I was facing death but miracle heart and lung op means I can get married
A MAN who lived every day fearing it could be his last was saved by a revolutionary double transplant – and he can now go ahead with his dream wedding next month.
Aaron Green, 25, is the first person in the world to have a replacement heart and lungs from a donor whose heart had already stopped.
He is also the first to have two organs transplanted at the same time using a heart and lung kept “alive” in a revolutionary box.
The organs were squeezed into the machine – designed for one set of organs – as medics ran out of options.
The device pumped oxygenated blood into both organs for the groundbreaking procedure – so the heart was still beating and lungs “breathing”.
The breakthrough at the pioneering Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge could save many others desperately waiting for heart-lung transplants.
Aaron, who is thrilled to be tying the knot with his “true love” Julie Payne, 26, told the Sunday Mirror he could have died at any moment because of a lack of donor organs.
He waited for a transplant for more than 100 days in critical care and survived multiple cardiac arrests.
His skin turned blue and one more failure would have meant doctors could not operate on him.
DARING
With time running out, hospital chiefs signed off on a daring plan to save his life.
Aaron, who lives just outside Arundel, West Sussex, said: “I was facing death and there was no sign that an organ was going to come soon.
“It was something I had to go for.” Normally the Organ Care System device can keep a heart, lungs OR liver functioning as if it were still in the body. But the idea of squeezing both lungs and a heart into one box was so risky the plan had to be approved by hospital bosses just hours before Aaron’s life could be saved.
Usually, transplant hearts and lungs are taken from patients declared brain dead but who still have blood supply to their organs. The box keeps them in prime condition, ready for transplant.
But Aaron’s new heart was not beating when removed from the donor.
Richard Quigley, the hospital’s lead nurse for transplantation, said: “Aaron was a very sick young man.
“He had multiple cardiac arrests in the weeks leading up to his transplant. That’s one of the reasons why we went for this world first and pushed the boat out. I’m extremely glad we did.”
Aaron’s heart and lung problems go back to his childhood.
At just 18 months, he developed a rare blood vessel disorder called pulmonary hypertension following corrective surgery to fix a heart defect. The condition, characterised by high blood pressure in the lung arteries, left both organs irreparably damaged.
Aaron was admitted to Royal Papworth permanently in February 2019 after two years on a constant infusion of intravenous medication. He said: “I was on the transplant waiting list for 110 days. In that time I had three false alarms and had begun to get extremely sick.
“Julie and my family were getting ready to say goodbye when the organs became available.
“I’d been told a few weeks prior to my transplant that the operation that they were looking to do with me had never been done before. I trusted the team and their confidence. I had no choice. Everyone is pretty certain that without the use of the box I would not have got my transplant.
“My first memory post-transplant was being extremely weak to the point where I could barely lift my hand. But I saw my skin and for the first time in a long time I wasn’t blue.”
Aaron’s case shows how the technology can revitalise deteriorating organs from donors whose hearts have stopped beating, allowing “donation after circulatory death”.
Of placing the heart and lungs in one box, surgeon Pedro Catarino –
who led the transplant team – said: “It was a bit of a squeeze but there was just enough room. The heart is quite small, so there was sufficient space for the lungs as well.
“But we had to make changes to the device so that we could perfuse both organs with blood and keep both the heart and lungs working.”
BREATHLESS
The transplant feat was yet another first for Papworth. In the 1980s it was the first hospital outside of the US to perform a combined lung and heart transplant. Former supermarket worker Aaron left hospital two months after his operation and was soon back playing cricket and riding his bike.
Now, almost a year on, he is working full-time for the first time in five years for a company supplying medical devices to the NHS. His next milestone is to marry council worker Julie at Chichester register office, followed by a reception at a cricket club in Arundel.
The couple have been together for four years. Julie said: “When we first met, Aaron was on tablets but even getting up to my first-floor flat left him breathless. Then he declined to the extent that he had to be kept in hospital and we were told he would stay there until he got a transplant.
“They were hairy times. We were warned finding a double donor would be hard and that it might not happen.
“And then the surgeons came to us and said they had this plan.
“They said there was a chance of getting organs from a certain type of donor. The only catch was they needed to keep the organs alive on their way from the donor to Aaron. They had a box for lungs and one for a heart, but not a box for both. Then they said they had carried out some lab experiments and reckoned they could get both the heart and lungs in one box. They asked our permission and we said yes. The change in Aaron since the transplant has been amazing.”
Aaron added: “Julie has been amazing. She has always been there for me and seen me at my worst.
“To witness your partner having cardiac arrests was shocking for her.
“She is very brave and takes a lot of things in her stride.”
I looked at my skin post-op and for first time in ages it wasn’t blue AARON GREEN ON HIS MIRACLE TRANSPLANTS