00:03There are lots of things all around, exciting things that surround us.
00:10But how does it work? Do you know?
00:13How is it made? Do you know?
00:17Things that go up, things that go down, things that go up, things that go round.
00:23With special cameras to show you inside, it's going to be a big surprise.
00:30But how does it work? Do you know? How is it made?
00:35Do you know? Do you know?
00:38Let's find maps!
00:41Hello, I'm Maddy and today I'm visiting a hospital.
00:45Have you ever been to a hospital?
00:48They're very special places because inside there are lots of doctors and nurses
00:53who help people get better if they're poorly or hurt.
00:59Sometimes doctors use special machines to help people
01:02and there's one machine you might have seen before.
01:05Let's go inside and have a look.
01:09We're in a consulting room where you see a doctor and this is the machine.
01:14It's called a blood pressure monitor.
01:21Your heart pumps blood all around your body, to your head, to your fingers and toes.
01:27And doctors and nurses use blood pressure monitors
01:30to check that your blood is flowing nicely through your body.
01:34It's called checking your blood pressure.
01:38But do you know how a blood pressure monitor works?
01:44Let's find out.
01:46How does it work?
01:48A blood pressure monitor.
01:55This is Amanda and she's going to check my blood pressure.
01:58Blood pressure shows how easily blood passes through your blood vessels.
02:02And to measure it, she's going to use the blood pressure monitor.
02:12The first thing that Amanda is doing, she's putting this bit,
02:16is called the cuff around the top of my arm.
02:23Now Amanda is pressing a button which makes air travel from the machine
02:28through this tube and into the cuff.
02:31The cuff is blowing up.
02:33It's a little bit like blowing up armbands when you go to the swimming pool.
02:44Did you hear that sound?
02:46That buzzing sound was the machine working and inflating the cuff.
02:52I can feel the cuff getting tighter and tighter.
02:56It's a bit like having your arms squeezed, but it doesn't hurt.
03:01When it's ready, we'll hear a little beep and that will tell Amanda it's ready
03:05so she can check my blood pressure.
03:10And that was the beeping sound.
03:11If you look at the monitor, you can see there are two numbers
03:14and those numbers will tell Amanda if my blood pressure is okay.
03:19Amanda, how's my blood pressure?
03:20It's fine today, Maddie.
03:24So, my blood pressure is nice and healthy.
03:27But how does the cuff tightening around my arm tell the machine and Amanda
03:32that my blood pressure is okay?
03:34Well, to find out, we need to see what's going on inside my body
03:37when my blood pressure is being taken.
03:41Your heart pumps blood all around your body.
03:45With each heartbeat, it pumps blood through lots of little tubes called blood vessels.
03:51Having good blood pressure means your blood is flowing nice and easily around your body.
03:57It's not going too fast or too slow.
04:00When your blood pressure is checked, the cuff on the monitor fills with air
04:05and it gets bigger and bigger.
04:07The bigger it grows, the tighter it gets on your arm.
04:10This squeezes the blood vessels so the machine can measure how easily the blood is travelling through.
04:16The doctor can tell what your blood pressure is by the numbers shown on the machine.
04:20If you've ever had your blood pressure taken, then you know it feels a bit funny
04:24when it tightens around your arm, but it doesn't hurt.
04:27But do you know what blood vessels look like?
04:32Well, I don't have a special camera with me today.
04:36Instead, I have a very special light and it shows you what's happening under your skin.
04:43But first, we need to dim the lights and turn it on.
04:52Wow, that's amazing.
04:54It looks like there are lots of branches of trees inside my arms
04:59or the veins that you see on a leaf.
05:02But what you're actually seeing are my blood vessels.
05:06This special light uses a laser to show you your blood vessels under your skin.
05:13And there are so many in my arm.
05:16Look at my hand.
05:17My hand is full of blood vessels.
05:21I can follow these blood vessels and veins from my hand all the way up my arm, even to my
05:29elbow.
05:31Can you see those dark patches?
05:33That's the blood flowing freely around my body.
05:37That is incredible.
05:38How amazing to be able to see under your skin using a special light.
05:51I loved being able to see under my skin and learning how a blood pressure monitor works.
05:58What was your favourite bit?
06:01Do you remember what you call the part of the blood pressure monitor which goes around your arm?
06:08That's right.
06:09It's called the cuff.
06:12Did you hear the sound the monitor made when the cuff was blowing up with air like a balloon?
06:27And did you see the blood vessels in my arm when I used my special light?
06:33Wow, that's amazing.
06:35It looks like there are lots of branches of trees inside my arms or the veins that you see on
06:42a leaf.
06:49So if you ever need to have your blood pressure checked or see someone having theirs taken,
06:54you'll know how the monitor works and what your veins look like inside your body.
