Govt helps with heart transplant

Press, 5 November 1984, Page 20

Govt helps with heart transplant

,PA Wellington A Wellington man will receive a $lO,OOO Government grant towards the cost of a heart transplant in the United Kingdom.

The Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs Hercus, has said that the grant to Mr David Amer did not set a precedent.

■ Mr Amer had a heart attack in 1980, then a severe congestive heart failure in 1983, she said. “His condition has now deteriorated to the extent that he needs a heart transplant if he is to live.” Future applications for Government assistance for heart transplants would be considered on a case-by-case basis, Mrs Hercus said.

Careful regard would be paid to such questions as the patient’s general condition, the likelihood of the operation’s being successful,j the financial circumstances of the patient, and the level of public support, she said. “In Mr Amer’s case, the decision was made after wide-ranging consultation involving both specialists and Health Department officials. “It is clear that unless Mr Amer has a heart transplant an early death is inevitable.”

The $lO,OOO provided by the Government would go towards the estimated $48,000 it would cost to send Mr Amer to Harefield Hospital and back. .