30th anniversary of Scotland's first heart transplant service

And one grateful recipient is looking forward to his own 30th birthday, a milestone he's reaching thanks to the gift of a new heart in 2018.

The service began at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary on December 16, 1991 before the country’s first historic heart transplant was carried out on January 2, 1992.

Since then, 445 lives have been saved through the service following the gift of life from donors and their families.

Of that figure, 281 transplants were carried out in the Glasgow hospital, while 164 have been performed at NHS Golden Jubilee in Clydebank since the service moved there in 2008.

Patient Euan Bisset turns 30 on December 26 thanks to a life-saving heart transplant in 2018.

Euan, a keen mountain bike racer, worked as a welder for his family’s company before his operation.

He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and cardiomyopathy in 2009 and received an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in 2015.

His condition worsened severely until he was told he would need a new heart in 2018 and he was admitted to the National Services Division (NSD) ward at the Golden Jubilee on the urgent list.

Euan said: “I was really lucky, I only had to wait about four weeks after I went on the urgent list and I just remember being wheeled away and I didn’t wake up until 11 days later because there were complications.

“I’m doing really good now. I think this year is the first time since 2018 that I’ve not spent time in any hospital, apart from check-ups. I’ve had some problems but my heart feels perfect.

“It’s a miracle to still be alive and I’m just really grateful.

"Emotionally, it’s hard knowing that someone died for me to be alive, but it’s comforting knowing that’s what they wanted, and I know that if circumstances were different, I would do the same.

“I want my donor’s family to know that their loss has turned into something positive by saving my life and with my new heart I try my very best every day to make it count.”

Theatre Co-ordinator Hazel Colquhoun is vastly experienced in cardiac services serving in many senior roles over the past 30 years.

She played a leading role in the first Scottish team that went to the specialist Harefield Hospital in Uxbridge to learn how to retrieve organs for transplantation in Scotland in the set-up stage.

Hazel said: “I always liked doing things that were unpredictable. In cardiac surgery I don’t know what I’m going to do that day because it changes so much, but I’ll know what I’ve done at the end of the day.

“I remember the first transplant when it was done as our team went out through the night and I actually still have our off-duty book for that day.

“It’s a special thing. When I first did retrieval you wouldn’t know anything at all about the person whose organ you are retrieving, but that’s all changed and you know the circumstances now, which I think makes the process much better."

The highly skilled transplant team has been resilient throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and has carried out 41 heart transplants over that period, overcoming difficulties to ensure the high level of safety and patient care was maintained.

Hazel added: “It’s good for us to have the Retrieval Programme here at NHS Golden Jubilee giving us involvement in the whole transplantation journey.

“The team has done a lot over the last few years, going into covid hospitals in full PPE now, working through this pandemic amazing well, with the on-call team doing a large amount of transplants.

“The team has worked extremely hard and within teams like this it’s like having a second family you are so close to each other.”

NHS Golden Jubilee Consultant Cardiologist in Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation, Dr Jane Cannon, said: “A lot has changed in the world of cardiac transplantation over the past 30 years.

“As technology evolves, so too does our clinical practice. One example of this would be the development of the Organ Care System (OCS) which is a medical device used in the transportation of donor hearts.

“It allows the organ to be transported for longer distances. Rather than the traditional method of preserving an organ through cold storage, this perfuses the blood of the donor through the heart at a temperature more similar to the human body.

“In Scotland especially, this allows us a wider access to donor organs from all over the UK - as the heart can travel safely from further afield.

“As well as surgical advances, there have also been advances in transplant medicine.

“All in all, it has been a very positive journey for cardiac transplantation over the past 30 years and we look forward to an exciting next 30 years.”