Heart Transplant
Emergency Mission
26th May 2006
www.raf.mod.uk/raflyneham
Today more than 8,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant
that could save or dramatically improve their life. Most are
waiting for a kidney, others for a heart, lung or liver transplant.
But less than 3,000 transplants are carried out each year.
Transplants are one of the most miraculous achievements
of modern medicine. But they depend entirely on the generosity
of donors and their families who are willing to make this
life-saving gift to others.
In the late evening of 25 May 2006, Great
Ormond Street Hospital requested RAF Lyneham for emergency
assistance to transport four surgeons plus equipment to Belfast.
The medical team were to prepare and collect a heart for transport
to London to be used in an emergency transplant.
A Hercules C130J standby crew were called out and were ready
to leave within 40 minutes. Within a short time as soon as
the medical team arrived they were taken straight out to the
aircraft with their equipment and promptly loaded ready for
take off.
The team picked up the heart from Belfast and thanks to the
co-ordination and hard work by Air Traffic Control in London,
the Hercules C130J was given a straight route into London
Heathrow to deliver the heart to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Flight Lieutenant Paul Flusk, Co Pilot for the journey said,
“It feels good to do a job that can help to save someone’s
life. The mission was completed in under 8 hours and ran very
smoothly which was all down to the work of the Captain of
the flight, Flight Lieutenant Mark Raymond, and the rest of
the team in Operations and Air Traffic Control.”
This mercy mission only underlines the essential requirement
for organ donors, There is a always a desperate need for more
donors. Last year more than 400 people died while waiting
for a transplant. One in ten people waiting for a heart transplant
will die and many others will lose their lives before they
even get on to the waiting list.
The more people who pledge to donate their organs after their
death, the more people stand to benefit. We understand that
the medical staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital found an
ideal match for this donor heart and the staff at Lyneham
were called to assist in preparation for the life-saving operation
procedure.
It was on the 3rd May 1968 that Britain's first heart transplant
was successfully carried out by a team of 18 doctors and nurses
at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. The
operation, which was led by South African-born surgeon Donald
Ross, was undertaken on Frederick West a 45-year-old man.
Sadly Frederick died 45 days later owing to an "overwhelming
infection" which he had been fighting for nine days.
He had been given a series of drugs to encourage the acceptance
of the new heart but this lowered his resistance to infection
and ultimately led to his death. Mr West had also been suffering
from kidney complications before he died.
NHS Organ Donors Wanted:
Since this pioneering operation, countless people in the
country have been given a new lease of life following successful
transplant surgery. You can help others, by choosing to join
the NHS Organ Donor Register you could help make sure life
goes on.
If you've not signed up to the NHS
Organ Donor Register, you can do so by calling
the NHS Organ Donor Line:
0845 60 60 400 or do it online www.uktransplant.org.uk
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