Original subtitles

Neoplasms during animal experiments using Thorotrast.

See springs in the blue of her eyes Gushing golden as she you spies

To everlasting joy these springs do flow

You see but Happiness as you go. - The bill, please.

You dally amidst eternity You sense not time as it goes by

Then you fall as if from the sky Year by year with more velocity

Rejoice should you meet a faint glow From your childhood fair

A moment of bliss Your father is near

And mother is in the kitchen there.

l wouldn't mind getting married.

l said l wouldn't mind getting married.

Well ... are you quite sure?

Yes.

1 .95, please.

Two kroner. Keep the change.

1 .95 is excluding service.

Oh? How much do you want? - 2.24.

When is it due? - She didn't say.

But it can't be till spring. - Congratulations!

You'll be getting married? - Yes, before it shows.

You don't sound to pleased. - lt wasn't quite what l'd intended.

But Ulla didn't want me.

What about an abortion?

You medics always fix things. - Out of the question.

Her father is a medical superintendent.

Can you afford to get married? - No. Not at all.

l'll have to do my finals in January.

But before that we must go to Esbjerg for the wedding.

You'll have plenty on your plate. - l haven't even written up the dogs.

ls that necessary? As it went wrong? - Went wrong?

lt merely failed to yield the expected results.

More dinner plates ... now we have enough for twelve!

How wonderful!

What have we got here?

lsn't it a shame not to marry in white?

l'll get more use of a two-piece. They're all the rage.

From Peter and Silvia ...

A white wedding dress on a menstruating bride is not romantic.

Who was the bowl from? - Wilhelm from my hall.

Dinner is served. - How lovely!

Shall we go in while it is still hot?

l'll put these flowers next door.

Your mother said you had your period ...

Yes, isn't it a bother? lt started today.

So you're not pregnant at all? - Pregnant?

Did you think l was pregnant? - Yes!

You said you wouldn't mind getting married!

There were cheap sheets in the sales. - So you wanted to get married?

Yes ... but l didn't buy any. l got some winter boots instead.

You got some winter boots?

l don't understand you.

Are you disappointed?

We've still time. Not today, but another day ... is that it?

No. Let's go in.

Do sit down ... l've become quite domesticated since l retired.

Sugar? Cream? - No, thanks.

Are your queries specific or more about my career in neurosurgery?

Oh, l'd like to hear a bit about everything.

Actually l started in Sweden, where l did my residency.

Then l succeeded Malmros under Busch in Copenhagen.

And then you went to Aarhus under Malmros a year later?

What was he like ... to work with?

Malmros? He's one of the great stars of Danish brain surgery.

A fantastically accomplished surgeon with the steadiest of hands.

lf a child required surgery we were always to phone him.

He always did the children? - Yes, always.

lt was a bit of a problem; after all, one needed the training.

How did the patients regard him? - They worshipped him.

Hardly surprising. lf the pain is relieved -

- and you're given back your life -

- it is very easy to be grateful. Malmros was an innovator.

And courageous; there are many operations he was the first to do.

Aneurysms, for example.

Dr. Riber, you were on the Medical-legal Council -

- during the Thorotrast case. With your enthusiasm for Malmros -

- didn't you feel that there was a conflict of interest?

ln that regard?

Yes ...

But not at all as you imagine.

As much as l respected him for his professional skills -

- l abhor him as a man. My years in Århus were the worst of my life.

... l don't know what you want, but l refuse to vent my spleen.

But those years are your background ...

The war years were fine. But in 1946 -

- Malmros spent six months in America -

- acquiring new surgical methods. l stood in for him.

But when he returned everything l did was wrong in his eyes.

They'll be called in for a last check up in six months' time.

A good thing that's just for fun!

See you in six months.

Riber? - Yes?

Have you a moment? - Yes ...

Well, goodbye, then.

Thanks for all you've done.

What's going on?

l intend to do my doctorate on the surgical treatment of epilepsy.

l've talked to the twins and their parents.

A terrible idea. We must not mention those twins too loudly.

l completely disagree. - Possibly, but l'm the boss.

Riber, write about our aneurysm operations.

Even the Americans were impressed.

Ready!

lf you still intend to be a neurosurgeon.

Of course l do.

l'll do the acusticus neurinoma. Riber will assist, plus Hansen.

Can't l do the acusticus neurinoma? Under supervision?

You're not good enough yet.

l did two while you were away.

Copenhagen didn't have room so Busch suggested l did them.

A great deal has happened here in my absence, l gather.

Keep that damned spatula still, Hansen!

There! Hold it there!

Scissors, curved ...

Fool!

l'll hold it ... - Scissors, curved.

Send it for microscopy.

Right. Riber, close up, l'll do the rounds.

Water ...

Tricky operations make one touchy.

l'd held it for an hour. l got cramp.

