Plastic heart gives dad Matthew Green new lease of life

Matthew Green is ready to go home and await a transplant after surgeons at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire replaced his heart with an implant.

His new plastic heart is powered by a portable driver in a backpack, which he said had "revolutionised" his life.

It is thought to be the first time a UK patient has been able to go home with an entirely artificial heart.

Around 900 similar operations have been carried out around the world.

Mr Green said: "It's going to revolutionise my life. Before I couldn't walk anywhere. I could hardly climb a flight of stairs and now I've been up and I've been walking out and getting back to a normal life.

"I went out for a pub lunch over the weekend and that just felt fantastic, to be with normal people again."

Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon Mr Steven Tsui said without the device Mr Green, from London, may not have survived the wait for a heart transplant operation.

"Matthew's condition was deteriorating rapidly and we discussed with him the possibility of receiving this device, because without it, he may not have survived the wait until a suitable donor heart could be found for him."

He said for the first time a patient was walking the streets of Britain without a human heart.

Mr Green, who is married and has a son, had been suffering from Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a heart muscle disease that results in arrhythmia, heart failure and occasionally sudden death.

His health had declined over recent years, meaning the only option available to him was a heart transplant.

The SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart Mr Green received is used as a bridge-to-transplant for patients dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure, where both sides of the heart are failing.

The device works in the same way as a heart transplant in that it replaces both failing ventricles and the heart valves they contain, thus relieving the symptoms and effects of severe heart failure. However, it is not suitable for long-term use.

Mr Tsui, director of the transplant service at Papworth, said the operation on 9 June "went extremely well".

"I expect him to go home very soon, being able to do a lot more than before the operation - with a vastly improved quality of life - until we can find a suitable donor heart for him to have a heart transplant." Kazinform cites BBC. See www.bbc.co.uk for full version