A Harefield Hospital heart transplant patient who almost died on his honeymoon is back to work and looking forward to the birth of his first child thanks to the an incredible new organ transport machine.
Andrew Britton, 33, from Denham Green, received a new heart in November 2013 thanks to a ground-breaking equipment that keeps a heart pumping for up to eight hours as it is moved from a donor to the recepient.
Traditionally organs were kept on ice while being transported, but only for a maximum of four hours.
Marathon runner Andrew became seriously ill on a plane to the Maldives with his new wife, Lauren, also 33. He had contracted myocarditis, a viral infection that inflames the heart. He had six heart attacks in two days and almost died.
He was flown to Bangkok where he stayed for two weeks then back to Northolt airport and transferred straight to the specialist heart and lung hospital, in Hill End Road, which would become his home for the next six months.
A heart was finally found but while it was being transported in the Organ Care System (OCS) box, surgeons noticed it was not behaving as it should be.
Thanks to the machine's ability to pump the heart, they were able to spot that it was not working properly.
Surgeon Fabio De Robertis said: "Had we implanted this heart Andrew’s chance of survival would have been one or two per cent."
Thankfully another healthy heart was found in September 2013. The procedure was lengthy but the heart stayed happily beating in its box until Andrew's chest was prepared to receive it.
He was discharged in November and just eight months later he is back to work, moving house and about to welcome his little baby boy into the world.
"The difference between my life then and now is like night and day," said Andrew.
"It was really hard to know how I'd recover because people have such different outcomes.
"I'm lucky that my outcome was really good and I've been able to get back to living a relatively normal life; I call it my 'new normal'."
Andrew says he is thankful to his donor for saving his life and giving him the opportunity to create a new life.
"I think that's the greatest compliment I can give them, whoever they are," he said.
Hundreds of people die each year due to a lack of organ donors. This week is National Transplant Week and Andrew hopes more people will sign the donor register.
"It's amazing that someone gave me my life. I think anyone who would want to receive an organ should they need one should be willing to donate theirs," he said.
Lauren has published a Kindle book called Strength in Strangers based on their experiences. Last year she also made a film encouraging people to become donors.
In 2013-14, Harefield Hospital carried out 26 heart transplants, 25 of which were aided by the OCS. Surgeons no longer have to refuse healthy hearts from places such as Scotland and Ireland due to the distance.
Mr Andre Simon, consultant surgeon and director of transplantation, said: "The OCS technology has become the gold standard for organ retrieval."
