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Inside Health

Acid Attacks and Corneal Grafts, Bowel Cancer Screening, Sports Prosthesis for Children

Inside Health

BBC

Health & Fitness, Science

4.4575 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The UK has one of the highest recorded rates of acid attacks in the world, nearly 500 cases in 2016. Most of the victims are men and most have corrosive liquid, typically acid or bleach, squirted into their faces while they are being mugged for their phone, bag or car. Andrew Keene was attacked in London last year while he sat in his car, and blinded by a robber who then drove off in his car. He's had five operations, including two corneal grafts, to try to restore the sight in his right eye. Dr Mark Porter talks to Andrew at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, where sight-saving eye surgery was pioneered over sixty years ago. This hospital set up the UK's first Eye Bank for donor eyes and it is from these donations that eyes, damaged like Andrew's, are repaired using grafts. Mark hears about the shortage of donated corneas which mean long waiting lists for eye surgery and Eye Bank head Dr Nigel Jordan tells him they're having to import donor eyes from the USA to meet demand.

BBC News anchor George Alagiah has gone public with the news that his bowel cancer has come back three years after it was diagnosed at an advanced stage. He has questioned why screening starts at different ages in different parts of the UK. If he lived in Scotland where the bowel cancer screening programme starts at 50, up to 10 years before the rest of the country, he would have been screened earlier and his cancer might have been picked up earlier, making it easier to treat. Inside Health's Dr Margaret McCartney discusses the complexities involved in rolling out national screening programmes and tells Mark why there's a difference in Scotland and the rest of the UK about the starting age for bowel screening.

Until a couple of years ago, children who were born without a limb, or those who lost a limb after illness or injury, could get a traditional prosthesis, or artificial limb fitted, but it was a limb of the most basic kind which would enable them to walk, but not to run or do sports. But thanks to money released into a special fund by the Department of Health in England, for the last 18 months these children have been fitted with the high-tech futuristic-looking prostheses - racing blades - that allow them to run, jump and compete in all sorts of activities and sports. Mark visits a paediatric rehabilitation clinic at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore and meets the children who are benefiting from these new activity blades.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast,

0:05.4

The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's

0:10.6

Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials

0:16.2

from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Sh Ranga Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased,

0:21.9

it's really all about the traitors uncloked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts,

0:27.4

listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, thank you for listening to this edition of Inside Health.

0:32.1

I hope you enjoy it. Coming up over the next half hour, screening for bowel cancer. Why does the

0:37.3

programme start at 50 in Scotland, but later across the rest of the UK?

0:42.6

And sports prostheses for children.

0:45.5

How making high-tech blades available on the NHS is transforming the lives of those with artificial limbs.

0:52.1

For him, his confidence is a lot to do with sport.

0:56.6

Sophia and the striker, the boy that can play football.

0:59.5

So for him, his mobility is everything.

1:03.8

More on blades later.

1:05.6

But first, eyes and acid attacks.

1:08.3

The UK has one of the highest recorded rates of corrosive liquid attack in the world,

1:13.8

nearly 500 cases in 2016. Four out of five of the victims are men, and most of them had the liquid,

1:21.0

typically acid or bleach, squirted in their faces while being mugged for their phone, bag, scooter or car.

1:28.2

For many, the resulting facial scarring and damage to their eyes will change their lives

1:33.3

forever.

1:34.8

Andrew Keane was parked at the side of the road in London when somebody decided to steal his car.

1:40.7

What happened next was brutal.

...

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