A heart surgeon based at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital has used a combination of an artificial heart and stem cells to save the life of a dying man.

It is understood to be the the first time that the pioneering comination has been used.

Greek patient Ioannis Manolopoulos was fitted with the mechanical pump because his heart was too weak to push blood around his body.

Surgeons then injected his failing heart muscle with six million of his own stem cells in the hope that they would repair the damage.

The team was led by Oxford-based Prof Stephen Westaby, professor of biomedical sciences at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

He has pioneered the use of mechanical pumps in patients suffering heart failure.

But the NHS does not pay for the treatment, and Prof Westaby relies on charity funding or travels abroad to implant pumps, in countries where governments are prepared to fund the £60,000 devices.

Speaking to Sky News, Prof Westaby said: “I am very frustrated that all the work that I have done back home in the UK has to be translated into patient care in other countries.

“We have helped to develop implantation programmes in France, Greece and Japan. It’s time we did it in the UK.”

The surgeon believes heart pumps, with or without stem cells, could save the lives of 12,000 patients with serious heart failure each year.

In an attempt to save his Mr Monolopoulos’s life, surgeons implanted a mechanical device into his heart to divert blood away from the damaged pumping chamber.

But the patient’s cardiac muscle had been badly damaged by heart attacks, so surgeons injected the stem cells they had earlier extracted from his bone marrow.

The stem cells begin a recovery by building new muscle and releasing chemicals that attract new blood vessels into the damaged areas.

The Greek government recently agreed to fund pumps for some patients with serious heart failure.

In Britain, the NHS will only fund pumps in transplant patients who are waiting for a donor heart. About 100 a year are implanted.