Most news about heart health tends to steer towards the negative side of things – so how great was it to learn that a 40 year of dad has just become the UK’s first patient allowed home after a plastic heart transplant?
The transplant is said to have ‘transformed’ the life of Mathew Green, who was hospital bound and unable even to walk a flight of stairs before the operation. Now he is due to leave hospital and enjoy time at home until a suitable donor is found.
Although 900 of these operations have been carried out worldwide, no one in the UK has yet been able to leave hospital after having an artificial heart transplant, which temporarily help heart patients as they wait for a donor.
With the waiting lists for heart transplants extending to more than a year for 30% of patients, doctors say Mr Green might not have survived without the assistance of the plastic heart. But now he looks forward to getting active again, cycling, spending time with his family and even popping out for trips to the pub.
It’s truly amazing that such a device can be used to save lives in this way, and extremely promising for those already waiting on a heart transplant. It does make me wonder what could be next. How far could the technology surrounding artificial organs go? In light of this development and the proposed opt-out system (which could automatically presume consent for organ donation) – we could be set see far more people waiting on organs saved in future.
