Transplant cost queried

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 1

Transplant cost queried

PA Wellington The cost of performing heart transplants in New Zealand might be at the expense of .saving other lives, says a heart recipient, Mrs Jan Dodd.

Speaking from Sydney, Mrs Dodd, of Wellington, said she wished New Zealand luck with setting up a plan for transplants, but believed the price could be too high. “Where is the money going to come from?” she said. “It is going to cost us half a dozen by-passes to do this and save one person’s life for six others. I think the money will be the only thing that will prevent its happening.”

Mrs Dodd said that apart from money, she believed New Zealand

had the technology and commitment to perform heart transplants. A Wellington man, Mr Bryan Kiernander, will spend Christmas at London's Old Court Hospital with his wife, while he awaits a heart transplant. Mr Roy Richards, a New Zealand heart patient, was still in a very critical condition in St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, last evening. Mr Richards, of Christchurch, who last month underwent two heart operations in two days, was suffering from a lung problem, said a hospital spokesman, Mrs Trish Burns. He has been in the critical-care unit since the beginning of last week.