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British Heart Foundation pays tribute to Sir Terence English
The British Heart Foundation has today paid tribute to Sir Terence English, the pioneering surgeon who performed the UK’s first successful heart transplant, who has died aged 93.
Inspired to become a surgeon during a rotation as a junior doctor in the early 1960s, Sir Terence made history on 18 August 1979 in an operating theatre in Cambridgeshire, when he performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK. His patient, 52-year-old Keith Castle, went on to survive for five years after the procedure.
The first heart transplant was performed in the UK in January 1968, but the recipient – Frederick West – only survived for 45 days after his body began to reject the new heart. The procedure generated huge controversy in the UK and, when the survival rate didn’t improve after the first three operations, the UK Department of Health declared a moratorium on heart transplants.
Undeterred
But by 1979, after a research trip to the US and years of work to hone his methods, Sir Terence – then a surgeon at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge – was ready to re-start heart transplants in the UK. Undeterred by criticism following an unsuccessful procedure in January 1979, he went ahead with his second case, Keith Castle.
Recalling the time for our 50th anniversary, Sir Terence said “He wasn’t ideal, he was a heavy smoker, he had peripheral vascular disease and an ulcer. But he was a fantastic patient. He had great fortitude, great wit, and a determination to enjoy every conceivable day that was given to him.”
Despite the success of the second procedure, Mr Castle left hospital under intense public scrutiny, and the Department of Health were still not convinced that the UK should have a heart transplant programme at all.
Making transplants safer
In 1980, with around £300,000 funding from us, the Heart Transplant Research Group was established at the University of Cambridge with Sir Terence as Honorary Director. The research aimed to understand how the body rejects a transplanted heart, in the hope of finding new ways to overcome this.
Then, in 1985, the Department of Health formerly funded a controlled redevelopment of heart transplantation units in the UK.
Today, up to 200 heart transplants are performed in the UK each year. Since the first procedure in 1968, there have been approximately 9,000 heart transplants in the UK.
Professor Bryan Williams, our Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, said: “Sir Terence English was a true pioneer who persevered in the face of huge resistance at the dawn of heart surgery.
"We are proud to have supported his research and helped to advance heart transplantation in the UK. Thanks to his work, thousands of people have been given the gift of more time with their loved ones. We send our deepest condolences to Sir Terence’s family and friends.”