Health & Medicine Videos - The Documentary Network

Allow Me To Die: Euthanasia in Belgium

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 15:18:02 +0000

Imagine choosing to die when you don’t have a terminal illness. Is it a choice we should have? A powerful Dateline special gets rare access to film the journeys of two people in Belgium – going behind the most liberal euthanasia laws in the world. Peter Ketelslegers is a 33-year-old father of two, Simona de Moor is a physically healthy 85-year-old. Both of them want to die. Peter suffers cluster headaches, which have left him unable to work and look after his family. Ultimately, he feels, unable to live. “It’s like a knife being stuck in my head,” he tells reporter Brett Mason. “It spreads through my whole head. I hit it to get rid of the pain.” The intense headaches can last up to three hours, several times a day. He’s tried many different treatments, including drastic brain surgery last month, but nothing has worked. “If there’s no other solution than just an injection, and gone… do I have to say it? Euthanasia,” he explains. “I don’t want to be a burden to anyone… I should take care of the children rather than them taking care of me, but I can’t.”

Burial Boys of Ebola

Documentary.net staff — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 15:04:29 +0000

Ebola Outbreak 2014: In Sierra Leone, a group of young men take on the dirtiest work of the Ebola outbreak: finding and burying the dead. In the campaign against the Ebola virus, which is sweeping across parts of West Africa in an epidemic worse than all previous outbreaks of the disease combined, the front line is stitched together by people like Ms. Sellu: doctors and nurses who give their lives to treat patients who will probably die; janitors who clean up lethal pools of vomit and waste so that beleaguered health centers can stay open; drivers who venture into villages overcome by illness to retrieve patients; body handlers charged with the dangerous task of keeping highly infectious corpses from sickening others. Their sacrifices are evident from the statistics alone. At least 129 health workers have died fighting the disease, according to the World Health Organization. But while many workers have fled, leaving already shaky health systems in shambles, many new recruits have signed up willingly — often for little or no pay, and sometimes giving up their homes, communities and even families in the process. “If I don’t volunteer, who can do this work?” asked Kandeh Kamara, one of about 20 young men doing one of the dirtiest jobs in the campaign: finding and burying corpses across eastern Sierra Leone. When the outbreak started months ago, Mr. Kamara, 21, went to the health center in Kailahun and offered to help. When officials there said they could not pay him, he accepted anyway. “There are no other people to do it, so we decided to do it just to help save our country,” he said of himself and the other young men. They call themselves “the burial boys.” Doctors Without Borders trained them to wear protective equipment and to safely clear out dead bodies potentially infected with Ebola. They travel across backbreaking dirt roads for up to nine hours a day. Ms. Sellu, who is one of the only Ebola workers at the Kenema hospital who have neither contracted the virus nor fled. Credit Samuel Aranda for The New York Times In doing their jobs, the burial boys have become pariahs. Many have been cast out of their communities because of fear that they will bring the virus home with them. Some families refuse to let them return.

How Testosterone Secretly Shapes Our Society

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 09:34:23 +0000

Testosterone has long been considered what makes men masculine. But is this common perception selling the hormone short? Dr Phillips investigates just how this molecule affects our abilities, behaviour and health. "I've found I was less drawn by an attractive woman's body, but found that I could appreciate what people's expressions were more." Since being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Professor Wassersug has noticed both pros and cons to being testosterone-deprived. Evidence suggests that the hormone has a big influence on how our brain develops; it has the potential to affect behaviour, empathy-levels, language, and the way we build relationships. Because of this, regulating testosterone-levels may just hold the key to healthier and happier lives.

Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:24:17 +0000

A drug called Truvada is the first FDA-approved means of preventing HIV infection. If an HIV-negative person takes the pill every day, he or she is nearly 99 percent protected from contracting the virus. Controversy continues to surround the broad uptake of Truvada, but the landscape of safer sex and HIV prevention changes fundamentally from this point forward—particularly within the gay male community, the population hit hardest by HIV in America. We explore the future of the Truvada and its revolutionary impact on ending HIV/AIDS.

ResERECTION – The Penis Implant

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:37:15 +0000

We visited Miami, Florida, to speak to one of the leading penis doctors in the country and find out what it's worth to get your penis operated on. Penile implants have become a popular treatment option for erectile dysfunction—a health complication that more than 30 million men suffer from in the United States alone. The surgery consists of placing an inflatable prosthesis within a man's member that is attached to a soft ball that sits in the scrotum. When the ball is pumped, the penis remains hard for as long as the man wants. Most individuals that undergo the operation are satisfied with their implant, but the unlucky two to three percent experience infections that can lead to death, mangled parts, and more.

