Surgeons

Brain (2x2)

: 29, 2008

Brain looks at the world of neurosurgery and the work of Donncha O'Brien and Ciaran Bolger in Beaumont Hospital. Surgeon Donncha O'Brien is one of the country's leading neurosurgeons specializing in Epilepsy. This debilitating condition affects about 40,000 people in Ireland. One of them is 31 year old Deirdre-Anne Wynn Robinson from Tallaght. After years of medical treatment Deirdre-Anne has decided to go under the knife to remove part of her brain- the part Donncha O'Brien believes is the source of her Epilepsy. Carey-Ann O'Brien has been mentally handicapped since she was two, she also suffers from epilepsy and every day her parents must administer a cocktail of drugs in attempt to alleviate her worsening seizures. Her parents have turned to Donncha O'Brien in the hope that a radical technology, the Vagus Nerve Stimulator, surgically implanted in Carey- Ann, could help reduce her dependency on medication and the frequency of seizures. Patsy Brennan, from Drogheda, has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for many years. For over a year two slipped neck vertebrae rubbing against Patsy's spinal cord have caused her extreme pain. In need of an urgent operation she was referred to Ciarán Bolger in Beaumont- a further year has passed and finally a hospital bed has come available for her.