Extraordinary People

A team of British doctors journey to Vietnam to operate on a group of adults and children with serious facial deformities.

The remarkable story of Bangladeshi conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna, and the fight by medical professionals to save their lives.

The documentary strand exploring extraordinary tales of human experience concludes with the story of two children suffering from congenital hypertrichosis, or ‘werewolf syndrome’. The programme investigates how genetic research may hold the key to giving these children normal lives – and potentially helping millions of others. Seven-year-old Nat Sasuphan from Thailand was born with congenital hypertrichosis, an extremely rare and incurable disorder that causes the sufferer to grow excessive hair on the face and body. “The worst thing at school is when the new students make fun of me,” says Nat, whose father is worried that Nat’s condition will cause her to develop an inferiority complex. Removing the hair is tricky: laser treatment had bad side effects, hair removal cream leaves a rash and shaving may harm the skin.

The series takes a look at a man in Puerto Rico who says he can conduct electricity through his body.

A son prepares to risk his own life in an effort to save that of his mother.

The cameras follow a Chinese surgeon as he attempts a partial face transplant on a man who was attacked by a bear.

Cameras follow the planet's heaviest man as he prepares to get married in Mexico.

The show takes a look at an Indonesian fisherman called Dede who is afflicted with tree like growths on his limbs.

Little Shiloh Pepin has sirenomelia or "mermaid syndrome", a rare birth condition where her legs have been fused together at birth. In most cases, persons born with sirenomelia die at birth, or get surgery to separate the fused legs. Shiloh has defeated the odds in making it to her eighth birthday.

In this episode of Extraordinary People, at just 2 foot and 9 inches, Indian muscleman Aditya 'Romeo' Dev is the world's smallest bodybuilder. Romeo is well-known in his hometown of Phagwara, India, for his ability to lift 1.5 kilogram dumbbells, despite his overall 9 kilogram body weight. Every day, crowds flock to the local gym to the see the mini-muscleman in training.

Documentary about Mary Sellars, a woman whose legs are four times larger than average and who suffers from an extreme form of Proteus Syndrome. Follows her as she travels to see doctors' in the USA and meets various amputees, as she may have to undergo amputation in order to resolve growing health problems that her condition is causing. http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/842912

In this story, Extraordinary People follows three women as they prepare to give birth without medical attention, anesthetics, or professional intervention. Known as freebirthing, it is becoming increasingly popular in the UK and America despite doctor's reservations about the practice, and the issue of legalility.

This episode of Extraordinary People features 36 year old Ukranian, Leonid Stadnyk, who is the tallest living man in the world at 8'4". Professor Michael Besser, the UK's leading specialist in gigantism, travels to the Ukraine to see if he can save him from a potentially life threatening condition.

Extraordinary People brings you the story of Dede, an Indonsian man, who suffers from a bizarre skin condition that has left him covered in organic tree-like growths. He travels to the USA to see a dermatologist, Dr Gaspari from the University of Maryland, who concludes that the condition is linked to warts that have formed out of control due to the body's inability to cope with them because of an immuno-deficiency condition.

This documentary by Extraordinary People is about Manuel Urib from Mexico, who weighs more than 1218 pounds and is completely bed-ridden. This report follows him over a year as he follows a special diet program created by various doctors and medical personnel from around the world as he begins to lose weight.

In this report by Extraordinary People, Oscar Pistorius, a South African Para-olympic champion, had his legs amputated when he was born. Today, he uses state-of-the art artifical legs with carbon fiber feet to run. Over the course of a year, he tries to break into the world of normal athletic competition while the International Association of Athletics Federation considers whether he has an unfair advantage or not using his artificial legs.

This episode of Horizon reports on the Ibrahim twins, conjoined twins joined at the head, documenting the pioneering surgery to separate them in 2003 and their return home to Egypt and how they have recovered and developed since.

Marlie Casseus from Haiti is just 13 years old as she undergoes dangerous and pioneering facial operations to remove a huge lesion caused by the fibrous dysplasia. Without the surgery, she is in danger of going blind and subsequently killing her from suffocation and starvation. However, the surgery itself is high risk and involves replacing facial bones.

Six year old Cameron Mott from North Carolina, USA, suffers from continuous epileptic fits caused by the progressive brain disorder called Rasmussen's Encephalitis. Extraordinary People follows Cameron and her family as she undergoes a complex and dangerous operation to cure her. The report also looks at Sean Goldthorpe, a teenager from London, England, who is undergoing exploratory treatment and monitoring to try and pinpoint how his increasing epileptic fits can be stopped.

