Children given reanimated hearts by NHS in world first

New heart transplant technique
Anna Hadley, 15, received one of the reanimated hearts
PA
Luke O'Reilly21 February 2021

Six children were given reanimated hearts by the NHS in a world first last year.

The hearts were brought back to life and kept beating outside of the bodies of their donors before being planted into the children’s bodies - saving their lives.

Staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) and Royal Papworth Hospital (RPH) collaborated on the “game-changing” technique – known as donation after circulatory death (DCD).

New heart transplant technique
Anna collapsed during PE class
PA

Donated hearts have historically come from people who are brain-dead but whose hearts are still beating, which limits the scope for the number of possible transplants.

DCD not only allows more hearts to be used, it also allows them to be transported further and gives surgeons and nurses more time.

The ground-breaking technique was first performed in Europe at the RPH in 2015 but has until recently only been possible in adults.

The collaboration between RPH in Cambridge – whose team retrieves the heart – and Gosh, whose team implants the organ, as well as NHS Blood & Transplant, represents the first-ever use of the DCD technique in paediatric transplantation anywhere in the world.

Jacob Simmonds, consultant cardiologist and transplant physician at Gosh, hailed the significance of the programme.

New heart transplant technique
Caitlin Goodsell, another one of patients who has received a new heart
PA

He said: “In early 2020 we had more children at Gosh on the transplant list than I’d ever seen in my 16 years working at the hospital.

“Every day a child waits there is a bigger likelihood that they may get too ill even for transplantation, or worse.

“Although medical advances have come far, for some children with heart failure an organ donation is truly their only hope.”

The DCD heart programme has unlocked more opportunities for donation, essentially doubling the number of transplants done at Gosh in eligible patients weighing more than 44lb (20kg), he said.

The first patient to receive a DCD heart thanks to the partnership was 15-year-old Anna Hadley.

Anna was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy after collapsing during a PE class two months earlier.

Her father, Andrew, said: “After weighing up the potential risks and benefits of the DCD heart transplant with a more conventional one, we realised that there was only one choice, and we’re so glad we made it.

“Five days after the transplant, Anna was walking up and down the corridors, chatting away and high-fiving staff. It was incredible.”

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