A bit off topic but I wondered if anyone else in the UK has been following the Channel 5 series showing operations done live? The first night showed open heart surgery to replace a defective valve and last night we saw complete knee joint replacement in about 90mins.
It's the knee operation that is probably of more interest to us engineers, absolutely mind blowing to see a surgeon replace a joint live on TV in pretty much the same way we would on an engine. It was amazing to see how he drilled into bone in order to locate a central pin and from that attach various jigs and templates in order the cut bones squarely and in the right position to accept a metal replacement.
The programme said that during the operation the surgeon had access to over 1000 different tools and templates, he more drills, taps, jigs, parallels, saws, hammers, chisels, pliers than most of us 😀
Not for the faint hearted but if you want to see a bowel tumour removed live on TV then C5 at 10pm