Health

Family doctor turns patient in Keeping Canada Alive Part 2

​The second episode of Keeping Canada Alive, a day in the life of our health system, features two families receiving respite care for children with complex illnesses, and a woman with MS wondering if shoulder pain signals a worsening illness.

Kiefer Sutherland narrates emotional look at health care

This North Vancouver GP with a family history of colon cancer gets screened before heading to the office and out on home visits. (CBC)

​The second episode of Keeping Canada Alive, a day in the life of our health system, features two families receiving respite care for children with complex illnesses, and a woman with MS wondering if shoulder pain signals a worsening illness.

The six-part series is narrated by Emmy Award-winning Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland. The series asks: What if we could see what our health care system does in a single day? How would we feel?

On May 6, 2015, more than 60 camera crews set out in 24 cities across Canada to shoot patients, their families and health-care providers at hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and in homes.

Be a fly on the wall during the second episode as:

  • Two Ottawa families receive respite care as they cope with the challenges of raising a child with a complex illness. A mother faces her own major medical challenge.
  • A busy family doctor-turned-patient fits in her own colonoscopy screening before she heads to the clinic and makes home visits in North Vancouver.
  • A Toronto cardiologist works to find transplants and technologies to help the one of 50,000 Canadians diagnosed each year with heart failure.
  • A Winnipeg woman with MS meets with an occupational therapist as she wonders if shoulder pain means the disease is progressing.
  • A physician at Nova Scotia's busiest emergency department investigates a heart abnormality in a man suffering from head lacerations after a car collision.
  • A Vancouver family waits nervously as their 25-year-old son has his second heart surgery in six years.

The extensive website features more original content, including an online 24-hour stream of raw footage.