British first as man goes home after artificial heart op

A 40-YEAR-OLD father has become the first person in Britain to receive a total artificial heart enabling him to go home.

Matthew Green had been critically ill, suffering from end-stage failure of both chambers of his heart.

But surgeons at Papworth Hospital successfully replaced Green’s damaged heart with an artificial heart in a six-hour operation on June 9.

“The operation went extremely well and Matthew has made an excellent recovery,” said Steven Tsui, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and director of the transplant service at Papworth.

“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.”

The SynCardia temporary total artificial heart that Green received is a device that is used as a bridge- to-transplant for patients dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure, where both sides of the heart are failing. It carried out the roles of both ventricles and heart valves, providing a blood flow of up to 9.5 litres per minute.

Doctors at the hospital have previously implanted a total artificial heart but this is the first time a patient has been well enough to leave hospital and go home.

The operation — which has also been completed successfully in the United States and parts of Europe — could help cut transplant waiting times in the future.

Green said: “Two years ago I was cycling nine miles to work and nine miles back every day but by the time I was admitted to hospital I was struggling to walk even a few yards.

“I am really excited about going home and just being able to do the everyday things I haven’t been able to do for such a long time such as playing in the garden with my son and cooking a meal for my family.”

The artificial heart will be powered by a “freedom portable driver”, worn like a backpack or shoulder bag.

Green suffered fromarrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathia, a heart muscle disease which results in arrhythmia, heart failure and sudden death.