Season 4 · Episode 3

Embarrassing Bodies: Scarborough

This week the Embarrassing Bodies team are taking their services north, to the seaside town of Scarborough. The first patient through the door is 26 year old Russell, who has put up with an oozing and painful ulcer on his shin ever since a biopsy left an open wound two years ago. Enter Dr Dawn, who takes a swab from his leg and predicts that hospital treatment will be needed. Professor Val Edwards-Jones identifies the staphylococcal aureas organism in her analysis of the sample. While this explains the smelly discharge from Russell’s leg, he is referred to an immunologist to try and establish the cause of the problem. Russell sees an immunologist and a dermatologist, who determine that pyoderma gangrenosum syndrome is responsible for his leg ulceration. Immune cells have been attacking Russell’s skin and the condition has been complicated by his poor immune system being unable to deal with the added bacterial infection. Russell is told that there are probably only around 30 people in the world who have had this problem. He goes into hospital for two weeks, followed by six months of injecting antibiotics at home.