It was a series of hour (?) long medical shows that documents various surgical operations. I remember knee surgery, hernia surgery (I think) and others.
It may have been produced by PBS or perhaps BBC and was at least 10 years ago, I think.
Any idea if they are available online or on disc somewhere?
I remember watching that show (or one very much like it), this would have been about 20-25 years ago and IIRC on one of the Discovery/Learning type cable channels.
The one I remember the most was an operation to repair a girl’s strabismus (boss-eyed-ness) where they left some surgical thread hanging out of her eye socket so that they could do some adjustments later.
This was on Discovery Canada, I think.
Pretty sure it was Discovery and I watched it at least 13 years ago, cause I remember seeing it while feeding one of my kids when they were a baby.
The one that got to me was a hip or leg operation involving pins and screws. First they absolutely manhandled those joints. I mean I’m gentler with 2x4s. Then they whipped out a drill and it was a Black and Decker or some other common brand name. Call me silly but if I’m in there I want the Surgical Drill 2000, not the same thing as on my workbench (even if other than the name plate it’s the same).
Yes, that fits my memory. I thought those shows were brilliant, but I can’t find them anywhere.
Here’s one of them:
Operation-Cesarean and it appears it was The Learning Channel, not Discovery.
Whoa! $72.95?
I didn’t like those shows that much.
TLC doesn’t have these in their archive. Guess it was too long ago…
Hey it’s VHS, you have to pay extra for that kind of cutting edge technology.
Yeah, I just noticed that. It’s too bad - I figured that the whole series would be available on DVD by now. I wonder why they aren’t available.
I remember this show from the days when TLC showed educational programing. My favorite episode was a facelift, where the surgeon was able to get several fingers under the person’s skin.
Oh yeah…I remember the facelift, too. Yikes!
I don’t if it was the same one, but I was flipping thru channels and stumbled upon one where they were basically peeling someones face off…there should be a “two-click” rule on TV sometimes.
I caught “The Operation,” exactly three times, and each time it was the breast reduction surgery. It was actually really fascinating, and not at all in a prurient way. I think I was able to watch it because, for surgery, it was relatively bloodless, and there weren’t really any identifiable organs, just a lot of fatty tissue.
I really miss TLC as it was.
Yep, I remember it. I even remembered it as being on TLC back when they re-ran old (I’m talking Bob Vila old) episodes of This Old House, which for some legal reason they had to call The Renovation Zone.
In addition to the boob job episode, I remember an episode that had some sort of eye surgery, but I can’t say if it’s the one mentioned above.
I used to watch this show while eating dinner. It was fascinating. I loved the hip replacement operation because during the whole thing, I was thinking “I could do that! I’ve got everything I need in the basement.”
The Cesarean operation was the only one I found truly disturbing – if more guys knew what the uterus looked like, they wouldn’t be so eager to get near one, I tell you what.
This is the SDMB and there’s been no mention of “The Other Other Operation?” You guys are slipping.
When my niece was an elementary school student, The Operation was her favorite show. She’d race home while playing at friends’ houses so she wouldn’t miss an episode.
She’s a 3rd year engineering student now, not a doctor, like I thought she’d be.
StG
Interesting…I went for engineering too! My parents had several detailed medical books around the house for some reason; I loved looking at those too, mostly for the rare diseases and conditions. (Megacolon!)
I remember seeing the Nissen Fundoplication episode not all that long after having that particular procedure done and feeling very glad that I did not watch it before my surgery. :eek:
It’s a pretty cool procedure, especially considering nothing is cut, removed or implanted, but seeing them jam the trocars into the patient’s belly was a bit unsettling, especially when they showed it from the inside.