Britain’s oldest long-term transplant survivor Ted just taking one day at a time
My wife and I got to do many great things says survivor HEART OP 30 YEARS AGO
EVERY day is one worth celebrating for a man who is still going strong 30 years after a life-saving heart transplant.
Ted Warner, of Broughton Astley, said he learnt the most valuable lesson of all as he lay dying in hospital in 1990, preparing to say goodbye to everything he loved.
Today, the 89-year-old grandfather is the UK’s oldest long-term transplant survivor.
“Most people don’t realise just how valuable life is, me included, until they’re about to lose it,” he said.
“I was extremely fortunate to learn that lesson 30 years ago.”
Ted, who continues to pursue his passions of golf and clay pigeon shooting, went under the knife at the Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, on August 21, 1990.
Days earlier, he had been told he probably had three weeks to live.
He lived in Dunton Bassett at the time and ran a business, Warner Textile Machinery, in South Wigston.
“I’d had a heart attack in 1984 which led to some serious complications over the next few years,” he said.
“I was visiting hospital at the end of 1989 for what I thought was a problem with my pacemaker but, after a few tests, they found it wasn’t the pacemaker, it was a much more serious problem.”
Ted was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a disease which makes it harder for the heart to pump blood throughout the body and often leads to an enlarged heart.
“I had severe chest pain and shortness of breath,” he said. “My heart was massive – over three times the size it should be – and my cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital eventually told me I needed a heart transplant and I went on the waiting list for a donor in the January.”
He had to wait until August for a donor to be found.
“It got really bad and I was told I had only three weeks to live,” he said.
“But the very next morning my doctor said ‘we’ve got a donor for you’.”
Ted was taken to Cambridge for the operation. The result left him “astounded”.
“It’s a job to explain,” he said. “The very next morning, well, the change was so dramatic. I felt like I was 16 again.
“I had been so bad I couldn’t even lie down without my lungs filling with fluid and I’d choke.
“I’d have to sit up in a chair and most nights I never thought I’d wake up the next day. The transplant was simply astounding.”
Heart transplant patients who recovered at the time were not expected to live more than eight years.
“They’d only been doing transplants like mine for 10 years then, and even nowadays the usual lifeexpectancy afterwards is about 14 years,” said Ted. “I’ve been extremely lucky.”
Ted has two sons, Neil, 53, and Adam, 49, who also live in Broughton Astley, as well as three grandchildren.
“I’ve had the past 30 years to enjoy with my family and enjoy my passions of golf and clay pigeon shooting.
“My wife Annette, sadly died last year, but we got to do so many great things together, like travelling and holidays abroad.
“And, of course, our grandchildren. We all strive for material things but money can’t necessarily buy you health and happiness. I just take one day at a time and try not to dwell on things too much – and it seems to be working, anyway.
“I just try to make the best of each day because each day matters and is a blessing.”
Ted said he will never forget, and will always be grateful to, the young person whose tragic death gave him his second chance.
“I was told he was a young man who’d been in a car accident in Derbyshire,” he said.
“He was 23, the same age as my oldest son at the time. I’m acutely aware that all this is down to the sad loss of one young man, his thoughtfulness and the kindness of his family.
“I will always be grateful to them and hope they would think I’ve done my best.”
Neil Warner, who now runs the family business, is proud of his father, and thankful to the donor and doctors who allowed his dad to live such a fulfilling life.
“For us, it’s nice that we were able to have both parents around for so long,” he said. “Dad has enjoyed 30 years’ of life that he wouldn’t have got without the brilliance of the doctors and medical science.
“Of course, unfortunately, someone had to die for him to live and we’re all so thankful to the person whose kindness, and that of their
family, made it possible after their life tragically ended.”
“Dad is such a positive person and still has his independence. He does very well for someone aged 89.
“It’s fantastic to still have him here with us.”
Ted’s 30-year landmark is also being celebrated at The Royal Papworth Hospital, where the UK’s first successful heart transplant was performed in 1979.
Consultant cardiologist Jayan Parameshwar said: “Ted has been an ideal patient. He has done everything we asked him to do and has been blessed with very good luck.
“It is unusual that he survived for 30 years but he has made full use of his life.
“He is the perfect advert for what a heart transplant can achieve.”