The Surgeon's Cut (2020) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Forests…
trees…
and the seasons changing…
makes me think and reflect on life.
It reminds me…
of the first time I saw
a new living being.
I looked at the screen…
and I saw the baby in the womb.
The hands…
the arms…
the face…
the head.
You see life before birth.
But, of course…
I also realized that life…
is accompanied often by…
death before birth.
And a million questions arose
in my own mind:
How the baby grows inside the mother.
How do things go wrong…
and is there something
that you can do to intervene?
I wanted to devote my life…
towards understanding
how we can save the baby…
in situations where the baby
would otherwise die.
Kypros is a giant.
He has been a pioneer.
Just name it.
Everything that seems important
in pregnancy…
he has had an impact on.
Kypros has saved hundreds of lives.
He's a… He's a model.
I'm a… a fetal doctor.
Fetal medicine is the medicine
of the fetus.
Over the years,
patients have been referred
from many different parts of the world.
We carry out
about 200 complex procedures every year.
A lot of the women that I will see
will come…
often having been told that…
there is something seriously wrong
with their pregnancy,
that there's a very high chance
that the baby,
or babies in the case of twins…
will be dying.
They are at the end of the road…
often quite lost.
Daniela was referred from…
the Fetal Medicine Unit in Newcastle.
Um, she was originally from Chile,
and her husband is English…
and this is their first pregnancy.
We were trying, so I did the test.
It's twins,
and I was over the moon.
-I found that to be wonderful news.
-Yeah.
It was a brilliant moment.
In the second scan,
the doctor realized…
the babies were going--
In a problem,
and in the pregnancy, there are--
Something is going wrong.
They said it was showing signs
of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.
Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome…
affects identical twins
because they share the same blood supply.
Twins are connected by blood vessels.
One twin is getting most of the blood,
but he's dying
because his heart cannot cope.
The other twin is dying
because he's not getting enough blood.
We need to use lasers
to cut the blood vessels…
that connect the two babies…
so that each baby
has its own blood supply.
If we don't get the treatment, um…
both babies will certainly die,
and neither will survive.
You can see there, really…
- that this baby…
- Yes.
-…is a lot smaller than that one.
-Yeah, the small one.
This baby
doesn't have any fluid around it…
and the blood flow in this baby
is showing that this baby is receiving
much less oxygen than it should be.
And I think that baby has
a very high chance of not surviving.
The big problem is that,
because they're connected…
if that baby dies…
then it can cause the death
of the other one as well.
And we need to separate them,
protecting the big baby,
and we are giving a chance
for the small baby.
But I think we need to be prepared
that the small baby may not make it.
I'm prepared for that.
-Thank you.
-So…
we will do the laser. We have to do that.
We need to do the procedure now.
If we were to wait, both babies would die
within the next few days.
In normal surgery, of course,
the patient is asleep.
In this type of surgery…
the patient is fully awake…
This is the local anesthetic.
…and I encourage the woman
to hold my arm.
You hold your husband with that hand.
And then you hold my hand there.
- Yes.
- Good.
They immediately relax.
From my perspective,
that is a very simple gesture
which engages them.
We are undertaking the procedure together.
The next bit is slightly uncomfortable
for a few seconds.
-All right.
-Yeah?
So, you'll feel a pressure there…
so you can break my arm if you want.
And then… One, two, three.
Like that.
And that's the worst bit, over.
Look up at the screen now.
That's the tube, inside there.
Can you see that?
That's a hollow tube,
and the telescope will go through that,
so you will feel nothing more.
- Are you okay now?
- I'm okay.
This is the telescope.
So, you're looking at the screen there
on the left.
-And we are going down this…
-Mm-hmm.
Then you can see we are now inside.
If we go there…
You can now see the arm of the baby.
This is a big baby.
The big one.
The hand, there.
That's the other hand.
And that's the baby looking up.
- Can you see that?
- Yes!
That's the ear.
See the baby's playing with its ear?
Yes.
That's the umbilical cord,
going inside the baby there.
- Yeah?
- Yes.
-And then…
-The leg, yes.
That's the foot.
Okay.
You see, those are the blood vessels.
Can you see this?
Yes.
We just need to work out
which vessels go where.
So, we just need to follow those.
Like the branches of a tree, yes?
It's where they join.
We look at the surface of the placenta
to identify the blood vessels
that connect the two babies.
And then we passed a laser fiber…
That is the laser fiber, coming there.
- Can you see that?