We've all been through it. ... Dura suture!

Perhaps l'm just not cut out for surgery.

No ... now you mention it.

Mr. Jochumsen, the examination revealed something we must remove.

lf it's crap, it'll have to go. Brain crap. Rain crap.

lt's not meant to be there.

The young doctor asked me about my dreams.

There was something l didn't like to mention with nurses present.

l don't know if it matters? - l don't believe it does.

When did we begin filling patient files with psychiatric deliberations?

Joachumsen has a tumour of the right frontal lobe.

So he has a fatuous mind and makes lavatory jokes.

Yes, and the condition takes this much to describe, not half a page.

He has also experienced spasms. So l examined him with extra care.

l can't prevent you from writing about epilepsy.

But l forbid any mention of those twins.

The twins ...?

Malmros wanted me to write about his endeavours.

But you worked together? - Barely. lt was trench warfare.

l became an obsession to him.

ln the end it was obvious that Malmros was the problem.

The chief medical officer was brought in.

l've brought Busch as a kind of umpire.

We all know that you are an exceptionally accomplished surgeon.

But your responsibilities include running your department.

l don't know Riber personally, -

- but Busch says he had no trouble from him.

Riber spent a year in my department before coming to Århus.

No, l had no trouble with him.

Malmros, what is the essence of your antagonism?

One hears so many rumours. - l don't know where they come from.

But since my return from America we have not worked well together.

Why not?

Because there has to be one head of department, like it or not.

What do you say, Riber?

Did you find it hard to return to your place?

No. The problem is that l am not allowed to work independently.

Whatever you do l carry the can. - Malmros! Let Riber finish.

l am not permitted to practice what l have learned.

lt's a question of trust.

ls it some kind of sorcerer's apprentice thing?

Yes, one might say so.

But Malmros, you are the sorcerer, don't forget that.

You must not refrain from imparting what you know to your apprentice.

l've never refused to impart anything to anyone.

You perform any surgery done on children?

Not all of it, but most.

ln which case he'll never learn.

No.

Malmros, you are responsible for this clash.

lf Riber was good enough to run the department while you were away -

- surely he is good enough now? Or you couldn't have gone.

We also face another problem. We must expand the department.

But we can't do so under these circumstances.

Malmros, have you ever considered private practice?

Resign my position? - Yes, you'd have to do so.

Barf ... - Both.

Ole ...

lm ... - l.

Lotti ...

Both ...

Lo ... lor ... - Leo.

How did it go?

Hellishly.

The chief medical officer would rather dismiss me.

He was very well informed. - What did you say about Riber?

l betrayed someone once as a child. l don't wish to repeat it.

l must face the fact that the department l've built up -

- is being taken from me. l could leave of my own accord ...

You just changed her clothes round. - No!

One of the dollies from America has lost an arm.

Stay here.

Read some more.

Wet ... - No, ''Were'' ...

Were you out wading ...

Bathing. O - L ... and then?

Ole.

lt's mine. - Yours was the pink one.

You must share the dolly. - What's going on?

Lotte says it's not her dolly whose lost an arm.

lt's impossible to tell.

lt's mine. - You can't have the same doll.

We'll take her to hospital.

Rikke put Lise's cardigan onto her dolly.

We're going to put her arm back on now.

What's on the slate? - We've a dolly who's lost an arm.

We're going to operate. But we need an X-ray first.

Shall l put in a plate? - Yes, please.

There's the arm that's come off. We need to get hold of this spring.

So we'll open up her back and replace the arm.

One set of instruments should do it. - l think so.

You've got to wear masks. We must do this properly.

The operator, too. - Yes, the surgeon as well.

Why must we wear bibs? - You have to when you operate.

Scalpel ...

Watch ... we make an incision ...

Scissors ...

There ...

Péan ...

Now it's back on.

Suture.

With a curved needle you have to turn it around as you sew.

Remember to say ''Damn!'' or it won't count.

Damn!

One knot ... another knot ...

... and another knot, and snip ...

lt was my dolly who was ill. - You two could do with some juice.

l'll be in my office. - Come with me.

Dr. Malmros ... Riber just came by.

He said the CMO says he's to be the new head of department.

He did? - Yes.

How did the operation go? - There was a knife.

And she's got sticky plaster on. - Sticky plaster?

Look, she's got a hook in her tummy.

lndeed she has!

We put her arm back on. She's better now.

She needs to go to sleep in her cradle.

My dolly's been ill as well. She also needs to sleep.

What are you doing in there? - Nothing.

l'm popping back to the ward.

The CMO has phoned a couple of times.

Riber is to be head of department. - ls that what it was about?

They're easing me out ... they want me to go into private practice.

As what? One can't have one's own practice as a brain surgeon.

Richard, whatever happens -

- remember you've got a wife and three children who love you.

