A British man has become the first to benefit from a pioneering lung transplant operation in an NHS breakthrough which could save up to 750 lives a year.
The extraordinary achievement saw Joe McConnell, 62 – who was dying and reliant on oxygen – receive donor lungs which might ordinarily have been rejected because of their condition.
But instead, they were transported between three different hospitals and kept alive and ‘breathing’ in a specially-designed box to allow doctors to monitor their function and boost the chances of his operation being a success.
The specialist hospital at the centre of the pilot study, Royal Papworth
To provide well-rounded coverage and a breadth of insight across various events, we rely on contributions from several staff writers, each bringing their own area of expertise to our publication.