- Yes.
And we use these to burn the blood vessels
that connect the two babies…
sealing the blood vessels
so that blood does not transfer
from one baby to the other.
It doesn't hurt, does it?
The parents participate.
When things go well,
then they have supported me
in the procedure.
And when things go wrong,
I want them to know
that I have tried my best…
trying to save the babies.
That's it.
So, tell your baby to stay there
for a few more months.
Bye-bye, baby.
Say "bye-bye."
- Bye-bye.
- Okay.
Okay, they're separate now.
Both babies are alive. It went well.
- So…
- You can sit up.
You were extremely good.
Come.
- Perfect.
- Okay.
Thank you. So, now?
- Now you can go back in the same room.
- All right.
Unless you want to stay behind to clean.
Not in this moment, please.
-Later.
-Later, can I come back?
Good.
After you.
Seeing the baby…
it's…
To watch…
really, really how is the life inside me,
at the moment,
is some magic.
You're seeing so clearly.
Like the face, the body…
You know, you're seeing the hands,
and the little chin,
and little feet and everything.
Even though the babies aren't out,
I just love them to pieces already.
You know, I can't wait to hold them
and be a dad.
-I'm really excited about that.
-You will be the best daddy.
In an hour, we'll do a scan
to see how the babies are doing.
Kypros was, as a doctor--
He was born with ultrasound.
In the '70s…
it was decided by my father
that I had to go to England
to study medicine.
I grew my beard, I grew my hair long,
and I found myself very actively involved
in left-wing movements…
against the apartheid,
against the dictatorships.
I was not interested in medicine at all.
Then, suddenly,
in the last year a new professor arrived.
He was one of the great pioneers
of ultrasound.
My whole life changed completely.
I hold this transducer
on a mother's abdomen
and a miracle happens.
A new patient appears on the screen…
and that is how fetal medicine is born.
I could not sleep that night.
I wanted to become a fetal doctor.
And within weeks
of qualifying in medicine,
I was beginning to become
one of the pioneers
of this new field of medicine.
I was at a very junior level.
He was at the top already.
Then he was very enthusiastic
and sparkling
about how things
should be looked at differently
from what they had been so far.
At the time, we were beginning to diagnose
a new condition:
twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.
We were seeing babies dying
or being extremely premature
and developing severe handicaps.
And you have this…
extreme feeling of depression
and frustration
that you can do nothing
to save the babies…
And it was at that time
that we were beginning to think
the problem
is the connecting blood vessels
between the two babies,
and we did not know what to do.
You have to get quite inventive.
And that's where Kypros
was very different from the others,
because he's always thinking
outside the box.
We came up with an idea…
that I should put
a telescope inside the uterus
and use lasers.
He just asks questions
that no one would ask before,
so he sees things with a different angle.
And he said, "Yes, sir.
We'll do something."
I remember clearly the parents.
I can see them in front of my eyes now.
This was 1992.
And when I heard we were having twins…
I couldn't wait to tell the world.
And I thought, "What?"
And I can remember being really shocked.
You know, but obviously that sinks in
and you think, "Oh, that's really good."
We felt pleased as punch.
But when we went to have
our 27-week scan…
that was when they said the condition
of the children was not very good.
"The condition is so grave
that'll we have to deliver
the babies that afternoon…
really in order to save your wife.
But, given their condition,
we don't expect them to survive."
But then the consultant said,
"Look, I have a friend of mine
who I trained with
at King's College Hospital
who we can only really describe
as a mad Greek professor."
So, that was our only chance, really.
We could see on the screen
two babies that were dying.
I expected the babies not to be alive
for one or two days more.
A very gloomy picture
that was very realistic,
because we could experience that
on every case.
And then I told them that we were thinking
of doing something new.
Kypros has got presence.
He spoke and everyone listened
to what he was saying.
He knew what he was going to do,
and what the plan was.
The patient was explained in detail
what was going to happen.
I wanted to again make sure
that I was not,
because of my own desire
to try something new,
manipulating them in order to become
my experimental animals.
I trusted this man,
and he seemed to know what he was doing,
and it was our one chance.
We did not know
whether that would work or not…
but they said, "You must try."
They encouraged us.
I was just so proud
that she was prepared to give it a go.
The operation had never been done before.
- It was late.
- Various screens and monitors…
and a large box with a control panel
and a foot pedal…
what I later realized was a laser.
Then goggles, because they didn't know
how the laser was going to react.
