Thanks to Mrs S hanging on through Match of the Day 2 I ended up watching this quietly modest documentary about an extraordinary Englishman. Henry Marsh is an accomplished brain surgeon working in South East London. Fifteen years ago he had occasion to visit the Ukraine where he took part in a medical conference. There he met local hero Igor Petrovich, a man whos fight against officious red tape makes Marsh’s own frustrations with the NHS appear perfunctory. Together Marsh and Petrovic embarked upon an odyssey of hope, Marsh smuggling NHS equipment and his own robust skills into the harrowing corridors of the desolate, ill-equipped hospitals. Marsh confesses to loving the country 'as much as my own'. He's quietly determined to make a difference in a land where hope has been abandoned by many.
Relatively (for a successful brain surgeon) self-effacing Marsh is as quick to acknowledge failures as accept plaudits for his work. Some years ago he treated a young Ukranian girl, Tania, who suffered from a debilitating growth on her brain. Marsh’s efforts, noble as the intent undoubtedly was, left her profoundly disabled and hastened her demise. Despite this years later Tanias' mother expressed her enduring gratitude by hosting a modest meal. She thanked the surgeons for the hope they’d brought to their lives.
Marsh deals in hope. You could see the dreadful weariness behind his eyes as he studied the brain scan of a pretty young woman. He tells Igor there is to be no hope for this woman, that within three years she will be blind and, with the tumour both malignant and inoperable due to belated diagnosis, dead in five. 'What should I tell her?' pleads Igor. Marsh suggests asking her to return with her mother as the woman sits, oblivious, a few feet away.
The programme makers could be accused of voyeurism, showing Marsh drilling into a patients’ skull whilst the man chats amiably. It's not clear if the patients' consciousness is necessary to the operation or simply the result of a lack of facilities. At one point the primary tool, a thirty quid cordless Bosch drill, runs out of power. Undeterred Marsh recharges and ploughs on, sawing his way into the brain-pan and hooking out the offending tumour whilst delivering typically matter-of-fact commentary. The most uncomfortable footage is undoubtedly the meal with Tania's family. Again I feel we, through the camera, intruded on something terribly personal, yet I couldn't help but be lifted by the emotional exchange reaching across worlds divided by so much more than language.
Petrovic and Marsh swap philosophies and it’s the Englishman who offers the simple explanation that ‘we are here to help others. If not, then what is there? Nothing.’ He confesses that in his dying moments it will be Tania he sees along with those he's helped. Despite his tireless efforts the man is evidently haunted by his all-too-human failings.
I was sitting in my Glasgow hotel tonight, trading good-natured football-flavoured barbs with El Gordo on this very site, when Scottish BBC2 repeated the program. It swiftly put things into perspective and I sat in silence to relive the horror, the joy and the hope intrinsicly woven into the tale. It’s a shameful world that heaps plaudits on celebrity sportsfolk whilst men like Marsh go about their impossible business almost unnoticed.
Almost.
If you missed this program and wish to download it
click here. Squeamish to the last I usually dodge these medical things but this one is worth a look and is mercifully light on the gore.
The English Surgeon Storyville, BBC 2, Sunday 30th March
