Transplant patient’s record

Press, 4 December 1979, Page 9

Transplant patient’s record

NZPA London Keith Castle is set to become Britain’s longest surviving heart transplant patient. The milestone will come today t- the 108th day since his operation at Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire. By then he will have survived Mr Charles Hendrick, aged 59, of Peckham, London. who died on August 31, 1969 — 107 days after his heart transplant operation. I Mr Castle said yesterday:, “There won’t be any celebrations or anything like that. To me it’s just a dot on the calendar. A party which could look as though it was celebrating somebody else’s death would be the height of bad taste.” Mr Castle was the first patient to receive a heart transplant in Britain in a decade. British surgeons had suspended the operation after a string of failures. Since Mr Castle’s transplant another man has been given a new heart and is continuing to recover. Mr Castle takes antirejection drugs twice a day , to help his body accept his I new heart as well as tablets to help stop an old ulcer flaring up. Each day he goes through a rigorous series of exercises and, whenever possible, takes a 3km walk in the countryside around his farm.