:43Peter. Right, Peter, you lead the posse in. It's Peter's posse.
06:46Here we go. Come on in, we're going to go and see Scout.
06:49I'm having trouble appropriating one, let alone five.
06:53And we thank the Lord for that.
06:54Yeah, whatever.
06:56You're going to make me want babies, guys.
06:58Yeah. Now then, when Scout was trying to stand,
07:02normally she would have to put her paw like that, right?
07:04She couldn't put her paw like that. It was like that, wasn't it?
07:08Do you know why that was?
07:09That was because this muscle here.
07:12Oh, big muscle.
07:15That's a big one.
07:16Was really tight.
07:18So what we had to do was stretch this muscle.
07:21I think Scout's just outside that door.
07:23So here we go. Come on then, Scout. There we go.
07:27Right, now. Now.
07:29Ah, she wee'd.
07:31She wee'd with excitement.
07:33Yeah, probably best move away from the wee.
07:35Leave her there, Scout. Good girl.
07:36Well, you can see the fun we had.
07:38Yeah, she's like crazy, crazy puppy.
07:46She fell in the pee.
07:47Fell in the pee? My bum is in pee.
07:51Now look, a little bit serious for a minute.
07:54I need you to make sure that that doesn't get contracted again.
07:56All right, mom?
07:57Yeah.
07:58When she settles down, she's fine.
07:59And what we've been doing is this.
08:00Look, stretching it out like that.
08:02Push up on the main pad.
08:03Yeah.
08:04Keep the legs straight.
08:05Yeah.
08:05That's it. You got it.
08:07Stretching that tendon there.
08:08Right, well, I'm going to get up from Scout's pee on my bum.
08:11High five?
08:13Good job.
08:14Right, thank you.
08:16That's why we do what we do.
08:17You've got to keep hold of her.
08:19James, please, darling. Come on.
08:22Are you all right there, guys?
08:24Right, William, can you sit down and drink that?
08:27And there shouldn't be a mess on there.
08:28Who made a mess?
08:31How many kids?
08:36I'm just sticking with one.
08:38Sorry, I wasn't listening at all.
08:40It's 4 p.m., and the practice is full.
08:42He can't have his hair like that, Trevor.
08:46Let's get you looking all beautiful today.
08:48It'd have been perfect to have little babies
08:50if we'd have not taken his nuts.
08:54For many of their owners, these animals
08:56are as much a part of their family as any child.
09:00Pudgy.
09:02Pudgy, you're pregnant.
09:04You're pregnant.
09:05With a big arse, big arse.
09:06You're pregnant.
09:07Yeah, look, look.
09:08You're carrying a girl.
09:09That's what happens.
09:11Oh, you've been listening, haven't you?
09:13Can you miss Miss Antinatal?
09:22In the prep area, 12-year-old Pixie is awaiting surgery.
09:27All right, guys.
09:29Yesterday, a car crushed her hips, pelvis, and hind legs.
09:33If Noel can't find a way to return some function
09:35to at least one of her back legs,
09:37she'll be unable to walk and will stand
09:39little chance of survival.
09:41So we've got a pile of skin missing here,
09:45where she was obviously dragged along underneath the car.
09:48And we can see here where the ankle is dislocating.
09:52So that's a problem.
09:53We're going to have to do some reinforcement there
09:55to try and keep that ankle in place while the skin heals.
09:58Let's go.
10:00I felt probably a little bit guilty.
10:04Had I made the right decision, was it
10:06fair to put her through this?
10:08And I know in a lot of people's mind
10:11they probably wouldn't have done it, but they're not me.
10:14X-rays reveal the true scale of Pixie's trauma.
10:18This is not what you want to see at 10 o'clock at night.
10:22You can see here where the hip is dislocated
10:26and the bottom of the pelvis is fractured as well.
10:28So basically what we're going to have to do
10:30is get that bit, mash back up with that bit,
10:33get this bit back onto the spine,
10:35and then put the hip back in.
10:36This is like the worst of all worlds.