Positive or Not – A Documentary About HIV

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 08:20:36 +0000

How is it to hear the words "you are HIV positive" at the age of 20? How do you tell your family and friends? Around 150 people between the ages of 15 and 25 are HIV positive in Denmark. In this short documentary we follow the story of both Lasse and Atle. Lasse was diagnosed with HIV when he was 20 years old. Atle is now at that age, and has decided to take an HIV test for the first time. This documentary is made by Sophia Shefner, Sarah Corridon and Atle Syversen - students at the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Produced in 2013. Music by: Morten Lohne Erlend Elvesveen Shimmering Klubbsett

Radiating the People: Fukushima’s Cancer Legacy

Documentary.net staff — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 11:14:12 +0000

It's what post-Fukushima Japan fears the most; cancer. Amid allegations of government secrecy, worrying new claims say a cancer cluster has developed around the radiation zone and that the victims are children. In a private children's hospital well away from the no-go zone, parents are holding on tight to their little sons and daughters hoping doctors won't find what they're looking for. Thyroid cancer. Tests commissioned by the local authorities have discerned an alarming spike here. Experts are reluctant to draw a definitive link with Fukushima, but they're concerned. "I care because I went to Chernobyl and I saw each child there, so I know the pain they went through", says Dr Akira Sugenoya, a former thyroid surgeon. What terrifies parents most is a government they feel they can't trust. It's created a culture of fear; one which has led a number of women post-Fukushima to have abortions because they were worried about birth defects. "The doctors in Fukushima say that it shouldn't be coming out so soon, so it can't be related to the nuclear accident. But that's very unscientific, and it's not a reason we can accept", Dr Sugenoya insists. "It was disclosed that the Fukushima health investigation committee was having several secret meetings. I feel the response has been unthinkable for a democratic nation", Dr Minoru Kamata from the Japan Chernobyl Foundation says.

Forever Young – What’s the secret of eternal youth?

Documentary.net staff — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:14:52 +0000

Dr Jeffry Life thinks he has the answer, and it’s controversial. Prescribing human growth hormone and testosterone injections to wealthy retirees from his clinic in Las Vegas. The 74-year-old physician has become a celebrity, showing off his muscled body to demonstrate what he says can be achieved. Nick Lazaredes meets Dr Life, which is his real name, and looks at the growing 'age management' industry in the US. But while his patients are lining up to endorse the treatment, the trend has sparked a debate over whether it’s effective or even safe. And with the high cost of treatments, some are asking who’s really profiting from the desire to stay youthful. --- As people live longer thanks to improved healthcare and better nutrition, the desire to look younger is also increasing, but what is the secret of eternal youth? 74-year-old Dr Jeffry Life is a specialist in the field, but his therapy involves a highly-controversial cocktail of drugs, prescribed from his clinic in Las Vegas. He instructs his patients to inject themselves with human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone… a potent combination he believes staves off disease. “We've been treating thyroid deficiencies for decades because we know it improves people's quality of life. It improves their longevity, so why not do it with the other hormones?” he says. “I think it's important for people to know today, that they don't have to follow the same path as their parents did, that they don't have to age like their parents.” And for more than a decade, that's exactly what the Kleppes from Arizona have been doing. 70-year-old Steve and his 67-year-old wife Shirley say it’s changed their lives. “I spend no money on going to doctors,” Shirley tells Nick. “Can you imagine the amount of money people spend going to doctors and hospitals and medicine? We don't do that.” But while Dr Life’s patients are lining up to endorse the treatment, the trend has sparked a debate over whether it’s effective or even safe. “These individuals who run these anti-ageing clinics… I consider to be charlatans and hucksters,” says Dr Glenn Braunstein, who’s a hormone expert from Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. “[They’re] selling an effect at a very high price. There's a population out there that says ‘hey, who wouldn't want to be young?’" So who’s really profiting from the desire to stay youthful?

