OLDEST TRANSPLANT

FORMER policeman David Aggatt was told a heart transplant could buy him an extra decade… but he ended up getting 35 years.

The ex-Scotland Yard detective is 90 tomorrow and he’s still going strong as the world’s oldest heart transplant patient.

David had been urged by colleagues to get a second opinion after weight gain was blamed on a poor diet.

He followed their advice and discovered he had a serious heart condition before undergoing life-saving surgery from transplant pioneer Sir Magdi Yacoub, 83. He was given the heart of a 14-year-old girl who died in 1984.

It gave David a new lease of life. He returned to work for another two years and helped probe 23 murders.

Widowed David said: “People asked why I was coming back. I’d done 28 years, what was another two? But I wanted to complete my 30 years – and there was nothing wrong with me. I had a donor heart but I felt the same and just wanted to get on with life.”

Thirty pals and ex- colleagues will join David for a party near his home in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, tomorrow. And sending best wishes is Sir Magdi – who has performed more than 2,000 transplants and carried out nearly 40,000 open heart surgeries.

Sir Magdi is thrilled by David’s story and said: “At that time we did not expect people would live more than five to 10 years. A lot of people who receive organs, like David, go on to do very good things for their communities. David was doing massive good as a police officer. I was full of admiration for what he does. Organ donation is absolutely

essential if we are to realise the full potential of transplantation ion in the future. This treatment t is limited by a shortage of donor organs. ns.

“This can only be addressed by letting ting the public know there is a really massive sive need for increasing organ donation.”

He said life expectancies for patients nts like David had increased thanks to better drugs and about 35 per cent now live more than 20 years after surgery.

From next spring, Max’s Law – championed by the Mirror – will mean everyone is considered an organ donor unless they opt out. The law is named after 11- year- old Cheshire lad Max