Dad’s Life Saved By Donated Heart That Was Kept Beating OUTSIDE the body

A young father who desperately needed a new heart was saved when an organ was found for him - that was kept beating inside a BOX.

Dad-of-one Lee Hall was told by doctors that he had just two days to find a new heart in May this year, or he would have to have a pump fitted.

The 26-year-old was diagnosed with heart failure when he was 14 and had already had a mechanical pump fitted five years ago to keep the blood flowing around his body.

However, the pump cables became infected, leading to the rush to find a heart donor for the life-saving op.

Miraculously, the heart of a patient who had died on the day he found out he needed a new one was offered to Lee - and he was told it could be kept beating OUTSIDE the donor’s body.

The new ‘heart in a box’ method can revive hearts which have been dead for up to 30 minutes - and keep them alive for up to eight hours before an operation.

It could save hundreds of lives as it doubles the amount of time that hearts can be preserved outside of the body.

Using the revolutionary method, doctors revived Lee’s new heart by providing a passage of warm blood through it, just like it would receive in a living person.

The blood was heated to reduce the risk of tissue damage and oxygenated using a gas exchanger right up until the moment it was transplanted into Lee’s body.

Lee, from Illogen, Cornwall, said: “The fact that they could keep that heart alive in the box was the difference between life and death for me.

"I just woke up feeling so much better than I ever had.

“It has made a huge difference.”

Lee’s heart failure was linked to chemotherapy he had as a small child to treat leukaemia.

The keen sportsman, who spent most of his time sailing or on the football pitch, was told to tone down his physical activity and given drugs to improve his heart’s function.

But by the age of 20, when he was working as an electrician, Lee started feeling breathless, faint and was falling asleep on the job.

At the end of 2009 he reluctantly visited his doctor who sent him straight to Harefield Hospital in Middlesex for tests, where he was later fitted with a mechanical heart pump.

He recalled: ”I always knew there was something wrong but I thought it was just a bit of chest pain. I thought I was just overworking myself.

"But I was going out drinking on the weekends, as you do, and it would take all week for my body to recover.

"When I first had the heart pump fitted I didn’t like it. I had cables coming out of my stomach and I didn’t want anyone to see them.

"Over those five years I had a lot of infections and a lot of blood clots.

“When it was working it was all fine, but it would suddenly clog up with blood. It was risky.”

After surgery to remove an infection earlier this year, doctors found a blood clot inside the pump itself - which meant he would either need a new heart of have open heart surgery to fit a new pump.

After discovering the ‘heart in a box’ method, Lee had the “normal operation”.

He added: “They came over to me with a needle to put me to sleep and when I woke up, I felt so much better than I ever had.”

Lee underwent the procedure in June and was discharged in July after a successful recovery.

Now, two months on, he is back at home with his wife, Danyelle, and their one-year-old son, Hayden.

Looking forward to being active again, Lee said: “I’m grateful that I’ve been cared for at Harefield where this type of heart transplant is possible - without it I’d probably still be waiting for a new heart.

"It is hard to accept that someone has died for you to carry on living and I’d like to thank my donor and their family for making this possible.”

The 'heart in a box’ technology was designed by US company Transmedics, and it is hoped that it will increase transplants by up to a third, saving hundreds of lives.

Harefield Hospital has now invested in a second OCS machine to ensure patients can benefit from the increased number of hearts that will be available for transplantation.