Monday 6 August
9.00-10.00pm BBC ONE

Middle age and the body’s ability to draw on reserves are the focus of tonight’s penultimate episode of the series which celebrates the human body and reveals how, when faced with life-threatening illness and injury, humans all share one overwhelming instinct: to fight for life.

The penultimate episode of Fight For Life explores middle age and the body’s ability to draw on reserves.

Following the stories of patients suffering from a stroke, heart failure and a thoracic aneurysm, the programme fuses their personal stories with the powerful science of what’s happening inside their bodies through computer-generated imagery.

As 53-year-old Alan is taken to hospital for a routine check-up, doctors discover a life-threatening aneurysm in the main blood vessel supplying all his vital organs. Called “the silent killer”, the condition means his vessel is so decayed it could burst open at any time, flooding his body with blood and killing him. Fight For Life follows the dangerous operation to replace Alan’s decayed vessel with an artificial one.

Christine has been a smoker for years and the effect on her lungs has been devastating. She’s arrived at hospital confused and frightened – the result of her brain being starved of oxygen. As her lungs aren’t functioning properly, carbon dioxide is building up in her blood and poisoning her brain. Will doctors be able to save Christine’s life?

John’s weak heart makes normal life impossible and could soon kill him. This episode follows the cutting-edge procedure to implant a pacemaker using robotic surgery, illustrating exactly what’s happening inside his body during the operation.

Finally, Fight For Life meets Nick who has had a recent stroke caused by a diet too high in fat. Tonight’s programme graphically recreates the events inside his brain.

These are the years when medicine and the body work together to unlock extra decades of life, and the programme shows the amazing reserves inside all our bodies.