Surgery – how far have we come?

Surgical team star in Netflix's new Royal show illustrating how surgical techniques and technologies have developed to improve patient care.

A leading surgical team from Guy’s Hospital in London swapped the operating theatre for the small screen when they appeared in Netflix’s new drama series, The Crown.

The team re-enacted lung surgery on King George VI that took place in Buckingham Palace in 1951. It is thought to be the first time that real-life medics have performed a pretend procedure for a television production.

The experience gave the transplant surgeons an opportunity to reflect on how far surgical procedures have come over the last 70 years.

King’s College London produced the video below, featuring Mr Pankaj Chandak, a specialist registrar in transplant surgery in the Guy’s Hospital transplant team, looking at Lister’s antiseptic system, to 3D printing organs to assist surgeons in planning complex operations, and how science and technology has contributed significantly to surgical and medical innovation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKUIvt9DI_Q

Professor Nizam Mamode, consultant transplant surgeon, Mr Francis Calder, consultant transplant surgeon, Mr Pankaj Chandak, a specialist registrar in transplant surgery, Sister Kim Wall and Sister Abigail Keen were transformed into pioneering surgeon Sir Clement Price Thomas and his team for the TV series. In 1951 Sir Clement and his team removed a cancerous tumour from the King’s lung during an operation carried out in Buckingham Palace.

Mr Chandak, who is also an honorary lecturer and research fellow at King’s College London, said: Being part of The Crown was an experience we will never forget. Despite having the film crew around us, once we settled in it felt like a normal day in the operating theatre. The prosthetic body was incredibly life like, complete with a beating heart, and there was meticulous attention to detail on set to recreate the surgical world from 1951.

I asked the production company to donate the ‘body’ we operated on to the Gordon Museum of Pathology at King’s College London as an educational prop. I would like to use it for future demonstrations and lectures to show how far we’ve come with surgery since the time King George VI was operated on.

At Guy’s Hospital we carry out minimally-invasive techniques through keyhole and robotic surgery, meaning that patients can leave hospital sooner and recover more quickly than they have previously been able to.

The entire series of The Crown, which stars Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II, is now available on Netflix.