07:00There are lots of reasons why people might come to a hospital and one of them is if they break
07:05a bone.
07:06I broke my arm when I was younger.
07:09Have you ever broken an arm or a leg or a finger?
07:13Whatever you break, there are special doctors and nurses in hospitals who help fix broken bones.
07:19And there's something they use to put on a broken bone to help fix it.
07:24Can you guess what it is?
07:27That's right.
07:28It's a cast.
07:30This is a cast for an arm.
07:33But do you know how it's made?
07:36Let's find out.
07:38How is it made?
07:41A cast.
07:43When a bone is broken, a special photograph is taken called an x-ray.
07:48And it shows the doctor what the bone looks like inside a body.
07:52An x-ray looks like this.
07:55This is an x-ray of an arm.
07:58And can you see that the bone here is broken?
08:01To fix it, the bone needs to be held still for a few weeks so it can be made straight
08:06again.
08:07And here, after it's been put in a cast, you can see that the bone is now straight and it's
08:13healed.
08:13But I want to see how a cast is made, so I've come here.
08:19This is the plaster room, where plaster is put on broken bones to help them get better.
08:24You can get different types of cast, a plaster cast, which is made from bandages covered in a special type
08:31of clay.
08:32Or fiberglass, which is a special bandage made from woven glass strands.
08:37This is Sean, and he's going to be putting a fiberglass cast on my arm.
08:42Now, I haven't broken my arm, but we've been given special permission for Sean to put a cast on me,
08:49so we can show you how it's made.
08:52First, Sean is putting a nice soft layer around my arm, and it looks like a big long sock.
09:01There's even a little sock for my thumb.
09:06Next, Sean is wrapping my arm in padding.
09:10This will make the bandage really comfortable.
09:19It's lovely and soft.
09:24Now it's time for the bandage, and there are lots of different colours you can choose from.
09:28I've gone with blue.
09:34First, Sean has dipped the bandage in water, and that's made it easy to work with.
09:39And it's sticky, so it sticks to itself as it's being wrapped around my arm.
09:45It does feel really warm.
09:48It's a lovely, cosy, snuggly feeling.
09:53And the bandage sets really quickly.
09:57That means it goes hard, and that's what will protect my bone and help it to get better.
10:06Oh, that's so, such a strange feeling.
10:11Sean smooths the cast out, and then he's finished.
10:14My arm feels really protected and safe.
10:19I love the colour, too.
10:21You can have all sorts of colours.
10:23Red, green, how about pink?
10:27What's your favourite colour?
10:28I think I'll stick with blue.
10:32Now the bandage is on my arm, we need to wait for it to dry and set so it goes
10:37hard.
10:38Let's use my special camera to take a closer look.
10:42This is a microscope, and it lets us see really small things in close detail.
10:52Wow.
10:54Look at the bandage.
10:57Can you see all the fibreglass strands looping through the material of the bandage?
11:03That is amazing.
11:04It looks like blue rope covered in glue, doesn't it?
11:11What do you think it looks like?
11:16This is going to set.
11:18It will become really hard, and this will protect my arm.
11:22That is brilliant.
11:23Time to see if my cast is set.
11:25Listen to the sound it makes when I tap it.
11:29It sounds like knocking on a door.
11:32Now the cast is dry and hard, so if there was a broken bone inside here,
11:37my arm would be kept still and safe, so it could heal and get better.
11:42But now it's dry, there's something really fun we can do to it.
11:46We can draw on it with sparkles.
11:55There we go, a sparkly heart.
11:58You could have all sorts of pictures on a cast.
12:01What picture would you like to draw?
12:04Now, usually it takes a couple of weeks for a broken bone to get better,
12:08but luckily I don't have a broken arm,
12:10so Sean's going to take the cast off for me.
12:20Well, my cast is off and my arm is back to normal.
12:23What was your favourite bit about seeing how a cast was made?
12:28Do you remember what colour my cast was?
12:31That's right, it was blue.
12:33But you can get all sorts of colours.
12:36Which colour would you choose?
12:39Did you hear the sound the cast made when I tapped it?
12:43It sounded like knocking on a door.
12:47And did you see what the fibreglass cast looked like
12:50when I filmed it with my special camera?
12:53It looks like blue rope covered in glue, doesn't it?
12:57That is brilliant.
13:05So, the next time you see someone with a fibreglass cast,
13:08or you have one yourself,
13:10you'll know just how they're made,
13:11and now you know how a blood pressure monitor works
13:15and how it helps the doctors and nurses
13:17check that the blood is flowing nicely round your body.
13:20I'll see you next time.
13:24There are lots of things all around
13:28Lots of exciting things that surround us
13:32But how does it work?
13:33Do you know?
13:35How is it made?
13:37Do you know?
13:38Do you know?
13:40Let's find out!
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