10:39At his surgical practice in Surrey,
10:41Noel Fitzpatrick is used to tackling
10:43some of the country's worst cases of animal trauma.
10:50Fitzpatrick, Farnsworth, Nassau speaking.
10:51Can I help?
10:53Noel's about to rebuild the pelvis of Pixie the cat.
10:57It's not easy.
10:58It's not easy.
10:59It's not easy.
11:00It's not easy.
11:01It's not easy.
11:02It's not easy.
11:03It's not easy.
11:04It's not easy.
11:05It's not easy.
11:06It's not easy.
11:07It's not easy.
11:08It's a procedure he must approach with great care.
11:10Her bones were shattered when she was run over,
11:12and Noel's worried there could be serious damage
11:15to nearby muscles and nerves.
11:17Right, 11.15pm, we must be crazy.
11:21Never mind.
11:22For Noel, this is a case that needs immediate attention.
11:29Right now I've just cut a small window
11:31and I'm looking down on top of where the pelvis
11:35is detached from the spine.
11:38You've got to be really, really careful right now.
11:44Because the sciatic nerve that controls this back leg
11:48is trapped in the fracture.
11:50So I'm in big trouble here right now.
11:54If the nerve gets damaged, it's game over for the leg.
11:58Oh, come on. Don't do that.
12:01Oh yeah, baby. There we go.
12:04So this is the nerve here that controls the back leg.
12:08And you can see that this nerve was actually trapped in here in the fracture.
12:14And now that we've put these pins in place,
12:16the fracture here is back in alignment again
12:19and the nerve is free to run down the leg this way.
12:25Noel spends the next hour attaching an external frame to Pixie's back.
12:30This scaffold will hold the tiny fragments of Pixie's pelvis in place
12:35while the bones heal.
12:40All right, we're fixed.
12:42Yep, we're looking good.
12:44Let's go to x-ray.
12:51You almost can't see the pelvis for the amount of metal that's in there.
12:55Looks pretty good.
12:56Everything's back in place.
12:58Given that there were a few bits missing, that's not a bad jigsaw.
13:04The team must now wait to see if Pixie's severely damaged nerve will recover
13:09and allow her to walk again.
13:19Everyone's saying I waddle.
13:21Do you think I waddle?
13:23I don't waddle, do I?
13:25Do I waddle?
13:26Be serious.
13:28Walk for me.
13:29No, you've seen me walk.
13:31I don't really pay attention.
13:33Yeah, a little bit maybe.
13:41OK.
13:42Noel has been called outside to see Ron and his daughter Ashley
13:46who have rushed in their great Dane.
13:49Nine-year-old Ellie has been struggling to stand since last night.
13:53There we go.
13:55All right.
13:56So all right, guys, front and back, please.
13:58OK, good.
13:59Right, straight into number one.
14:01That's heavy, eh?
14:03OK.
14:05All right.
14:06When I knuckle her foot over here, it doesn't come back again.
14:11So when I knuckle it over like that, it does not come back.
14:15So her brain is not telling her to do that.
14:17Straighten her foot out.
14:19And that means that the electrical cable between her brain and her bum is not working.
14:24If there is a disc or bony vertebra squashing the spinal cord,
14:28I would have to do some surgery.
14:31Yeah, what they've done to me.
14:33Oh, have you had it?
14:34I had a complete reconstructive surgery.
14:36So you've had all your neck fused?
14:38Well, they put pins through.
14:40I broke C3, 4 and 5.
14:42How did you manage that?
14:43Come out of a tree.
14:44I had an aneurysm.
14:45I got blacked out and was trimming a tree.
14:48Came out and snapped my neck.
14:50Wow.
14:51Everyone got a bit worried.
14:52You were going to maybe die.
14:54For a little while, yeah.
14:55It wasn't very good.
14:56That is exactly what she would need.
14:59If this is what she has, then she would need a number of vertebrae in her spine fused together.
15:07If we leave this, it's likely that this will go to paralysis,
15:11in which case she wouldn't be able to get up at all.
15:14So how long would you expect her to live?
15:16Forever.
15:17Is that right?
