Courage to Fail

Synopsis: Series recording the development of surgical techniques from the pre-anaesthetic era to today’s open-heart surgery and organ transplantation.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Video; Videocassette. Standard formats. col. 5 x 50 min.
Year of production: 1987
Availability: Sale; 1996 sale: £99.00 (+ VAT +p&p) each
Notes: Reviewed in British Council FVR 185, April 1989.
Uses: Medical and lay audiences.*
Subjects: Medical sciences
Keywords: amputation; breast cancer; heart surgery; history of medicine; human organ transplant surgery; mastectomy; surgery; war injuries

Title: Stout heart and a sharp knife, A
Synopsis: 1: Depicts the conditions under which amputations were carried out in the 1830s. Explains the demand for radical ideas and solutions to cope with serious war injury. Anaesthetics were discovered and developed along with antiseptics. Transplants were attem
Title: Open hearts
Synopsis: 2: In 1945 there was no such thing as a cardiac surgeon and operating on the inside of the heart was considered impossible. Within a few years everything changed. Taking incredible risks more surgery time was gained by immersing the patient in ice water a
Title: Heroic failures
Synopsis: 3: The radical mastectomy, invented over 100 years ago, was perpetuated for decades after it was clear that a much simpler and less mutilating procedure, lumpectomy, would do just as well. The move now is to supplement surgical treatment for breast cancer
Title: Gift of life, A
Synopsis: 4: In 1954 Robert Herrick, a young man dying of kidney disease, made medical history. Surgeons saved his life by transplanting a kidney from his identical twin. Before this surgeons had been unable to overcome the immunological barrier. It was mustard gas
Title: End of the golden age
Synopsis: 5: Within two years of Dr Christian Barnard's first heart transplant the poor success rate had caused a virtual abandonment of the programme. Cooley, a pioneer surgeon, left research and many heart surgeons admitted defeat. Norman Shumway continued. For a

Name: BBC Active Video for Learning - now BBC Learning
Contact: Carolina Fernandez Jeremy Wilcox (CF - for educational enquiries JW - channel sales manager)
Email: BBCStudiosLearning@bbc.com
Web: https://www.bbcstudioslearning.com/ External site opens in new window
Phone: +44 (0) 20 8433 1009
Address: BBC Studios Limited
Television Centre
101 Wood Lane
London
W12 7FA
UK
Notes: The BBC Active company has now been absorbed within BBC Learning, a division of BBC Studios. It was originally a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Pearson Education. Formerly known as ‘BBC Worldwide Learning Studies’ and before that as ‘Videos for Education & Training’

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British Universities Film & Video Council