Heart transplant patient ‘stable but critical’

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 1

Heart transplant patient ‘stable but critical’

PA A Whangarel carpenter made * New Zealand history yesterday as the nation’s first heart transplant recipient. ■„>. A congenitial muscular heart disease sufferer, Brian Lindsay, aged 28, was operated on by a team of Green Lane Hospital surgeons between 12.45 a.m. and 3.45 a.m. and is now recovering in intensive care. Doctors say his condition is “stable but critical.” The donor heart came from a Rotorua salesman, aged 24, declared brain dead at Waikato Hospital after a motor-cycle accident on Tuesday evening. His heart was removed just before midnight in an operation involving two of the hospital’s intensive care surgeons and a team comprising a heart surgeon, cardiac registrar and cardiac anaesthetist which flew to Hamilton by helicopter from Auckland. The Auckland team returned to Green Lane just after mid-

night with the heart in a chillybin, packed in a saline solution and ice. Organs can be kept alive for a maximum of five hours once

-V' ’A 1 •. <?’ ” removed.' • That meant the Green Lane Hospital transplant team had only about four hours to implant the heart and re-establish circulation in Mr Lindsay. The historic swap was completed in three hours. It took the team only 30 to 40 minutes to prepare Mr Lindsay, five minutes to transfer the hearts and another 40 to 50 minutes for suturing, said a spokesman for the doctors. It is one day short of 20 years since the world’s first heart transplant was performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, by Professor Christiaan Barnard. The surgical team yesterday was headed by two cardiac surgeons, Clive Robinson and Ken Graham, assisted by two cardiologists, Arthur Coverdale and Trevor Agnew. The specialists have been in a state of high readiness to perform the surgery since October. The Government gave permis-

sion for the hospital to set up a transplant unit in June. The Cabinet has allocated $39,998 for each heart patient and said it would pay for postoperative care, which could run as high as $20,000. But because of the strict criteria for donors a maximum of 10 transplants are expected each year. A donor’s organ must match the transplant patient. Recipients must be aged under 55, have strong family support, and be severely disabled by heart disease but free of other serious medical problems. Dr Trevor Agnew, spokesman for the transplant team, said at a press conference yesterday that Mr Lindsay’s condition was now stable, but remained critical. “We have a satisfactory blood pressure ... we are quite happy with the situation at present.” Transplant reaction, page 8