their pride ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, saving grace. a real life dr. mcdreamy at an l.a. hospital taking his talents and his team to developing countries. >> we learn an extraordinary skill. it can't be just for the rich. >> with just 48 hours to perform seven surgeries. >> we're going to use old fashioned tricks. >> can it grant new hope to desperate families? >> plus 2016 dubbed the year of the comeback. from the cubs and the cavs to a full house revival. >> we're back. even o.j. simpson made a comeback this year. well, sort of. >> i did not commit this crime. >> we're with marcia clark and

chris darden. >> the trial made me into everything i didn't want to be as a person. >> and basketballer. a notre dame athlete hit with an emotional surprise. what comes next brought the crowd to their feet. but first, the "nightline" five. >> still sick, huh? >> i'll take it from here. number one, in just 60 seconds.

good evening. thanks for joining us. you're about to meet a dedicated team of doctors operating against the clock under sub optical conditions. of course, performing brain surgery on children is already stressful, but spending your vacations doing it for free in developing countries, that's next level stuff. their goal -- nothing short of a medical revolution. >> reporter: a world away from the high-tech hospitals they're used to. >> this place is a trip, man. >> reporter: two american brain surgeons on an extraordinary mission. >> we learn an extraordinary skill. it can't be just for the rich. >> reporter: seven surgeries in just 48 hours. >> you are putting your best effort, but sometimes that's not good enough. >> reporter: with children's lives in the balance, the stakes couldn't be higher. we first meet dr. raul at one of the premiere cancer centers in los angeles.

>> a lot of stitches. >> reporter: why did you choose neurosurgery? >> i am still choosing neurosurgery. we're discovering science here. that's standard now in american centers. >> reporter: a stark contrast from the focus of his upcoming mission. how does this hospital compare to where you go? >> it's a world of difference. i mean, we have every device and instrument and monitoring technique that's available in the world. and over there, they have to manage with very few resources. hi there. >> reporter: it's a grim reality that might discourage some but has only served to motivate him. >> tomorrow we'll wake him up. >> reporter: he created a foundation called inca and he's spent most of his spare time to treat children in developing countries. >> these are things that will get refurbished or throw away and they knew we were headed to lima, so they decided to donate

them. these are the delicate suctions that we use so you don't suck up brain. >> reporter: his goal is to empower the local doctors to perform life-saving brain surgeries on their own. it's a charity hospital, services up to 2 million people in one of the poorest areas in lima. >> this is for you, doctor. >> reporter: >> when we first showed up here, i'm not sure i've been to a place where they're incomplete mud huts and buildings outside of a hospital. just feels good that we're providing the real care for the people. >> reporter: this is a passion shared by dr. mike levy children's hospital, san diego. >> i like it here. >> reporter: why pediatric neurosurgery? >> it's the way to make the biggest impact. giving a child in a country with less resources their full f facul faculties. >> reporter: the poorest 30% of the population receives only 3.5% of all surgeries. >> this is all for you guys.

this is for the hospital. >> reporter: those hand me down tools bring smiles here nothing is taken for granted. >> it's a huge help for a struggling hospital. >> reporter: for the next four days, the doctors will work with this team of peruvian neurosurgeons. their first patient is frederick. on the outside, he's a picture of a healthy toddler. but inside there's a ticking timebomb, a brain hemorrhage. is it challenging to work with a team that you've never worked with before? >> we have an international language for neurosurgery. so having to yield old fashioned tricks like how high is it above the ear, counting centimeters, how far forward it is from the middle of your head. that's the way to triangulate this artery that exploded.

>> reporter: frederick's surgery is a success. you were the only neurosurgeon here when you started. dr. victor has fought to build up the neurosurgery program for 30 years. why a charity hospital and why not private practice? >> translator: when i decided to become a doctor is to work for the people, the people in the poorest area. >> in the states neurosurgeons are in the 1% of income earners. here neurosurgeons are middle class in a poor country. the sacrifice is on a scale that doesn't compare to what we're doing in the united states. >> reporter: which is why dr. jandial doesn't want to waste a minute of his time here. in the icu, another child waiting for surgery. just two days ago a tumor was discovered in the center of manuel's brain. >> i have an 11-year-old son.