15:21You're not asking for much time.
15:29After scanning, Noel confirms both her vertebrae and discs are pressing on her spinal cord.
15:35Now the family must decide if they want to put Ellie through an operation.
15:39Look, I'm going to cut to the chase.
15:41Are you both of the opinion that it's right to put her through surgery if we can get her another two years of life?
15:47I'm not really interested in euthanasia at the moment, not considerate.
15:51For me, there's no other choice.
15:53We all feel the same about her.
15:55She's really loving, and it seems to be when any of us are upset or anything like that,
16:01she will sit beside you and wait and just bring in any toy to try and make you happy.
16:07She is our rock.
16:09And in terms of cost, today on imaging, you've probably spent about 1,800 quid, CT and MRI,
16:17which allow me to plan everything that I need to plan.
16:19And the surgery itself would probably cost over five grand.
16:23So, you know, and...
16:25Like a university fees.
16:27Yeah, so what do you want to do at university?
16:30Veterinary school.
16:31No way.
16:32She's at the Royal Veterinary College.
16:33She started this year.
16:34Oh, you are right now?
16:35Yeah.
16:36Oh, my God.
16:37I'm not showing it any thicker here.
16:39My God.
16:40All right, I'm going to send you away home.
16:43You need to talk to the family and we'll speak again tomorrow, right?
16:46Yeah.
16:48Thank you very much.
16:49Honestly.
16:50Pleasure.
16:51Even if it's just for that five minutes, even if it's just for half an hour a day,
16:56if you're blessed with another day with seeing her happy, then it's worth it.
17:02Yeah.
17:03All right, buddy.
17:04Take care.
17:05Thank you very much.
17:07Ron and Ashley leave Elliot the practice so Noel and his team can manage her condition
17:11before she is fit for surgery.
17:15On the other side of the prep area, Noel's right-hand man Porig is checking up on Pixie.
17:23I play with a cat man, to be honest.
17:25I've got the best cat in the world, Bumper.
17:27He's amazing.
17:28But he'll be jealous that I've been near other cats today.
17:32Four days ago, Noel rebuilt Pixie's pelvis and saved her right leg.
17:37But now Porig is worried she may have a further problem.
17:41All right, let's have a look.
17:42Come on, babe.
17:43Good girl, Pixie.
17:44So what's happening with this foot?
17:46It is quite cold at the moment.
17:48It is very painful as well.
17:50All right, babe.
17:51It's OK.
17:52It's all right.
17:53Oh, my God.
17:56We've got infection and we've got gangrene of the foot.
18:03It looks like this foot's dying.
18:06It's going to have to come off, isn't it?
18:16The problem is if we take this leg off, the other leg is already a problem.
18:20If we lose both back legs, we're done.
18:26Well, if we leave that on, we're going to lose her, isn't it?
18:29Yeah, we are.
18:30This has got to come off today.
18:34Noel plans to partially amputate Pixie's left hind leg
18:38with the aim of replacing it with a bionic limb.
18:43Get comfy, wee one.
18:46Hello?
18:48Hello always makes it better.
18:51This will give Pixie a chance of survival,
18:53even if her other nerve-damaged back leg does not recover.
18:58Noel had said to me,
18:59there will be tough decisions ahead if this doesn't work,
19:04which obviously means, yes, it's a termination.
19:08So it had to work.
19:11In a nutshell, I'm her carer, really,
19:14and you hope that you're making the right decisions for her.
19:20She's lost a fair amount of blood.
19:23Just as Noel is preparing to go in and amputate,
19:26they discover even more bad news.
19:30We've got an additional problem with Pixie.
19:32We've just done a blood test and it turns out she's anemic.
19:35She's losing red blood cells,
19:37which means that she doesn't have enough oxygen going around her body,
19:40so we've got to lose zero blood during this operation.
19:44I've got suboxyglobin ready.
19:46Yeah.
19:47Yeah.
19:48So Paul is gearing up for a transfusion,
19:51in case we need it.
20:01You're going to need to squeeze the leg,
20:03because I've got a bleeder here.
