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SEPTEMBER 2017
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Sign up for organ donor card Our Trust is proudly supporting Organ Donation Week and an appeal for people to talk about organ donation. There are currently 230,109 people on the organ donor waiting list. Many will go on to receive lifesaving or life changing transplants. However, hundreds of transplants are being missed around the country every year because families don’t know what their relative wanted. During the week (which runs from September 4–10), NHS Blood and Transplant, hospitals, charities and supporters of organ donation are encouraging people across the UK to talk about organ donation with their relatives and friends. This way, if you are ever able to be an organ donor your family would not be faced with making a difficult decision without knowing
Milestone for liver transplant teams A major milestone has been achieved in Birmingham with the 5,000th and 5,001st liver transplant having been carried out on the same day by the city’s liver transplant units. The 5,000 liver transplants have predominantly been carried out by the specialist team at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), with the 5,000th transplant performed at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and 5,001st at UHB. On reaching this milestone, the teams from both hospitals performed four liver transplants in 48 hours. Mr John Isaac, clinical lead for liver surgery at UHB, said: “The success of liver transplantation relies on a number of factors. Organ donation is essential for transplantation to take place, and this is why I would like to take the opportunity to thank organ donors and their families. “Without the gift of donation none of this would have been possible. In addition, organ transplantation is a complex field, and the efforts of the multidisciplinary teams involved have enabled transplantation to take place, contributing to this success.” It is 30 years since the Centre for Liver Research was established at the University of Birmingham. A scientific conference will be held in Birmingham on 5 and 6 September 2017 to celebrate the clinical and academic achievements. Full details
I’ve missed out on quite a lot through feeling unwell, so I feel really grateful to have a chance to have a better quality of life. Raymond Chapman Birmingham Liver Units’ 5,001st transplant recipient
of can be found on the conference website: 5000livers.org The 5,001st liver transplant recipient at Birmingham Liver Units was Raymond Chapman. He was diagnosed at 14 with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), a chronic liver disease in which the bile ducts progressively decrease in size due to inflammation and
scarring. Now 28, he has struggled with ill health for much of his life. At the point where he went on the transplant waiting list aged 22, Raymond had deteriorated to the stage where he was bed bound and received a new liver a year later. Raymond was well for a little while after the operation, but unfortunately there were complications and he became very unwell in January 2016.
what you wanted. NHS Blood and Transplant surveys show more than 80 per cent of people support organ donation but only around 49 per cent of people have ever talked about it. During the week there will be a series of events in the QEHB atrium encouraging people to find out more about organ donation including how to join the register. It is 32 years since Julie Melady, pictured with her husband Stephen and children Jasmine and Billy, underwent her lifechanging transplant. To read her story and for further details about how you can make a difference see the centre pages.
Pioneering surgeon’s life-changing legacy The very first transplant in Birmingham was carried out at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on 19 January 1982 by pioneering former surgeon Professor Paul McMaster and team. Having previously worked in Cambridge, Paul came to Queen Elizabeth to work with liver specialist Professor Elwyn Elias to develop services at the Trust. It was a much riskier procedure then than it is today, and sadly the very first liver transplant patient died soon after the operation. But, despite the risk, the next three patients survived between 20 and 28 years. The next three recipients lived and within ten years, the unit had become the most active in Europe. By 1986, the programme had been recognised as a national centre and was receiving specific funding as a supra-regional centre. Survival rates have now improved significantly with a one-year survival rate of 94 per cent, and the number of liver transplants that now take place has also grown, from just three in that first year of 1982, to more than four to five a week now. Six months after going on the waiting list in 2017, Raymond received news that a liver had been found and travelled from his home town, High Wycombe for the operation on 18 July 2017. Raymond said: “It’s a real achievement that so many people have had the opportunity to have a liver transplant. I’ve missed out on quite a lot through feeling unwell, so I feel really grateful to have a chance to have a better quality of life.”
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