Heart patient’s wife ‘due for a holiday;

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 8

Heart patient’s wife ‘due for a holiday;

By

TONY VERDON

in London

A Mosgiel heart transplant patient, Mr Norman Rae, says his wife, Pat, has gone through at least as much trauma as he has during the last six months.

Now quickly regaining strength which was sapped by more than two years of serious ill-health, Mr Rae contemplates the immense burden carried by his wife throughout his illness. |‘She is due for a holiday when she gets home,” said Mr Rae, who underwent the heart transplant at Harefield Hospital near London three weeks ago. Mr Rae left the hospital only 12 days after surgery and has continued to recover rapidly since. But believes his wife deserves as much credit as anyone for his survival through a difficult fiyemonth wait for the trans plant, i

j The two have had the support of other New

Zealanders in Britain for the same surgery and of a New Zealand nurse working at Harefield, Deborah Allen. ) They say they have also been helped by many English people, including hospital staff and the local Lions Club. | However, nursing Mr Rae has been a full-time job for his wife, who has had to push him about in ri wheelchair since soon after their arrival from New Zealand in October. I During their wait they rriade daily visits to the hospital’s social centre where they met other heart patients, both younger and older. I They kept in touch with hews from New Zealand through letters from their family at home, and through the weekly editions of “New Zealand News U.K.” published in London. ! One of the unavoidable frustrations; of the waiting period was not knowing) Ihow long it would be i

before a suitable heart became available for Mr Rae.

I They had one "false start” when Mr Rae was prepared for the trans plant in January, but it was decided the heart should be used to help a rriore desperately ill patient. Mr Rae is pleased that three heart transplants have now been performed in New Zealand. I While he is reluctant to discuss the controversy which surrounded the transplant issue in New Zealand, it is clear Mr Rae believes the decision to go ahead with them should have been made earlier.

At 56, Mr Rae would have been too old to qualify for such surgery in New Zealand.

i Although they do not yet know when they will return home, the Raes are both looking forward to returning to the bowling green and “getting! back to a normal life.” i