So, we all had to wear those
before anyone did anything.
I was worried.
I do not know how the procedure would go.
I was terrified that the laser
would just burst the vessels
and you'd have a massive hemorrhage
that could even put the mother at risk.
Just before midnight…
we introduced the telescope
inside the uterus and-- "Wow!"
An amazing picture.
Blood vessels on the surface
of the placenta.
We recognized the patterns.
We were having a constant conversation.
"You agree, yes?
This one's coming down from the donor.
This one is going up
from the recipient and things."
And then you say,
"Shall we now press the button?"
And I pressed.
I wasn't sure whether the whole room
would explode or not,
whether they'd have a massive hemorrhage
and then watch the babies die
in front of our eyes,
but the miracle happened.
The laser blocked the blood vessels.
The babies are still alive.
The mother is still alive.
Yves is alive, and so am I…
Semi-alive.
And then you have completed the operation
and you say, "Wow,"
and you are beginning to breathe now
a sigh of relief
that this may have worked.
In the subsequent weeks
the babies survive and they do very well.
So you know that you have now started
a new procedure.
And they were delivered…
on Friday, 25th September.
It is a miracle, really.
After what we'd been through
to get that result
and actually see them there,
and hold them.
Without Kypros,
they wouldn't be here today.
span style="style2"The surgeon
span style="style2"who saved the lives of twin boys
by operating on them
while they were still in the womb
has become their godfather.
Professor Kypros Nicolaides
saved the twins' lives
with a world-first operation.
As well as being godfather,
another honor for Professor Nicolaides,
one of the twins named after him.
-Unbelievable.
-Kypros! Long time, no see!
Unbelievable.
-It's good to see you.
-Lovely to see you.
-You haven't changed a bit.
-Of course not.
I've bought the children to see you.
Good to see you.
-And this one is…?
-Gary.
-Gary and…?
-And James.
James.
It's 28 years.
It'll be 28 years in August.
So, they're 27.
- In 1992.
- That's right.
The crazy night. We were trying to…
Going in, not knowing
really what we were doing.
-But did I look confident that I…?
-You did!
I pretended that I knew exactly what--
You oozed confidence.
It was a…
They don't seem to be damaged in any way.
Yeah, they're doing really well.
Doing well.
- Yves Ville…
- That's right, yes.
Yves Ville went on to become
the most famous doctor…
After the first successful cases,
there was some pressure
from other centers…
criticizing heavily the laser procedure…
saying that we were bombarding
the placenta,
uh, causing more damage than good.
The pressure was high.
The pressure was high.
Kypros is a doer,
and most people, when they face a doer,
and they feel they cannot compete
on that ground,
they become suddenly
extremely conservative.
But the skeptics just became silent.
Laser surgery became
the established method
for the treatment
of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome
throughout the world.
We have now reached
90% survival of at least one twin,
where we started
with the completely opposite figures
of 90% death.
People are always arriving,
uh, with a lot of expectations,
and I constantly feel under
enormous pressure…
because of the high expectation
that things will go well.
It's been about an hour
since Daniela had the operation.
My colleague Brindusa will do a scan…
to see whether the babies are still alive.
This is the big one.
And this is the little one.
Did she die?
I'm sorry.
The big baby, that's well.
But unfortunately,
the small baby's heart has stopped.
It's very sad…
but it's exactly because I expected
that baby to die any time,
that we had to separate them,
in order to protect the other one.
- The other one is completely--
-Completely protected now?
Protected now, and independent from it.
Uh, I expect that over the next few weeks…
the small baby will shrink up
and become part of the placenta.
I hope that the pregnancy then continues,
then you can deliver…
near term, and go as far as it goes.
One baby will survive.
If you feel anxious tonight,
and you start wondering
about the other babyspan style="style2",
you can come back anytime tomorrow
and you can do another scan.
- Thank you.
- But that baby is protected.
It will be alive.
- That's good.
- I think I'm going to come back.
I thought so.
-See you tomorrow at 11:00.
-See you, doctor.
Thank you very much, Professor. Thank you.
Up you go.
Thank you for trying your best.
-See you tomorrow.
-See you. Thank you.
-Thank you, guys.
-Thank you, Professor.
Olivia Harriet Doyle-Ojeda.
She was born at 16:49
and weighs 3.58 kilograms.
I do become emotional.
I engage with the patients,
their expectations…
because that's how I was brought up.
So, it takes me back…
home.
My trip through life…
I grew up in Cyprus.
