Children's Hospital (1993)

The return of the highly acclaimed series with more heart-warming stories from the wards of Sheffield Children's Hospital. What new dilemmas face the hospital and how are some of the children featured last year progressing?

This week, a visit to the heart of the hospital, the intensive care unit, where 4-year-old Natasha is rushed in suffering from severe smoke inhalation. Doctors fear massive brain damage and all her parents can do is wait. For children like Natasha, intensive care is their last chance, but the unit is small and pressure for beds is great. Doctors battle not only for Natasha's life, but also for extra beds.

In the last series, Jonathan , now aged 2, was diagnosed as having a large tumour in his kidney. The tumour was removed and he appeared cured, but it has unexpectedly come back. Now, after intensive chemotherapy, he is due for a body scan. Born with crushed lungs and a hole in his diaphragm, newborn baby Shaun needs an urgent operation at the children's neo-natal clinic - but he's 50 miles away in Scunthorpe.

New born baby Shaun is still in a critical condition with a hernia in his diaphragm. One in three babies with this condition do not survive and they are never able to breathe for themselves. Four-year-old James is having grommets placed in his ears to cure glue ear. And cheerful 12-year-old Lisa is back in hospital for the sixth time this year-she has the incurable bowel condition Crohn's disease.

Seven-year-old Daniel has relapsed with leukaemia. His only chance is to have a bone marrow transplant, but that only offers a 50 percent chance of cure and is risky: his body may reject the marrow. His younger brother Lewis, aged 4, is a donor match. For their parents it's an agonising decision. Should they go ahead?

It's an action-packed day in the casualty department, where staff will treat as many as 100 patients before the day is through. The first big case is 12-year-old Graeme , who has fallen out of a tree in the school playground and broken both his wrists so severely he's in danger of losing his hands.

Four-year-old Nicholas has haemophilia. He has been receiving the blood product Factor 8 to stop the excruciating bleeds into his joints which could affect him in later life. But Factor 8 no longer works for him and the doctors are baffled as to how to stop his bleeds. And 4-year-old brittle bones sufferer Hayley returns to have her plaster casts removed.

Eleven-year-old Claire is only three feet nine inches tall. Surgery could lengthen her legs, but it's a process that will take more than three years. Will she decide to go through with it?

Things do not go according to plan when 11 -year-old Claire , who suffers from the condition known as achondroplastic dwarfism, has surgery to lengthen her legs. Meanwhile, 9-year-old Oliver comes in for his latest operation - he must have the warts that could stop him breathing removed from his throat. And baby Emma is still on the danger list six weeks after her liver transplant.

Christmas is approaching. 6-year-old Michael has been rushed into intensive care after a road accident and doctors fear damage to his brain. Five-year-old Michael was born with an abnormal food pipe and has problems eating. He needs regular operations to stretch his gullet but is still seriously underweight and his growth could be stunted for life. Meanwhile, Chief Executive Richard Jeavons is overseeing one of the hospital's expansions.