The Love Hearts Appeal for Great Ormond Street Hospital, which was set up by Catherine MacLachlan and her family after she had a heart transplant when she was 15, is aiming to raise £120,000 to pay for a paediatric organ chamber moulding.
The piece of kit would be used to modify an existing machine which is revolutionising the way heart transplants can be conducted, potentially increasing the availability of donor hearts.
The mOrgan system – a UK version of its American original the Organ Care System – is being used successfully at the Royal Papworth Hospital for adult heart transplants, but it has not yet been adapted for children.
A surgeon at the hospital has, however, designed a way to modify the adult machine to work with smaller hearts.
Neil MacLachlan, Catherine’s father and a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Jersey, said that if the charity could raise the money to fund the mould it would allow a world first in heart transplants to be carried out. Although expensive to begin with, once the mould has been created it could be used to manufacture cheap disposable organ chambers.
‘It would allow for babies and small children to go down the route of paediatric donation after circulatory death, which would be a world first,’ said Mr MacLachlan, who was made an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.
‘Here in Jersey we rely so much on the NHS, including for organ donation. We could make this a Jersey gift to the NHS and then they could get on with it. It is quite possible that it could be used in Jersey for taking a heart across to the UK and we know that there have been Jersey children who have had heart transplants.’
Although designed by Stephen Large at Papworth, the modified machine would be used at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where paediatric heart transplants are carried out for patients in the south of England, including those from Jersey.
The Love Hearts Appeal for Great Ormond Street Hospital has previously raised £120,000 to fund a new cardiac critical care unit at Great Ormond Street and a similar amount to fund pioneering research into heart transplants.
The new campaign comes at a point when waiting times for heart transplants are increasing, especially for children. The pandemic has also reduced the number of organs available generally, as there are fewer accidents on the road and at work; more people are dying at home rather than in hospital, and intensive care units are full of Covid patients, making it harder to prepare donors for transplants.
To donate to the appeal, cheques can be made payable to The Love Hearts Appeal – GOSH and sent to La Campagne, Rues des Alleurs, Rozel, St Martin, JE3 6AZ. Alternatively, bank transfers can be made to sort code 601203, account number 26840405.
