U.K. doctor deplores transplant 'mania’

Press, 4 September 1980, Page 7

U.K. doctor deplores transplant 'mania’

NZPA Manchester Britain is at present in the throes of a veritable “mania” of heart transplants which is “inappropriate if not obscenely irrelevant,” a British health policy specialist, Dr Peter Draper, has said. In an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr Draper, who practices at Guy’s Hospital in London, sharply criticised the recent spate of heart transplants in Britain. His speech was made shortly after the death this week of the youngest British heart recipient, 16-year-old Richard Brittain, who received his transplant in June. Richard was the latest m a succession of heart-trans-

plant patients who have died. Britain resumed the transplants earlier this year after a halt of 10 years because of the high failure rate.

Dr Draper said that the number ■ of patients who could benefit from a heart transplant with chances of survival over a reasonable period was tragically insignificant compared to the figure of 160,000 deaths each year from heart diseases, and added that the same was true for the open-heart operations. From a health policy point of view, he said, it would be preferable to pay more attention to prevention rather than to increase the number of expensive transplants, which cost up to $50,000 each.