The OxyContin Express

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 19:33:13 +0000

Florida has become a pill popper’s paradise and the main source of an illicit prescription drug pipeline. Lax laws and little oversight have led to a booming number of storefront pain management clinics that dispense painkillers, particularly Oxycodone, like candy. A potent narcotic — basically, heroin made in a lab — Oxy is the drug of choice for a growing number of addicts and traffickers. “Legal drug dealers,” one law enforcement official calls Florida’s clinics. Mariana van Zeller follows the pain pill pipeline from Florida, the “Colombia of prescription drugs”, where 85 percent of all the nation’s Oxycodone is prescribed, to Appalachia, where Oxy from the Sunshine State is in high demand. In Florida, Mariana goes “doctor shopping” with Todd, an Oxy addict who has already lost his brother and wife to painkiller overdoses. When Todd is turned away from a clinic, he scores through a dealer, a 70-year-old grandmother who sells pills out of her home. We also meet Todd’s mom, Maureen, as she fights to keep her only remaining son alive and crusades to change Florida’s prescription drug laws. “If Florida had a prescription drug monitoring program,” she says. “I think my kids would have had a chance to make it through rehab.” In the meantime, she gives Todd an ultimatum: shape up or go back to detox for the 16th time. When Mariana takes a hidden camera inside a pain clinic in Ft. Lauderdale, she discovers that many of her fellow “patients” have driven 18 hours and nearly a thousand miles to see the good doctor. “They’re real liberal with dispensing narcotics down here,” says a man from Ohio. Pursuing this lead, Mariana hops a flight on the “Oxy Express,” a low cost airline popular with pill heads and dealers transporting drugs from Florida to Appalachia. In Greenup, Kentucky, Mariana witnesses the devastating impact Florida’s pills have had on rural communities. Everyone has been affected, from addicted mothers serving time in overcrowded prisons to families that both deal and inject Oxy. “We’re drowning in pills from Florida,” says Sheriff Keith Cooper, a a small town lawman taking on a growing national epidemic. “Florida is killing us.” Film from 2009

Intensive Care – Doctors on Everest

Documentary.net staff — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 10:24:55 +0000

A lack of oxygen in the body is a major cause of death in intensive care. Yet little is known about why some people die from the condition, known as hypoxia, while others survive. In this film, anaesthetist Dr Joff Lacey joins medics and some of the 200 or so volunteers on Everest in the largest high altitude study of its kind. Using oxygen-thin air at altitude to simulate the effects of hypoxia suffered by intensive care patients, doctors examine volunteers, including identical twins Jenn Price and Jan Taylor, pictured to try to work out how the body adapts to oxygen deprivation. The researchers also examine a large group of Sherpas, analysing them at a cellular level to discover how they are so well adapted to oxygen-thin air. In all, medics carry out around 65 separate studies, collecting hundreds of samples, from muscle biopsies to nitric oxide readings. Their findings could ultimately change the way critically ill patients are treated, potentially saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people with a range of diseases, including cancer, diabetes and heart and lung disease.

Rise of the Superbugs

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:14:16 +0000

Antibiotics are the wonder drugs of modern medicine. They've allowed doctors to save and extend life by killing infection and enabling ground breaking surgery. But imagine a world where antibiotics don't work - that would be a place dominated by superbugs, bacteria that don't respond to antibiotics. Scientists say this would end many modern medical procedures and they claim the threat is greater than we realise. Geoff Thompson looks at the rise of superbugs, visiting the hot spots around the world where the misuse of antibiotics is creating a breeding ground for these bacteria and he tells the horrific stories of those who've contracted infections that can't be controlled. He also reveals that Australian health officials are making decisions that could open the way for a deadly superbug to infect Australians living in the far north of the country. "...Every time we take an antibiotic we're giving the bug a chance to become a superbug ... the more of us that take antibiotics inappropriately, the greater the chance in the community a superbug will come." And that's exactly what's happening in India, where antibiotics are not restricted in their use. As a result a new superbug, New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase or NDM-1, has evolved. Not only is it deadly in its own right, it's also capable of genetically modifying other bacteria to make them superbugs. Superbugs like this have infected people who've been injured in accidents while travelling overseas. In other cases, apparently healthy people return from abroad only to discover that a simple medical procedure effectively unleashes the bug. In one instance, a healthy middle-aged man went for a prostate biopsy. The procedure was done successfully but one day later he became desperately ill. A superbug, possibly contracted while travelling overseas, had moved from his bowel into his bloodstream making him critically ill.

