Dateline: Mar 11

Tonight Dateline looks at a battle with Tourette’s Syndrome and reports on political unrest from the streets of Caracas, Venezuela.

Last year, Dateline video journalist, Aaron Lewis met two inspiring boys – Zack Lamb and Cole Johnson – at a camp for children with Tourette’s Syndrome.

Since then, Aaron has been following their lives as they battle the debilitating condition. Aaron’s extraordinary story documents a steep decline in Zack Lamb’s condition – with the young teenager’s compulsive ‘ticcing’ becoming so bad that doctors placed him in an induced coma in a last-ditch effort to stop his violent convulsions.

Zack’s parents are now faced with an agonising decision: whether or not to proceed with the one procedure left that they believe might bring their boy some peace. It’s a rare and risky operation known as Deep Brain Stimulation in which a battery will be implanted into Zack’s brain to emit electrical impulses which may help curb his violent muscular twitches.

Now Zack’s mother has embarked on a quest to find a surgeon willing to perform this potentially life-altering procedure.

Also this week, Dateline reports from the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, where political unrest, crippling inflation and social disorder has led to tens of thousands of people staging daily demonstrations calling for new national leadership. But with the government ordering violent crackdowns on demonstrators, what real chance is there of change?

Tuesday, 11 March at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.