St Vincent’s clocks up 1000

Sydney
14 July 2002

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St Vincent’s clocks up 1000

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St Vincent’s clocks up 1000

Ron Belcher (second from right) with, from left: Dr Phil Spratt, surgeon in the Heart-Lung Transplant Unit; Fiona Coote; NSW Health Minister Craig Knowles and Professor Alan Glanville, head of respiratory medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital

Ron Belcher’s new heart has earned him the historic distinction of being the 1000th heartlung transplant recipient at St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst.

Since 1968, when Dr Harry Windsor performed the first heart transplant in Australia at the hospital, 999 more patients - including Ron, 55, an antiques dealer from Canberra - have received a new heart, set of lungs, or both, and, in the process, gained a new life.

The late Dr Victor Chang, as head of the then new National Heart Transplant Unit, made Fiona Coote a household name in early 1984 when, at the age of only 14, she became the youngest person in Australia to receive a heart transplant.

Fiona was a special guest at the recent ceremony marking the 1000th transplant.

NSW Health Minister Craig Knowles said the pioneering approach of the Heart-Lung Transplant Unit, and St Vincent’s unique approach to patient care had ensured that Australia was recognised internationally as a leader in heart-lung transplantation.

The survival rate for patients five years post-heart transplant is 80 per cent for the Heart-Lung Transplant Unit compared with the world benchmark of 70 per cent. The hospital has the highest post-transplant survival rate in the world.

Other Australian firsts for the hospital’s Heart-Lung Transplant Unit include the first bilateral double lung transplant, the first heart-lung transplant and the first full implantation of a mechanical heart.