Extraordinary People investigates the story of Sarah Scantlin, who was injured in a car accident in 1984 and awoke from a coma twenty years later. She was able to speak and think clearly, and revealed that she had been fully aware of what was going on around her during the time of her coma, but had been unable to express herself or move. The story continues as she tries to overcome the physical deterioration in her muscles and body, determined to live as full and normal of a life as possible.

Extraordinary People looks at Danny Biddle, who was sitting only a few feet away from suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan on the London Underground when Khan exploded his bomb. He talks about the events of that day on the 7th of July and how he was helped by other survivors and managed to survive in spite of severe injuries. He talks about his treatment and life since then and his recent marriage.

This episode by Extraordinary People contains a rare look at Abby and Brittany Hensel, dicephalus conjoined twins, having two heads and sharing one body.

In this episode of Extraordinary People, David Fitzpatrick experienced sudden inexplicable total memory loss at the age of twenty-five. The report follows David as he tries to regain his memories by travelling to places associated with his life in the hopes of triggering recollection. The report also looks at the effects on his family and his relationships with them.

Extraordinary People reports on the phenomena of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, which occurs in developing twin fetuses, when one of the twins dies and is enveloped by the other or where both die because of unequal distribution of blood. This reports also looks at the case of Bengali farmer, Sanjay, who underwent an operation for what was believed to be a massive tumour in his stomach, but turned out to be the semi-formed fetal remains of his twin brother.

José and Julie are about to become parents of identical quads in Britain. The story by Extraordinary People covers the risky pregnancy and birth of the quads.

Extraordinary People reports on Derek Paravicini. Derek is autistic, blind, retarded, and yet, is a genius at the piano. He can play anything he hears just once. This reports follows him to a major concert where he teams up with another genius pianist...with the same handicap.

In this episode of Extraordinary People, four identical quad girls are followed in their growth in the Mathias family home.

Extraordinary People presents an update on the Indonesian boy named Novemthree, who underwent radical surgery in Taiwan to remove a huge, facial tumor. One year later, his tumors have grown and now his life is once again in danger from suffocation and starvation.

In this episode of Extraordinary People, Akrit Jaswal, just twelve years old, is studying at the University of India to be a doctor. He travels to Britain to be studied by scientists at the Imperial College.

How can it be that DNA testing proves that Lydia Fairchild cannot be the mother of her own children? In this episode, Lydia was found to be a "chimera" where at her own conception, two separate fertilized eggs merged together instead of growing as two separate twins.

Extraordinary People reports on conjoined twins, Josie and Teresita Alvarez, and, Lori and Dori Schappell, who were surgically separated as children. However, it did not go as well for the adult conjoined twins, Laden and Leleh Bijani from Iran.

Luciana Wulka's is just seven years old. She was diagnosed with Fibrodysplasia Ossifcans Progressiva, a rare disease, which is progressively changing all of her muscle tissue into bone.

In this episode, Extraordinary People tells the story of three women tormented 24 hours a day by the need for orgasm.

Extraordinary People investigates abductions of unborn babies from pregnant women. This episode follows the story of Elijah Evans who was brutally cut from his murdered mother's belly.

Juliana Wetmore was born with a genetic disease called Treacher Collins syndrome. This is her story of her severe facial disorder.

This episode is about Zahra, a 75 year old woman from Morroco, admitted to the hospital for abdominal pains. To the surprise of the doctor, the pain was due to a baby, mummified in her womb from a pregnancy 46 years earlier. The second part of this episode is about Jane Ingram...who gave birth to a baby that developed outside of the womb, in her abdomen.

In this episode of Extraordinary People, a group of people suffer from a rare condition called Dystonia. Dystonia is a neurological muscle disorder that causes uncontrollable, painful spasms anywhere in the body. Although not very well known, it is estimated that there are more than 500,000 people in North America alone that have the disease. This is more than Muscular Dystrophy, Huntington's Disease, and Lou Gehrig's disease combined.

This is the story of three young men who suffer from Tourette's Syndrome. Some of the symptoms of this disorder are involuntary muscle twitching, tics, and even loud verbal outbursts.

Archie is just two years old and weighs almost six stone, or 84 pounds. He has a rare genetic disease called MOMO syndrome, which belongs to the family of overgrowth syndromes. This disease has only been diagnosed in four cases in the world. The name is an acronym of the four primary aspects of the disorder: Macrosomia (excessive birth weight), Obesity, Macrocephaly (excessive head size) and Ocular abnormalities.

A follow up story on Sharon Parker who had most of her brain removed surgically as a child.

Extraordinary People reports on Tanya Streeter as she attempts a world record for diving without scuba tanks.