20:04Squeeze the leg. I can't afford to lose...
20:06No, I need that vessel squeezed, just there.
20:08That one. Right there.
20:10I can't afford to lose a single drop of blood.
20:17We haven't got any donors for this pussycat.
20:20Do you think we could put something out on social media?
20:22Can we tweet it?
20:23We'll tweet it and Facebook it as well.
20:25All right.
20:26With none of Pixie's blood type available at the practice,
20:29they need to appeal to the public.
20:31Just putting some local anaesthetic into the nerve now.
20:35One final snip and we're done.
20:40Less than an hour later,
20:41and a local cat charity comes forward with three potential donors.
20:46That's hopefully some blood for that cat via Facebook.
20:50Nice. The world is a good place after all.
20:53All right, amputation done.
20:58Oh, we're all lined up.
21:00Thank you so much for responding to the request.
21:03It's amazing what Facebook and Twitter can do nowadays.
21:06It is. It is.
21:07Save a life, even if it's one of our little feline friends.
21:10We'll start with... It's sugar, isn't it?
21:12Sugar.
21:13It's our first one.
21:14Nothing to worry about. A few minutes.
21:16She'll be fine.
21:18Nice and brave.
21:20Porik takes a sample to check sugar's blood is a match for Pixie.
21:24We're after an A.
21:26So we've got two lines here.
21:28One should be on the C,
21:30and one's on the A.
21:32So that's perfect.
21:33That means that sugar's a compatible donor for Pixie,
21:37so we can take some blood from sugar
21:40and donate it to Pixie to try and resolve this anaemia
21:43that she's suffering from at the moment.
21:45So that's really, really good news.
21:50Without the blood transfusion,
21:52I suspect she would find lasting the night very, very difficult.
21:58She's been through a lot.
22:00She's a sick little pussycat.
22:02She's by no means out of the woods yet.
22:14At Fitzpatrick Referrals,
22:16Great Dane Ellie is being readied for surgery
22:19to repair her damaged spine.
22:24Ellie's folks are in to see her today
22:26because it's the day of surgery
22:28and they're worried that she might not make it through,
22:31which is entirely legitimate because she might not.
22:37If we'd made the decision to have her put to sleep,
22:40that would have been very detrimental
22:42to us as a family.
22:44It wouldn't have been a united decision
22:46and it wouldn't have been one
22:48that we could have lived with very easily.
22:53It was the right thing to give her a chance.
22:56Come on in. She's in good spirits.
22:59It's all right, baby. It's all right, baby.
23:01It's all right, baby. There we go.
23:03Very happy to see you guys.
23:05As happy as we are to see her.
23:08It was almost as if one of us were in hospital, I suppose.
23:12It was a massive gaping hole and worrying all the time.
23:16It wasn't a normal reaction to an animal coming into the vet,
23:21but it's us. It's one of our normal reactions.
23:26So the objective of today's surgery is to take discs away,
23:31replace them with bolts and fuse the vertebrae together
23:34so that she can walk again.
23:36Quite similar to your surgery, actually.
23:38It's a bizarre coincidence that you yourself have had the same op.
23:43Hopefully she'll be a bit braver than you, eh?
23:46Yes, she will be much braver.
23:48She's all right.
23:50We all accept that you are her only hope.
23:53She can't stay as she is.
23:56And as you've seen, she is a big part of our family
24:00and if we can keep her a bit longer, we'd be very happy.
24:03But we all understand the risks.
24:08It's a horrendous moment for them
24:10because they think they might never see her again.
24:13She's old.
24:15That's the single biggest risk.
24:17She's old, she's nine.
24:19She's only got a couple of years left anyway.
24:23And they love her so much,
24:25they want her to have those two years standing.
24:28All right, let's do this thing.
24:30You nervous, Steph?
24:32Good girl, that's what I want to hear.
24:34Are you nervous?
24:36I am a bit. I'm not normally nervous,
24:38but I am nervous a little bit on this one
24:40because there's a lot riding on it.
24:42The family are just really, really, really close to this dog.