My father was a doctor.
Maybe once a week
he would take me to the villages
to see patients.
I was quite young.
Six or seven years old.
He would go from village to village
and stay.
I watched him interact with the patients,
sometimes giving them good news,
and sometimes telling them bad news.
He would enter a room
and tell a patient,
"I'm sorry, but I feel that you have
something seriously wrong with you
and you have
a very short period of time to live."
He was very direct with the people,
very matter-of-fact.
And I was shocked by that.
I thought that…
That appeared to me, at that time,
to be cruel,
but I subsequently understood.
He was being very, very honest with them.
He had these very close relationships
with the people.
The love, the fear.
They believed him and they trusted him.
I grew up with these ideas
and I retained them
for the rest of my own career.
It is understanding
that the medical condition
is part of the overall life
of an individual.
So…
if things remain as they are,
I expect that you are going to have
a perfect normal pregnancy from now on.
So, it's good news.
Over several decades,
I have tried new things.
Quite often,
I went against the established trends,
against the establishment.
I always had this feeling
of being in a hurry.
I was lucky…
to be in the center
of important new developments.
Prenatal diagnosis,
prevention of prematurity,
screening for Down syndrome.
So many aspects of our discipline.
I had found something worthwhile
to devote my life towards.
I touched the lives of many people.
When the parents come, they're…
lost.
It's just like being lost in the forest.
Somehow my role is to guide them
through their forest,
to decide what's the best for them.
Whether their babies
are going to survive or not.
I found myself
also being lost in the forest.
This year I…
I was diagnosed with this type
of cancer of the blood.
Although I deal with life and death
on an almost daily basis,
I somehow had this impression
that I was immortal.
I never had to think that I could die.
I just felt that I would carry on forever.
The…
condition that I have is one where…
you could live for several years.
You need to have chemotherapy.
There are modern methods of chemotherapy
with minimum side effects…
and this was very important to me
that I would be able to continue to work.
So I will take some tablets once a week,
I will have an injection,
and soon after that,
I go across into my own unit
and I carry on seeing my patients.
I try to…
put my problem on the side
and focus on carrying on with my work.
I would prefer to carry on working
right up to the end.
What matters in life, I think,
is the intensity of life
and how much you feel
that you're fulfilling that life…
not how long you will live.
So…
- Emily. Hi.
- Hiya.
-We'll go for a scan now.
-Okay.
-Hello.
-Hi.
You can come in the room as well.
I want to develop new methods.
I want to validate them.
I want to spread new techniques.
That's the cross-section,
through the baby's chest there.
That white bit there is the lung.
But then there's another mass
in the chest,
this gray-ish organ, that's the liver,
and you can see that that is extending.
Here, it's extending into the chest.
So, it is a diaphragmatic hernia.
- It is?
- Yeah.
Emily has a baby
with a diaphragmatic hernia.
This is a very serious condition.
It is one of the latest procedures
I helped establish.
-Can I explain to you?
-Yeah.
Normally, that's the diaphragm.
That separates what is in the chest
from what is in the tummy.
In the chest, normally,
we have the heart in the middle.
There's the heart.
And on either side, we have a lung.
Like that.
Yeah?
And under the diaphragm,
we have the liver.
There's a big hole in the diaphragm there…
so the liver has gone into the chest.
And that forces the lungs
on the other side--
The lungs have been affected a lot.
So, as soon as the baby is born,
and they clamp the umbilical cord,
-the baby needs to breathe.
-Yeah.
And it is at that time
that, if the lungs have not developed,
the baby cannot survive.
My best estimate
of the chance of the baby surviving
is somewhere in the region of 10%.
We have two options, really.
We either carry on with the pregnancy
and see what happens…
or…
we found out that,
during the course of the pregnancy,
the lungs…
of the baby produce fluid. Water.
This water is coming out of the lungs,
through the trachea,
into the mouth and then around the baby.
If we put a balloon there,
we are blocking this fluid from escaping.
It stays within the chest and in the lungs
and that stretches the lungs…
and it makes them grow.
And also, by increasing
the pressure within the lungs,
we are actually also pushing…
the bits from the liver
that have gone up, downwards.
I think that on the basis
of what we have done so far…
it could double the chances of survival…
but still doubling…
So, nearly 30 percent, innit?
A 30 percent chance. Maybe maybe 40.
So, still, it's a very high risk
that the baby will not make it.
The real question is whether…
You need to think about it.
-It needs to be done, don't it?