>> reporter: what's the condition of the kid? >> well, he's awake and talking. he's moving his arms and legs, so that's actually pretty good. but the tumor is in the center of the brain and the nerves pass right by it. >> reporter: based on the scans they believe that manuel's tumor is benign, but the surgery itself is long and risky. >> it could be anywhere from five to seven hours. this is the tumor. you can see these little branches right here, those are the main carotid arteries coming into the brain. >> reporter: two peruvian neurosurgeries, half a dozen residents, observing dr. levy's every maneuver. >> in this case the patient's in trusted hands. we just have to go figure that out. >> reporter: they spent three hours and manuel's mother is anxiously waiting for news. she's saying there's nothing in the world that she wishes than to see him and hug him. but an hour later, a humbling discovery. >> i think it's an optic nerve

glioma. >> the boy's situation just got worse. we think it's a glioma, which is the worst type of brain cancer to have. it changes the goal of the operation. if it were a certain type of cancer, we try to get it all out. we take what we can safely. nightmare for him and his mom is just beginning. >> reporter: the pathology test results return confirming that the tumor is, in fact, malign t malignant. >> so there's no surgery we can do at this point. that's unfortunate. >> reporter: five hours of surgery are little help for manuel. he'll have to undergo chemo and radiation. how do you feel about the operation? >> i feel pretty [ bleep ] about it because there's nothing i can do surgically to change his life. it's not good news because i don't know how much life we'll allow him. >> it's just a big letdown. because we're trained to do things to fix things. there's nothing we can do to fix him.

there's no fairness in that, no matter where it is. there's no fairness in a young boy losing his life from a tumor. the tumor was coming out of the nerves. >> what is it like having to go to one mom that you know that the outcome is not going to be great? >> the people you don't want to talk to because you have no good news for them are the people you have to spend the most time with. it's never easy. >> reporter: at the close of this long day, another difficult conversation. maria has been waiting for her son to have surgery for months. >> it's soft, like the world's biggest soft spot. >> reporter: this child fell from the second story of their children fracturing his skull. she said she only looked away for a minute. doctors tell the mother that there's not enough time left in the day. his operation will have to wait until tomorrow. >> she's devastated by the news. she hasn't eaten anything since yesterday. he's been crying. she just wants to get it over with. >> reporter: a mother's guilt comes pouring out.

>> you can't pick your days. today is good news and bad news. >> reporter: it's a new day, manuel and frederick are in recovery. but little liam is waiting. >> take a moment to think about the kid from yesterday. take another moment to think about the kids today. keep going. >> reporter: today he will finally have the missing piece of his skull put back in place. >> so we have to reopen the previous incision, make a giant flap, expose the surface of the brain and then try to drop a piece of skull in and reconstitute that. >> reporter: after two hours the surgery is complete. the doctor said it went incredibly well. you can see him moving his legs already. >> he did awesome. >> reporter: this is really good news, right? that he's kicking. >> the fighting and the

resistance. that's good. for a neurosurgeon, that's the best. >> reporter: the wait is finally over for his mother. lee ul iam is one of the lucky . she's saying that you can notice how his head is round again. >> you know, on the the next battleship, on to the next hospital. >> reporter: for "nightline county ", reporting from lima, peru. >> remarkable. our thanks to mariana for that report. o.j. simpson prosecutors marcia clark and chris darden on making comebacks in 2016. and later a slam dunk of a surprise at a notre dame basketball game. ♪

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if you think about it, this has been a year full of '90s tv revivals and a decades old courtroom drama. no wonder 2016 is being dubbed the year of the comeback. did someone say o.j.? marcia clark and chris darden. >> reporter: if cubs -- >> the cubs win the world series! >> reporter: and the cavs. >> cleveland is a city of champions once again. >> reporter: to the '90s nostalgia on the small screen. ♪ everywhere you look ♪ there's a hand to hold on to >> 2016 was the year of the comeback. >> we're back!