24:49Using specially designed screws,
24:51Noel will repair Ellie's broken spinal discs and vertebrae.
24:55All right, so that's vertebrae number four, five, six, seven.
25:00We're in position.
25:02Then he will use metal rods, custom made for Ellie,
25:06that will support bone marrow to fuse the damaged area of her spine.
25:18OK, a little bit of blood, but not too bad.
25:22Just going to screw in there real quick.
25:26Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
25:29Oh!
25:32Next, Noel must harvest some of Ellie's bone marrow.
25:39I'm taking some bone marrow out of Ellie's shoulder.
25:45This bone marrow has a honeycomb structure,
25:49and within that honeycomb are the living cells of bone,
25:53the building blocks of life itself.
25:56The living cells inside this marrow
25:58is going to form a bridge between the three bones in Ellie's neck,
26:02making them into one bone and getting rid of the three discs.
26:06And then the problem that Ellie has with the discs squashing her spine
26:10will be gone.
26:12To me, that little nugget of bone marrow is worth more than a nugget of gold.
26:18And now the final appearance of what we've done
26:21shows quite clearly that these clamps, rods and bolts
26:24hold everything together while it fuses.
26:27And if this works, you should all be proud, because we invented that.
26:33The operation takes just under four hours.
26:36One, two, three.
26:39The final task is to confirm the implants are in the right place.
26:44Totally nerve-wracking, isn't it?
26:48Come on.
26:50Oh, yes. Direct hit. Good.
26:52Yes. Good.
26:55That's great. Yeah, they're all in the right position.
27:02It will be several weeks before Noel and Ellie's family will know for sure
27:06if the operation has been a success.
27:18People say things like heavily pregnant.
27:20That's not a very nice thing to say.
27:22They like heavily pregnant.
27:24Heavily fat hippo.
27:26Heavy. Hippos are heavy.
27:28Hungry hippos.
27:30Heavily pregnant.
27:32Remember Hungry Hippos, the game?
27:34Yeah. I love that game.
27:36What, were you trying to say that that's what I'm like?
27:38One of them hippos that eat things all the time.
27:40Because I'm heavy.
27:42Not very nice, is it, Kate?
27:45Mother of two, Cindy,
27:47has brought her family's 12-year-old retriever, Tessa,
27:50who has been suffering with arthritis.
27:53Recently, her lameness has dramatically increased,
27:56and the family vet has referred them to Fitzpatrick's.
28:00We're just concerned that she's more and more uncomfortable and unhappy.
28:04It's become to the point where she can't even get up one stair.
28:07She and I are at home all the time together,
28:10and although she is technically the head nurse,
28:13although she is technically the children's dog,
28:15she's my dog.
28:17It's the typical empty nest kind of thing.
28:20I mean, as my children are leaving,
28:22she's the last one home,
28:24and she's incredibly important to the family.
28:30Tessa, please. Hi.
28:32Hi, Tess.
28:34Today, Tessa is going to be checked over by Tim,
28:36one of Noel's senior vets.
28:38Nice to meet you.
28:40So when she's sitting there,
28:42there's no weight on her foot at all,
28:44so she's just toe-touching,
28:46and she's not willing to put any weight on that foot whatsoever.
28:50So I've had a look at the x-rays that your vet supplied me.
28:53We've got loss of bone density in this area, OK?
28:57This looks as if it's something fairly sinister, I'm afraid.
29:01It looks like it might be a bone tumour.
29:03Mm. OK. OK.
29:05I don't know. It's hard to even think of what to say.
29:08It's hard to process it. It is.
29:10You just... You're not expecting this at all,
29:13and I've just told you that your dog's got cancer.
29:16Obviously, the hardest decision to make is whether you carry on or not,
29:21in terms of, you know, putting her to sleep.
29:27OK? OK.
29:29I would urge you not to delay your decision too long... Right.
29:33..because of the fact that it's so painful.
29:35Yeah, and the likelihood of there being a break,
29:39I would imagine. Hi.
29:42I've texted the kids and told them to be at the phone
29:45so we can talk to them.