-I think so.
Right. Okay.
- Ask me anything.
- How soon do you want to do it?
Now.
-Now?
-The sooner, the better.
Yeah.
And your husband has promised me that…
if you behave…
he will buy you some decent trousers
as well.
You need to somehow enter the mouth,
go over the tongue,
go to the back of the throat,
and then we enter a common passage,
and then we deposit there a balloon.
You all right?
That's the balloon.
So…
Again, I want you to hold my arm.
That's the tube that we have in.
Going down the tube.
We're somewhere inside now.
That's the baby's head.
The scalp, there.
I see something here.
I need to work out where is the face.
Now I'm at the level of the eye, now.
That's the eye.
Those are the eyelids.
The eyes are closed.
I'm just looking at one eye, there.
That's the upper lip…
and that's the lower lip.
So, we need to go above the tongue.
And now I'm on the top,
on the roof of the mouth, yeah?
Yeah.
I need to find those white spots.
Can you see those white spots?
Those are in the mid-line,
so that helps me orientate myself.
I just need to follow that line.
God put those lines there
for me to follow.
- Mmm, clearly.
- Yeah.
Now…
the difficulty is the next bit…
because the baby's quite bent.
This is quite difficult.
The baby's floating around
within the amniotic cavity
in a certain given position.
You cannot hold the baby's head
and pull it backwards.
You need to do all of that
using one instrument,
and quite often you use one hand
to hold the ultrasound machine
that is giving you indirect visualization
of where you are,
and then you're using the other instrument
both to see where you're going,
but also you're using it as a lever
to position the baby's head
into the right position.
Bingo.
That is the vocal cords.
Yeah?
Can you see that?
And below that is the trachea.
So, that's the trachea.
The balloon will go just above that.
Now you inflate it.
Okay?
Now, I'm looking through.
You see, I'm looking through the balloon
into the trachea.
Is that done? Yes.
Now I bring this out.
And then if you look there…
you see the balloon.
That's the balloon there.
So, it's inflated and it's sitting
in the trachea
at the lower right, yeah?
We just hope it stays there now.
It went well.
If you look,
you can just see the heart there.
Can you see?
- Oh, yeah.
- That's the balloon, there.
Okay.
Now, around three to four weeks,
we will repeat the procedure
and then take the balloon out.
- Looks good.
- Thank you.
I hope it works.
Go and lie down on the sofa next door.
-Thank you.
-We'll scan you in an hour, yes?
-Okay.
-You can go.
Emily's baby
only had a 10% chance of survival.
But it is now born.
It's alive…
and he's called Henry.
They expect that he will have
a healthy life.
On a daily basis…
I try to work out…
what is the chance…
that the baby will survive?
That's what I do.
And then I started thinking
exactly the same for myself.
How long do I have?
Good.
I lived all my life with this feeling…
that I must not waste time.
He's a doer.
He's very demanding,
because he's very demanding
from himself as well.
It pushes him to then find answers
and build.
Look at this foundation.
He built
this absolutely fantastic building.
He has now offered patients
a beautiful unit.
This is another achievement,
another facet of his personality,
as being a creator.
I come here and I look at the tree
and then look across
to where we started off with
in the early 1980s.
Very, very long corridors,
hundreds of patients waiting for hours
to be seen…
and I always dreamed
that we'd take these poor women…
out of the hospital…
and place them in the atmosphere
of an art gallery.
On top of the best treatment,
he's also able now to give them
the best environment to be treated…
at no cost.
When women arrive here,
they feel much better
than if they were in a hospital.
When the news is good,
it adds to their great experience,
and when the news is bad,
again, it is more comforting
to be in an environment like this.
Yeah, it's what my understanding is
of what medicine is.
Medicine is a…
It's a way of living,
its not a profession.
It's not a 9:00-5:00
or a 9:00-10:00 job.
It's a continuous life experience.
For me, this is my life.
The olive tree, the building,
the sharing…
trying to understand how
a patient feels…
Being part of that process,
not a detached professional.
A detached professional
whose job is to make a diagnosis
and then be nice to them
in a sort of polite way,
and send them off
to deal with their own problems.
I am part of their life,
at least for that short period of time
that I am with them.
I feel how they feel.
I share in their happiness
and I share in their distress
when things go wrong.
And you never know
how deeply you could be involved.
A patient has just arrived from Greece.
Second floor.
This is a triplet pregnancy
with a pair of identical twins
and a separate third baby.