Gary Hartstein – I was just a Doctor

Documentary.net staff — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:59:45 +0000

Dr Gary Hartstein, M.D. is the former FIA Medical Delegate for the Formula One World Championship. Gary has been key in developing some of the FIA's new approaches and policies in terms of medical safety. In 1997 Gary joined Professor Sid Watkins in the Formula 1 Medical Car and in 2005 he became the "Formula 1 Doctor" when Sid retired. At the end of 2012 Gary did not have his contract renewed as Formula One Medical Delegate. Mario Muth sat down with Gary at his home in Liège to talk about his life in Formula 1 and how it ended.

Jujitsuing Reality – Living to Write

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:34:05 +0000

Despite living with ALS, screenwriter Scott Lew maintains his voice in the world through his scripts, giving added meaning to the expression "living to write.” Lew wrote the film Sexy Evil Genius, which stars Katee Sackoff, Seth Green, Michelle Trachtenberg, William Baldwin and Harold Perrineau. A documentary illustrating how a screenwriter suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease communicates with the world. Director: Chetin Chabuk Producer: Diane Becker Editor: Chetin Chabuk Director of Photography: Chad Mann

Chagas: A silent killer

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:51:07 +0000

It is deadly, it is spreading quickly, and most of the world has never heard of it. Chagas, a parasitic disease, is spread by the vinchuca bug's bite. In rural Argentina, villagers speak of "muerte subita" or rapid death caused by Chagas. It can eat away at the cardiac muscle until the patient's heart ruptures. It can devour the intestinal wall leading to toxicity and massive internal bleeding. It is incurable in adults and, while it is not always fatal, it is almost always debilitating. Chagas affects more than 15 million people worldwide, most of them in Latin America and may kill as many as 50,000 each year. With more and more rural to urban migration, the disease is migrating as well. While it is easy to diagnose with a blood test, it presents few obvious symptoms, so many of those infected may never be properly diagnosed or treated until the disease attacks. By Ricardo Preve

Waking the Brain: Advances in Neuroscience

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 07:25:40 +0000

In the summer of 2010 Rohan Pais, an amateur long-distance cyclist, was training for a charity ride. His bike collided with a car and he was thrown into a cornfield. His injuries were so severe, that the emergency room doctors told his wife he wasn’t going to make it. “They said ok Paula.... he's going to be in a vegetative state, he's not going to recover, he will never know you, he will never look at you, he will never talk to you, and he’s never going to eat. All the ‘nevers’ came out that day,” she says. But Paula never gave up Rohan, even when doctors were telling her he could never hope for any kind of life. “The intensivist was telling me 'if it was my husband, I would have ended his life' but I said 'he is not your husband, he is mine. And I can't,” she says. In the months following his accident she decided to get a clearer picture of his prospects from a team of doctors specializing in the damaged brain. Canadian Neuroscientist Dr. John Connolly was one of those doctors. By using sophisticated scanners, neuroscientists like Dr. Connolly can see the brain “talking” in the form of electrical signals, rather than words. When Rohan was scanned, he showed strong and promising brain activity. “He came out looking very good, in fact. In all of those tests,” says Dr. Connolly. “He showed very clear brain responses to his own name.” Another researcher, Dr. Adrian Owen of Western University in London, Ontario, estimates that one in five patients are wrongly diagnosed as vegetative. Sixteen years ago, Dr. Owen was a researcher at a hospital in Cambridge, England. He had access to an expensive new brain-imaging machine called a PET Scan and he was looking for the ideal experimental subject. That subject,was a schoolteacher named Kate Bainbridge, her brain severely injured by a flu-like illness. “It really all does go back to Kate Bainbridge,” says Dr. Owen. “She was patient number one. We put her into the scanner and we showed Kate pictures – faces of her friends and family. And the part that we know now that is responsible for recognizing faces, it lit up just as it would in your eye.” Dr. Owen says this is only the beginning. He hopes that eventually, perhaps in as little as five years, scientists will have found a way to allow brain-damaged patients to communicate with their loved ones. “I think morally and ethically we have to do everything we can for every patient that we find in this situation,” he says. Dr. Owen doesn’t blame emergency room doctors for misdiagnosing patients with serious brain injuries. “It’s impossible to tell if the patient is conscious. Because they make absolutely no responses,” says Dr. Owen. “Without these research tools that we have, there really is no way for correctly diagnosing them.” But he believes that if more doctors using sophisticated scanners to detect brain activity, they might put more patients on the road to at least partial recovery. Today, Rohan is speaking and learning to walk again. If it weren’t for neuroscientists like Owen and Connolly, Rohan might still be lying unresponsive in a bed.