29:48OK. OK.
29:51Bye.
29:54Ah!
29:56After speaking with her family,
29:58they all decide the right thing to do is to take Tessa home
30:01and have their vet put her to sleep.
30:03Our biggest concern is that she not suffer at all.
30:06I don't want to do heroic things to prolong her life for our benefit.
30:10Oh.
30:15She wants to know if she should get a ticket to come home.
30:26Ah, it's right here.
30:27Tessa is given some strong pain relief to make her comfortable
30:30for one final weekend with her family in Fulham, south-west London.
30:37This was going to be her last ever weekend.
30:42It was one of the biggest shocks of my life.
30:45This is it. This is the end of my dog.
30:50And, um...
30:54..I didn't really know how to cope with that.
30:58Stefan has grown up with Tessa,
31:00who has always been a ready and willing subject
31:02for his homemade food.
31:04I wanted something for the family to remember her by.
31:07You know, a little keepsake that you could just watch
31:11whenever you need a bit of Tessa.
31:15Even though I've had relatives die,
31:18this was probably the most intimate relationship
31:21that I've had end like that.
31:25Definitely the most immediate presence.
31:28We were literally holding hands.
31:31We were literally holding her when she died,
31:34and that's...you can't get much more immediate than that.
31:37I had her lying on my lap when the needle went in,
31:41and as much as that hurt...
31:45Sorry.
31:47..it was the best thing that I could have done.
31:50I was there the week that she was introduced into the family.
31:53I felt it's only just that I, you know, see her out.
31:56And if she hadn't been declining as much as she had,
32:00I would have made a different decision.
32:05The absolutely hardest thing that we ever have to do
32:09is to advise euthanasia,
32:11to advise that it's time to turn the light out.
32:16We have to be willing to do the kindest thing for the animal,
32:21and when it's time to say goodbye,
32:23we have to hug that family in death
32:27just as we would in life.
32:30MUSIC
32:39Four weeks after having her infected leg partially amputated,
32:43Pixie is about to undergo yet another operation.
32:48She has had major challenges,
32:51any one of which might have killed another cat.
32:54She needed a blood transfusion
32:56because she had so much trauma at the time of her accident.
32:59She had a horrendous pelvic fracture combination
33:03that required an external frame.
33:06She has a really weak right back leg
33:09because the nerve is really badly damaged
33:12and the hip dislocated, which had to be operated on.
33:15And now we're about to try and put a new foot
33:18on the left hind leg,
33:21which we've had to amputate part of
33:23because it was infected and horrible.
33:27It's a miracle she's alive at all.
33:32We've got to save the left leg
33:34because if Pixie loses the right leg,
33:36then we're going to have to put her to sleep,
33:38even after all she's been through.
33:40And this is the game changer.
33:44It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my head.
33:50This peg and this plate
33:53go inside the skin into the bone.
33:57The bone sits on this platform here.
34:01The tendons stitch down onto the platform
34:04and this dome allows the skin to wrap around it like Velcro,
34:09leaving this peg on the outside
34:11onto which we can attach an infinite number of feet.
34:15Implants like this will change orthopaedics forever.
34:24I've got to do an absolutely critical part of the procedure now,
34:29and that is make a hole inside the bone marrow
34:32for the peg of the implant without fracturing the bone.
34:36A tiny mistake at this point and it could be game over.
34:47We're about to go past the point of no return.
34:51We're about to go past the point of no return.
34:53Once we hammer this peg in, we cannot pull it out again.
34:58So let's hope we're right.
35:00Don't move.
35:02Hold steady.
35:03You're taking all the force of this.
35:05I want the force going into your hand and not into the bone.
35:09You absorb every whack.
35:17Come on, come on.
35:21Right, we're over halfway.
35:24We're committed, we've got to keep going now.
35:26Hold tight.
35:34We're in and it's a perfect fit.
35:39It's a massive relief.
35:41I'm now going to pull the skin down over the dome to see does it fit.
35:47It looks like we'll just about make it.