Shan't the two of us be friends ... always?

Shall l tell you something to be happy about?

lt's certain now. l'm carrying twins.

Malmros speaking ... yes?

Oh, l see. Yes.

Yes, yes ... goodbye.

Thank you for informing me.

They've decided to expand the department.

lt's to be divided into two separate sections. Riber will run one, -

- l will run the other. And l'm to be made a professor.

Yes!

You were right. There were loads of warnings about Thorotrast.

ln Swiss, German and Danish periodicals.

But scariest of all, there was an alternative.

Per-Abrodil.

lt's not radioactive and not carcinogenic.

But the Medical-legal Council said ''no'' to both questions.

lt's a medical scandal of unprecedented proportions.

Lies and cover-ups ... they're going to wish they'd never been born.

Their umbilical cords were wound round each other's necks.

One was still-born. The other lasted ten minutes.

Yes.

They're girls. - Yes.

Shall they share a coffin?

Yes.

Will you put my little porcelain elephant into the coffin with them?

Of course.

l was so much looking forward to having twins.

REACTOR lN THE BOD Y Have you seen the papers?

''A reactor in the body''. ln print so big even l can read it.

With a skull and a syringe.

Read that ...

''lt was one of the great men of Danish brain surgery, -

- Professor Richard Malmros, -

- who exposed the 15-year-old boy's artery -

- and injected the contrast medium into his brain.

That medium was Thorotrast.

33 years later the patient died -

- unaware that it was because of the reactor in his body''.

He writes that there is a mole in the health service -

- who's revealed a secret data base.

He also says there were urgent warnings about Thorotrast.

We had no choice apart from leaving our patients to die.

But the Medical-legal Council was wrong about the lack of warnings.

He writes that there was an alternative ... Per-Abrodil.

We got it from Nazi Germany. But it wasn't very good.

We started using it in 1944.

March 1944 Before my clash with Riber.

Please remove your hand. - lt's agony.

No more pictures, l beg you!

No. We'll make do with the one X-ray.

Well done, lsaksen.

lt's not a very good image, is it?

Not nearly as clear as Thorotrast.

But we can see what's wrong with lsaksen, can't we, Riber?

Yes, he has a tumour in the frontal lobe.

Per-Abrodil doesn't yield good images. Patients react badly to it.

There may be acute allergic mortalities.

Nevertheless we'll use Per-Abrodil. l'm afraid of Thorotrast.

From now on the orders are no more Thorotrast!

No ... The tumour is close to the surface.

Yes, so it would be a most suitable tumour for your first operation.

We only had Per-Abrodil for 6 months.

By autumn 1944 we were running out.

The German manufacturers kept getting bombed.

The war was drawing to a close.

The Gestapo and Danish collaborators terrorized everyone.

Both of them, damn it! Both of them!

No! No!

Don't shoot!

Which way shall we go in?

From the back. We'll remove the bullet, and then ...

ls the wife dead? - Yes. lt was sheer murder.

We're going in ...

There are two men outside.

You can't go in there.

We're from the Gestapo. We want to see the man who was shot.

We can't remove the drapes just like that.

He's been shot in the head, right? - Yes.

His right temple.

May l see him?

The patient is dying. We can't delay surgery any more.

Surgery? - Yes.

Scalpel ... come on ...

Scalpel.

Rugine.

Drill ... quickly!

Switch it on.

Take him outside for a bit of fresh air, eh?

There must be a risk of infection. - Very much so.

He may need sulphonamide.

A 5 year old girl has been brought in with stroke symptoms.

There is blood in her spinal fluid. ... lda Torp Jensen.

Hello ... lda's had a turn, l hear?

Yes, it came on all of a sudden. Funny noises, and then she fell over.

She's getting worse and worse.

Hello, lda. How are you?

Are you awake? l'm going to look at your eyes.

What does that mean?

Sit down ... l'll fetch you a cup of coffee.

No, thanks. Won't you stay? l am so frightened.

l'm going to have to move you.

We have no more Per-Abrodil.

Only Thorotrast.

l daren't give Thorotrast to a 5-year-old girl.

What, then? - Her right side is paralysed.

So the haemorrhage is on the left.

We'll go in without an X-ray.

There is seepage but nothing on the media or the carotis.

Dissector.

Damn!

Riber, hold this ...

Blunt hook.

No, no aneurysm.

Let's locate the communicans anterior.

l'm sure it'll be all right.

They are very good.

Damn it, she's bleeding. Riber, hold it there ... there!

Dissector ...

What's her blood pressure? - 50 ... no measurable diastolic.

Anatomical tweezers ...

l can't see a thing.

Dissector ... - No measurable blood pressure.

Her pupils are dilated.

l'm sorry. We lost her.

No ... no ... no.

You can't take pot luck when you're operating on the brain.

