https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/press-releases/bbc2-s-great-ormond-street-part-three/

BBC2’s Great Ormond Street – Part Three

22 May 2012, 4:24 p.m.

Dr Philip Rees, Consultant Cardiologist

The third part of the series following the patients, families, and clinical teams of Great Ormond Street Hospital aired on Tuesday 22 May at 9pm on BBC2.‘Buying Time’ deals with the enormous challenges faced by the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Cardiothoracic Transplant Team. Every year the number of child heart donors decreases, thanks to safer roads, better intensive care and a society seemingly reluctant to donate. But fewer hearts means longer waiting times for those children for whom a transplant is the only option.

Consultant Cardiologist Dr Phil Rees tells the programme: “Without donation of an organ children will sadly die waiting. We have no other exit strategy for them other than transplant”.

‘Buying Time’ documents the clinical team as they do everything in their power to keep those children waiting for a heart alive.

The programme tells the stories of three children: 11-year-old Sol, and two-year-olds Holly and Ellie who both arrived in Cardiac Intensive Care in end-stage heart failure.

Sol was born with a severely defective heart and already has a pacemaker, but with the left side of his heart failing the doctors decide to list him for a transplant. The team know that any operation will be at the very limits of what is medically possible.

Two-year-old Holly has been flown in from Ireland after going into sudden heart failure. The doctors decide to put her on a Berlin Heart, while they wait for a possible donor.

Ellie arrives at GOSH after a virus attacked her heart. So far she has spent 104 days on a Berlin Heart. Overnight a heart that is a match for Ellie becomes available, but it is 1,000 miles away.

With the number of hearts decreasing, medicine and technology must evolve quickly to solve the question of how to keep these children alive long enough for them to receive a transplant.

Read an interview with Matthew Fenton, Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist.

For more information about the series and how you can support the hospital, visit our Great Ormond Street documentary series section.

Contact Information

For further information please contact the GOSH-ICH Press Office on 020 7239 3125.
For genuine and urgent out-of-hours queries call switchboard on 020 7405 9200.

Notes to Editors

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust is the country’s leading centre for treating sick children, with the widest range of specialists under one roof.
With the UCL Institute of Child Health, we are the largest centre for paediatric research outside the US and play a key role in training children’s health specialists for the future.
Our charity needs to raise £50 million every year to help rebuild and refurbish Great Ormond Street Hospital, buy vital equipment and fund pioneering research. With your help we provide world class care to our very ill children and their families.