35:50There's a very high risk of infection here
35:52because Pixie already had an infected foot,
35:55which means that her infection, it may already be there.
35:59And if this infection comes back, we will fail.
36:03All right, Pixie, well done.
36:05Let's go to X-ray.
36:08The bone is attached with a peg, a plate and some screws.
36:13All of that and everything now hinges on a tiny piece of skin.
36:21Hopefully when she's warm and a bit more awake,
36:23we can get her to eat some grub and lots of cuddles and TLC.
36:29Good girl.
36:31This is a big deal, you know.
36:33She is really paving the way for all other animals
36:36and all humans that need limb amputation prostheses.
36:40There's loads of humans out there
36:42that would love a leg attached to their body
36:45rather than a stump socket
36:47that has to have an artificial limb pushed on it every day
36:51when they get up out of bed.
36:53She doesn't have any options.
36:55This either works or she gets put to sleep.
36:59Hey, Ellie.
37:01Hey. How are you doing today?
37:04Good girl.
37:06For the last six weeks, Ellie, the Great Dane,
37:09has been recovering from serious neck surgery.
37:12And today, owners Ron and Dawn are here to discover
37:15if it's been a success.
37:17It's been a success.
37:19It's been a success.
37:21It's been a success.
37:23It's been a success.
37:25Owners Ron and Dawn are here to discover if it's been a success.
37:30Now, finally, Ellie.
37:32Hey, mate. How are you doing, buddy?
37:35Hi. Hi, buddy. Hi.
37:38Also in the waiting room is one of Noel's former patients, Scooby,
37:42and his owner, David.
37:44Noel amputated Scooby's right front leg
37:47to slow the spread of an aggressive cancer.
37:50So, chemo, is it a third chemo today?
37:53Fourth chemo. Fifth. The last one.
37:56Yay!
37:59That's great. Well done, mate.
38:01OK, great to see you.
38:05Now, how sweet is that?
38:07That's lovely.
38:09Today, Ellie is being scanned to see if the bone marrow Noel transplanted
38:13has fused her vertebrae together.
38:17Now, this new implant system allows the bone to grow between you.
38:21You see that bone bridging there?
38:23So that can't collapse once the bone has bridged, right?
38:27That grey area there, there and there.
38:30Once that's filled in with solid bone,
38:32you are no longer dependent on the implants
38:35and therefore they can't collapse more.
38:37That's exactly what I want to see.
38:40So the critical time has passed and that's great, great news.
38:44Well done. Well done. Good. What a great day.
38:51You better phone your girls.
38:54Good. You go make your phone calls and then I'll bring her out.
38:58OK? Well done. Well done. I'll be back.
39:04It's better than mine.
39:06Because she can look straight down and you can't.
39:09All right. All right.
39:13Ron calls their two daughters to give them the good news.
39:17I'm sitting in the consulting room
39:21and we're just sitting with the CT scans
39:24and basically it couldn't be better.
39:27How do you feel?
39:31That's right, missus. Go and live and be happy.
39:35Well done.
39:38I'll see you for a last recheck before you go off the lead at week 12.
39:42Then we're off into the park.
39:44Off into the park. Good girl. Take care.
39:47See you guys.
39:49Come on, bionic dog.
39:51Look after yourself. You too. Bye.
40:03We really thought that the last month was a bonus
40:06and to know that it's just going to carry on
40:09and she's going to have a natural lifespan is just amazing.
40:12It's just amazing. I'm still shaking.
40:15At the end of the day, you've got a happy little furry person that needs you.
40:19If that doesn't get people out of bed in the morning, I don't think anything will.
40:25Let's go try some normal. Normal would be good.
40:28Normal would be good.
40:33Three weeks after her operation,
40:35Noel needs to see if the skin has attached to Pixie's bionic limb.
40:41That skin looks real nice around that peg.
40:45So now we have metal permanently bonded to the skeleton
40:50so she can feel the ground through her foot.
40:53We also have the skin growing into the metal
40:56so that no infection can get in in the future.
41:00All that is left is for Noel to attach Pixie's new, custom-designed foot.