You have to know where to look. So when the fishing boy came in -

- a couple of months later, l didn't dare not use Thorotrast.

You must tell people what things were like; for the patients' sake.

The press would distort anything l said.

Go to the Medical Journal. - l can't see! How can l write?

Record it on tape. l'll transcribe it for you.

lt'd take ages. - lt's your duty.

From Knoblau's point of view it's medical negligence -

- and a cover-up by the Medical-legal Council.

Mum, l'll be off now. - Did you calm him down?

l've certainly given him something to do.

Something occurred to me as l dictated this.

Really and truly, of course, it is what l always dreamed of.

That you and l, on equal terms, could at last talk to each other.

Our lack of dialogue was my fault. l'd devoted too much time to work.

But it was also because l had to have control of everything l did-

- and what other people did. A fine quality in a surgeon, yes.

ln a head of department, even. But not in a father.

Another thing: l have never been able to say thank you.

But have no doubt that l am touched-

- that you helped an old man to face the past.

Over 1 100 people unwittingly and without being consulted -

- were subjected to treatment for which they paid a terrible price.

Jon Knoblau has fought for their cause in best reporting style -

- and thereby earned this year's Cavling Prize.

Well done.

There's a cheque, too.

lf anybody in Århus sticks together -

- it's the senior ranks of the medical profession.

But their smiles will have stiffened -

- as the mistreatment of hundreds of innocent people has come to light.

People who have been left to die of liver cancer.

lt is only now that the specialist responsible -

- has written an article for the Medical Journal -

- in which he finally admits the truth:

That there had been warnings about Thorotrast -

- and that there had been a harmless alternative.

So there are grounds to reopen the legal proceedings -

- that took the lid off this Pandora's box ...

Malmros ... No, l have no comment.

ln my experience whatever l say will be distorted. Goodbye.

That's the third reporter today.

l've written a letter to the papers giving Knoblau a piece of my mind.

Mudslinging never does any good. My article must suffice.

Knoblau professes to be crusading for the truth.

But what does he indulge in when he discovers he's mistaken?

Distortion! A Cavling Prize winner who distorts the truth!

Yes. lt may well be that we could gloat over him for now.

But next time they'd do the gloating.

This damned mole ...

What will he find next?

You see, there are skeletons in the cupboard.

Just not the ones they think they have found ...

Welcome home from foreign climes ...

What did they say When you taught them how to take

An aneurysm by the root And shut it off?

What did America say?

This is a 46 year old male with a large meningioma.

The size of an egg.

l was able to remove most of it without apparent bleeding.

lt looks serious ... shouldn't you have awaited my return?

There was no urgency. - lt turned out well.

What's this? The same child?

No. l understand your perplexity. Two identical twins.

Twins with the same disorder? - Yes. lt's most interesting.

They both have epilepsy with focal seizures of the right arm.

They're both got the same malformed blood vessels.

That may be the cause of their epilepsy.

Yes, l think you're right. lt's quite conceivable.

l removed the deformed blood vessels.

The seizures have ceased.

Well, well! How fascinating!

l'd been thinking of the surgical treatment of epilepsy for my thesis -

- when l heard about the boys.

May l see the images again?

Did you give them Thorotrast?

Yes. After all, it's all we've got.

You did a Thorotrast test because they were epileptic?

But epilepsy is not an indication for Thorotrast!

The whole world uses Thorotrast for all sorts of tests.

l couldn't care less about the rest of the world.

This department only uses Thorotrast for matters of life or death.

l used small doses. They're young.

That makes it even worse. lt'll stay in their bodies all life long.

What will happen in 10, 20, 50 years' time?

Their lives weren't at risk!

But l've cured their seizures!

He must have operated on 10,000 patients in his life.

My childhood was a torment thanks to his concern for his patients.

He ought to be taking it easy now. But he's tormenting himself.

''The happy days of old age Ne'er will they return''!

Goodbye, Mum.

l had surgery for a brain tumour in 1946 -

- and now they say l have cancer of the liver.

They used Thorotrast? - So it turns out.

Are you bitter? - Yes.

l hear another chemical could have been used.

Now the hospital tells me l only have a couple of months left.

We'd have liked to talk to Professor Richard Malmros ...

When you've forgotten the Thorotrast case there'll be another.

Before Thorotrast there were the lobotomies.

They tormented you, too.

You'll never be left in peace.

D'you know who'll never leave you in peace? Your aunt.

Yes. - But Richard, that's why l love you.

lmagine if we were all as cheerful and irresponsible as l!

lt'd be unbearable!

My mother was also cheerful. l only ever saw her cry once.

Aunt was to blame.

l got home from school to find mum crying in the cellar -

- because Aunt Johanne had been by with a sack of potatoes.

A sack of potatoes was the kind of alms the charities gave the poor.

Why do you hoard all these humiliations so?