Patient condemns threat to transplant surgery

Press, 10 April 1987, Page 4

Patient condemns threat to transplant surgery

PA Auckland The heart-lung patient, Ms Jacqui Culpin, aged 30, of Auckland, has spoken out against a threat to the future of transplant surgery for New Zealanders. Harefield Hospital, in England, is due to perform Ms Culpin’s double transplant in a few weeks, but the hospital’s pioneering transplant unit may not last the year in the face of cost-cutting measures by the local health authority. This news has brought a

strong’ reaction from ms Culpin, who flew to London for the surgery in December after people in Auckland raised $lOO,OOO for the treatment Referring to the health authority she said, “Who are they to condemn people to death if they cannot do the operation?”

She said if Harefield Hospital closed, Papworth Hospital was the only English hospital left to do transplants. She said hospitals in other countries were too expensive. Although she is in little danger of missing her sur-

gery because she is already in the transplant programme, she said she was worried about those who might need such surgery in the future. A spokesman for Harefield staff, Doctor Ron Pridie, said the number of beds in the diagnostic wards would be cut 50 per cent which would make that part of the unit nonviable. If the Hillingdon Health Authority administering Harefield Hospital approved the measure, the unit would face serious problems in a few months, he said.