RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER...
MARION McMULLEN looks at advances in cardiac treatment
1 Grandfather Ted Warner – the UK’s oldest surviving heart transplant patient – has celebrated his 90th birthday. The retired company boss, who lives near Leicester, turned 90 in June, but could only mark his milestone with family at the weekend after the easing of restrictions. He was suffering from heart disease and was told he only had about three weeks to live when he had his transplant at Cambridge’s Royal Papworth Hospital in 1990. 2
South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard carried out the first human heart transplant operation, on Louis Washkansky in 1967. The 54-year-old patient survived for 18 days after the operation. The surgeon’s second transplant patient, Philip Blaiberg, lived for two-and-a-half years afterwards. 3
The UK’s first coronary care unit was set up in 1964 by Dr Desmond Julian. This specialised hospital ward for intensive care started a global revolution in heart patient care and is now standard in all major hospitals. 4
The British Heart Foundation was set up 60 years ago, in 1961, when 70% of heart attacks were fatal. Today at least 70% of people who have heart attacks survive, while most people born with congenital diseases go on to live healthy lives. Around 200 heart transplants are now carried out every year in the UK. 5
Britain’s first heart transplant patient was 45-year-old Frederick West, pictured. His operation was carried out at the National Heart Hospital in London by a team led by South African surgeon Donald Ross. Frederick lived for a further 46 days after receiving the
donor heart. 6
Pacemaker pioneer
Dr Aubrey Leatham, who implanted the
UK’s first internal pacemaker in 1961, was funded by the British Heart Foundation in 1963 to improve the technology, pushing the boundaries towards the sophisticated miniaturised pacemakers we have today.
7
The first defibrillator in an ambulance was introduced in 1965. Atrial fibrillation was regarded as harmless until the 1980s when it was realised to be a major cause of strokes.
8
Grace Westwood become the first child in the UK to be fitted with a mobile Berlin Heart driving unit (which takes over the function of a child’s own heart) in June, while waiting for a transplant. The operation on the 18-month-old from Birmingham, took place at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle. Her mother Becci Jones said: “She’s leading as normal a life as she can and is amazing in herself.” 9
Actor and former footballer Vinnie Jones, below, took part in a British Heart Foundation campaign in 2012 about hands-only CPR: pushing hard and fast on the chest without giving rescue breaths. The campaign aimed to increase bystander intervention in instances of cardiac arrest.
10
Royal Papworth Hospital has kept its transplant unit open throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and carried out three operations within a 17-hour period in May. One patient Barry Edgson, 50, from Southend, said his condition got so bad he was on oxygen and could hardly walk. “I have a five-year-old son and I’ve never been able to take him to school. Going into that operation was like being at the top of a roller coaster getting ready to go.”