My mechanical heart

BEAMING Thomas Edwards is swamped by a mass of tubes in a picture which highlights the astonishing work of heart doctors.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the first human heart transplant. Our picture shows Thomas in the days when he endured eight open heart procedures.

The plucky lad received a donor organ just days before he was two. He is now four, happy and healthy – and excited about Christmas.

Thomas’s family, from Burtonon-Trent, Staffs, now celebrate two special days each year – his birthday on November 4 and the date he was given a new heart.

Mum Emma Forrester, 43, who also has daughter Daisy, eight, with partner David, said: “Every year we release balloons to remember the child who died to save Thomas.

“We will forever be grateful to his family for making such a courageous decision at what must have been the darkest time.

“It’s absolutely awful knowing that another child has to die to save yours but I want that family to know that their gift of life has given our son a future.”

Thomas suffered Shones Complex, which causes multiple obstructions to the heart. He spent six months on an artificial “Berlin” heart – the mechanical pump pictured. It kept him alive until his transplant at Newcastle’s worldfamous Freeman Hospital.

It was on December 3, 1967 that South African surgeon Dr Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, 54, who survived for just 18 days. Thomas’s progress shows just how far surgeons have come – and how so much hope has been offered to so many patients.

Every day in the UK, 12 babies are diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Donate and find out more at bhf. org.uk/tiny-hearts