At 24 weeks, the identical twins developed
severe twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome,
and you need to separate them…
because these babies can die very quickly.
I always, in a sense, feel nervous.
I never let myself relax
and feel too confident.
A good surgeon is not the one
that is technically perfect,
but a good surgeon
is the one that knows
how best to approach the operation.
A good surgeon is the one that can think.
The other one was low.
They are exchanging.
And the other one?
I cannot tell which one belongs to which.
I just saw them, that they are like this.
So…
unfortunately…
the heart of the small baby
has now stopped.
Just… yeah.
So, the one baby is…
The separate baby is alive.
The baby that was very sick…
the recipient baby,
the heart is still beating,
but the small baby's heart has stopped.
So…
Immediately, I know.
There is a very high risk
that the other baby will die,
because the other baby is hemorrhaging.
Because the two babies are connected,
when one baby dies…
then the surviving baby can hemorrhage
into the dead one.
The blood pressure of this baby drops…
and then the surviving baby
hemorrhages into the dead one.
At that time, that baby can die as well,
or it can become brain-damaged.
If that's going to happen,
it's going to happen today.
So if there is any evidence of hemorrhage,
then I will give a blood transfusion…
to the baby that is alive.
Yeah, I will put the needle
inside the uterus
so that whatever the baby is losing,
I will replace to stop it from dying.
So, it's a shock.
But I think it's best
if I continue now, yes?
You ready? Yeah?
I need to plan and take action
very, very quickly.
But unfortunately there is an excessive
amount of fluid around the babies,
and I cannot reach with my needle
into the heart.
You can hold my arm there.
So I need to remove the fluid
very quickly.
I will take two or three liters
of fluid out.
- Is that coming?
- Yes.
Can you check the heart rate?
The heart rate is slow.
A normal heart rate is about 140,
and it's about 106.
So, it's slowing down.
So…
It is very important to keep calm…
to be reassuring the patients,
and to also be able
to think in a cool way…
knowing that with every minute passing by,
the heart of that baby
will get worse and worse.
I can assure you that inside, I'm boiling.
- Is it coming?
- Yes.
Quickly.
Ninety-five.
-Okay.
-Yes.
It's very slow now.
You see, the heart looks…
empty.
Now, what we have to do now…
The heartbeat is stopping at 75.
I need to go now. Yeah.
Okay, so, hold me there. Yeah.
I'm going to rest the needle
on your tummy there.
Then I want you to squeeze my arm.
You'll feel a little sharp pain now.
I have put the needle in the heart…
and I'm giving the blood
inside the heart of the baby.
So, it's going well.
Let's take this off.
- You can see the heartbeat now.
- I can see it, yes.
It's much better. One hundred thirty-four.
As the heart of the baby goes down, mine…
goes faster and faster.
That…
sounds better, isn't it?
And then I will scan you again.
Too much…
A lot.
It's very rare that you…
do a scan
and you see a baby dead in front of you.
And then… pow.
And then, as you were draining the fluid
I was seeing
the heart getting slower and slower…
and by the time we finished
the baby would be dead as well.
But it's good.
Now we need to check your heart rate.
It's too much!
I was emotional
because I was very, very tense.
I-- There's nothing worse
than watching a baby die,
and I cannot think
of any other field of medicine
where you're having the transducer
on the heart
as you're watching it empty and then stop.
I… I did get emotional.
I was worried.
I was worried that I would not succeed.
Even with successful operations,
sometimes you don't know
how things will turn out.
Two weeks later, unfortunately,
the baby I gave a blood transfusion died.
Zoe's pregnancy
with the third baby continued…
and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
People often ask me,
"After so many decades…
after so many thousands of procedures…
does it not become part of a routine?
Do you still have any feelings?"
I have exactly the same feelings today
as I had when I first introduced
the technique.
I feel good
that I did not get used to
breaking bad news.
I feel I'm still human.
I share in their feelings.
And I believe I will continue to do so
to the end of my days.
I am happy with what I have done
in my life.
I will hopefully continue
to do what I enjoy…
to be with my patients,
to be with my colleagues.
Doing research, my educational program.
There is nothing different, I think,
that I would do
if I were to start from the beginning…
because I feel that these things
are very, very worthwhile.
Now…
I have this cancer.
I do not feel scared.
I feel quite optimistic.
In many respects, after several decades…
finding myself constantly
in life-and-death situations…
it reminds me of the importance of…
life.
I feel very positive.