>> reporter: but perhaps the most unexpected belongs to marcia clark and chris darden, the prosecutors in the trial of the century. 2016 saw renewed interest in all things o.j. simpson, thanks to a hit fx mini series "the people versus o.j. simpson." >> would you please stand and face the jury. >> reporter: and the espn documentary, "o.j., made in america." >> this is about justice and seeing that justice is done. >> reporter: in the two decades since simpson was found guilnot guilty of murdering his wife. >> not guilty of the crime of murder. >> reporter: people are seeing the prosecutors in a whole new light. >> the hate flows out of him and into the knife and from the knife into her. >> reporter: for so many years you refused to talk about o.j. simpson. what changed in 2016? >> all of a sudden there's this resurgence of interest in the trial. it was hard not to talk about it.

he's going to kill me, he's going to kill me. the trial did change me, in all the worse ways. the trial made me into everything i didn't want to be as a person. it changed my life, the direction of my life. >> reporter: how so? >> people that loved me that meant something to me hated me. my daddy told me not to do it. >> reporter: your father said don't do this case? >> absolutely told me don't do this case. >> not guilty -- >> i am honored to >> reporter: in your book "in contempt" which was re-released in 2016 you said after that trial you thought you might never enter a courtroom again. you're a defense lawyer now. >> i'm a trial lawyer, 36 years in the courtroom. every day i go into court and the only thing separating my client from a life of behind

bars is me. >> reporter: in 2016, what do you want me to know about you? >> i want people to know that we worked hard, we fought hard. we're not the id nots that some people portrayed us to be. that we as a group were good lawyer. >> reporter: co-counsel marcia clark is embracing her second act in the spotlight, even if she wasn't looking for it. >> when i heard about the mini series on fx, i thought, oh, no. hair from the defendant was on the knit cap a bundy. it was like the last thing in the world i wanted to see. i mean, it's not entertainment. it will never be entertainment for me. >> reporter: you said it was like reliving a nightmare. >> yes, the trial was a nightmare from start to finish. how can you get one blood drop? the courtroom was a pressure cooker of a place. everything else you can possibly imagine got heaped into the coverage of the case. everything becomes more important than the fact that two young people were brutally murdered and it was about bringing the person who did it to justice. no one seemed to care about that

anymore. >> reporter: what did you think of sarah paulson playing you? >> good enough for me. no further questions. >> she was amazing. that was amazing. i cannot even convey to you the weirdness, the out of bodiness of watching somebody show how you're feeling truthfully how you were feeling on the inside and how did they know that? >> reporter: marcia clark walk the red carpet with sarah paulson who won an emmy for playing her. and the actress offered a powerful public redemption in her acceptance speech. >> the more i learned about the real marcia clark, the more i had to recognize that i, along with the rest of the world, had been superficial and careless in my judgment and i'm glad to be able to stand here today in front of everyone and tell you i'm sorry. >> reporter: she apologized to you. >> yeah, she made me cry. >> reporter: clark is now a successful writer, 2016 she published her second series of best-selling crime thrillers. anyone in that courtroom, that experience might have crushed them. never wants to have a public

life again. how have you been able to reinvent yourself? >> i walked out of the courtroom and i felt like that was probably the end of that chapter of my life. always wanted to write crime novels. not now then never. >> reporter: there's a lightness to you that i couldn't have imagined seeing 22 years ago. >> yes. >> reporter: in a year of comebacks her second act is proving to be sweeter than the first. for "nightline" reporting from los angeles. and for more comebacks and many other stories from 2016, you can watch the encore presentation of "the year" this saturday at 3:00. up next, what's got this ball player bawling? when you see how his coaching staff surprised him, maybe you will, too. abc news "nightline" brought to you by volkswagen. (my hero zero by lemonheads)

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♪ finally, the notre dame basketball team beat colgate last night, but that was not the headline. >> i've been watching you tonight from here. >> this soldier, lieutenant bo farrell serving in afghanistan sent a heartfault message to his little bro. >> i remember when we would play around as kids, everyone called you squirrel. >> he's about to deliver the ultimate surprise. >> i look forward to being home with you soon. >> watch number 5, matt farrell stunned by his brother's surprise holiday homecoming. the emotional display of brotherly love bringing fans to their feet. >> this is awesome. we don't ask much for christmas anyways, so this is the best present i ever got. >> talk about heartwarming. tonight we send holiday cheer to all our men and women in

uniform. thanks for watching abc news. we're online at abcnews.com and our nightline facebook page.