Surgeons: At the Edge of Life

In the first episode, specialist maxillofacial surgeons Tim Martin and Sat Parmar prepare for a marathon operation on 53-year-old Teresa. Four weeks ago, Teresa was diagnosed with a fast-growing cancerous tumour in her face and she will die within weeks unless it is removed. The procedure involves radical surgery to the entire right-hand side of her face, and means she will lose both her upper jaw and right eye. It is an enormous undertaking for Teresa, and for Tim and Sat, too.

The second episode follows some of the country's most daring and skilled surgeons as they perform fiendishly complicated life-saving surgery. Going beyond the theatre doors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, this episode features two procedures so formidable, they would not have been attempted even a few years ago. Surgical teams at the Queen Elizabeth are constantly pushing the limits of what is possible. But despite state-of-the-art diagnostic scanning, sometimes cancer surgeons don't know exactly what they are up against until they open the patient up on the operating table. Even with the most meticulous planning, sometimes they must resort to taking critical decisions live in the theatre.

Documentary series which uncovers the powerful human stories at the cutting edge of Irish medicine, looking at both the practitioners, and the patients that go under their knives.