Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KIDS SAVED BY A DEAD HEART BEATING AGAIN
NHS world-first machine gives six children new life
NHS surgeons have become the first in the world to transplant re-started hearts into children.
The life-saving organs were flown to London for the operations at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a “heart in a box” programme led by the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.
The technique had been tried in adults before, but has now been used for six British children aged 12 to 16.
Anna Hadley, 16, of Worcester, who had waited almost two years for a transplant, was the first to benefit.
She said: “I just feel normal again. There’s nothing I cannot do now.”
Heart recipient Freya Heddington, 14, of Bristol, said: “I am ecstatic that I got such an amazing gift.”
Her dad Jason said: “Freya needs medication on a daily basis and there are hospital visits. But we know now she’s got a lovely, healthy heart and her future is bright.”
Jacob Simmonds, consultant cardiologist at Great Ormond Street, hailed the donation after circulatory death technique as “game changing”.
He said: “In early 2020 we had more children at the hospital on the transplant list than I’d ever seen in my 16 years working here.
“Every day a child waits there is a bigger likelihood that they may get too ill even for transplantation.
“Work is already under way to make the technique suitable for our much younger... patients. “Ultimately, though, this still relies on families having conversations around their organ donation wishes, and then the bravery to consider making this... life-saving gift at a time of unimaginable tragedy.”
Royal Papworth and GOSH are developing technology to retrieve child hearts the same way, increasing the number of organs available.
The Mirror’s Change the Law for Life crusade helped bring in a system in England last year where adults are now considered to be organ donors unless they opt out.