A REMARKABLE international effort saved the life of a ten-year-old with a diseased heart, it has been revealed.
The boy was kept alive with an artificial heart at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford for almost a week. He has since had a transplant and is recovering at Great Ormond Street in London.
A team of specialists from Germany flew to Oxford with the man-made heart to maintain the breathing of the boy, who comes from Reading.
When the boy's own heart did not improve, he was given a transplant in an operation led by Oxford surgeon Stephen Westaby, who made the initial call to colleagues in Berlin.
Mr Westaby said today: "This is one of the nicest stories in the history of cardiac surgery because it shows what a considerable, concerted international effort can do for an individual child."
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