Natalie's story: The life-prolonging surgery that became a 'death sentence'
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
A woman left with an incurable brain disease following a NHS operation says she feels like she's "living with a death sentence".
Natalie Bralee-Brett was born with the birth defect spina bifida - but doctors told her mother about a new procedure that could improve and prolong her life.
Instead, medical experts now say that operation - which implanted a graft made from a membrane taken from a dead body into her spine - left Natalie with a rare brain condition called iatrogenic cerebral amyloid angiopathy (ICAA).
How did the NHS end up introducing this procedure and how many others are affected by ICAA? Are they entitled to compensation and could something similar happen again?
Niall is joined by Sky's health correspondent Ashish Joshi following his investigation into Natalie's plight.
There is more information from Great Ormond Street Hospital here:
https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/news/statement-regarding-recent-media-coverage-september-2025/
Producer: Araminta Parker
Editor: Mike Bovill
Transcript
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| 1:00.2 | Coming up on the Sky News Daily, the doctors said a graft of material from dead bodies would improve her life. |
| 1:07.1 | Instead, she's now living with an incurable brain disease. |
| 1:10.7 | Natalie's story is next. |
... |
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