41:05I absolutely love this moment.
41:11Off you go.
41:18Yes!
41:20As you can see, she's using this leg to support all of her weight
41:24because this one's still too weak, and if she didn't have this leg,
41:28she would never get around on that leg, so she'd be in big trouble.
41:32But we're hoping this leg will get stronger over time.
41:37In south-west London, Cindy and Stefan are returning home
41:41with a new member of the family.
41:43So cute!
41:48This morning and last night, I was pretty much bouncing off the walls.
41:52Yes, absolutely.
41:54This is better than Christmas for me because it's a void in my life
41:58and there's nothing I can do about it.
42:01This is better than Christmas for me
42:04because it's a void in my life that needed filling.
42:07Hello, hello.
42:09We've been counting down to puppy day.
42:11We kept saying, it's three more days to puppy day, two more days,
42:14and this morning it was like, it's puppy day!
42:19This is not a replacement, Tata, by no means.
42:22This is a completely new chapter.
42:25Well, I've just got this dog as a replacement for you, actually,
42:28so when you go, I have something left.
42:32This is my empty nest antidote.
42:34Is a retriever the best you could do?
42:37Oh, this is the best you could have.
42:40Come here.
42:43Hello, hello.
42:50Back at the practice, there's also a new arrival.
42:54Hello, sweetie.
42:58Oh, look at her.
43:02Receptionist Natalie has brought in her newborn daughter, Ivy.
43:06What are you doing there?
43:08And I thought surgery was hard.
43:10What are you doing?
43:12This is very technically challenging, this stuff, isn't it?
43:15Look at my new baby.
43:17Baby's shaved.
43:19No, this is a knee surgery.
43:22Oh, my God.
43:24Natalie, I can do this.
43:26I'll be here and just carry on, you know?
43:28Yeah.
43:32It's the best baby present you're going to get.
43:35It's a little dog skull.
43:37Oh, look.
43:39Yes, that's a zygomatic arch.
43:43Oh, bark.
43:46She just farted.
43:51Now, hi, Pixie.
43:53How are you doing?
43:56For Noel, it's back to work checking up on Pixie.
43:59All right, there we go.
44:00Come on, Pix.
44:02Good girl. Good girl, Pixie.
44:04Well done.
44:06Her bionic limb is working well,
44:08but she's still not using her nerve-damaged right leg properly.
44:11To help strengthen her muscles,
44:13she's been on a course of hydrotherapy.
44:16Come on, Pixie.
44:18Come on.
44:20It seems over the days, she's just got better and better.
44:24Quicker and quicker.
44:26There we go. Good girl.
44:28That's it. You do it.
44:30There we go.
44:32She's still my Pixie.
44:34She's still my little girlie,
44:36and hopefully will be for a long time.
44:38Right, Pixie.
44:40Today, Noel has come to check on her progress.
44:43So it's the first time I've seen her walk for four weeks now.
44:47Yeah.
44:48So let's see how she's doing.
44:51Come on. Good girl.
44:53Good girl. Here we go.
44:55If you stay there, I'll send her walking up towards you.
44:58All right? So you stay up there.
45:00Here we go then.
45:02All right, sweetie pie.
45:04Now then, are you ready?
45:06Let me see you walk.
45:08Careful now. Careful.
45:10OK. Off you go.
45:12Come on, Pixie.
45:14Go on. Go on.
45:17That leg was dragging behind you,
45:20and now look at it go.
45:25That's amazing.
45:38Wow, that was amazing!
45:41Yay!
45:43Yay!
45:49That was amazing.
45:53Bionic implants like Pixie's could take Noel
45:56one step closer to realising his lifelong ambition.
46:01I wish the human doctors and veterinary doctors
46:03would talk to each other,
46:05because what's happening here right now
46:07could revolutionise the lives of thousands of animals
46:11and thousands of humans.
46:13And really, I would die happy
46:16if I could just make a tiny bit of that happen.
46:20All right, Pixie.
46:22You've done so well, sweetheart.
46:24But we've got to go.
46:26I've got another operation to do.