Heart first

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 1

Heart first

PA Auckland Surgeons at Green Lane Hospital were late last evening preparing to perform New Zealand’s first heart transplant, the “New Zealand Herald” reports. The team moved into action late at night to bring back a donor heart from Hamilton.

A heart surgeon, cardiac anaesthetist and cardiac registrar flew by helicopter to Hamilton, arriving about 9 p.m. It is believed they removed the heart of a man in his 20s in an operating theatre at Waikato Hospital. The donor was a man who was transferred to Waikato from Rotorua Hospital on Monday evening and was declared “brain dead” soon after admission.

The operation to remove the organs was completed shortly before midnight and a waiting helicopter took off for Auckland

Police threw a cordon round the Cornwall Park cricket ground, adjoining the hospital, shortly before the helicopter landed about 12.45 a.m.

There was heavy security at the entrance to the cardiac unit at Green Lane. No-one was allowed into that part of the building. A “Sun” reporter was told the precautions were understandable because “the first one’s taking place.”