A surgical team from Oxford was today due to assist a ground-breaking operation to implant a tiny artificial heart pump.

World expert Stephen Westaby, from the John Radcliffe Hospital, has spent 1m developing the miniature machine which can pump ten litres of blood around the body every minute.

And he has taken senior anaesthetist David Pigott and specialist nurse Desiree Robson to help with the first implant operation on a patient in Texas, USA.

If a success, the device, known as the Jarvic 2000, could soon eliminate the need for heart transplants - saving thousands of lives. It will also signal the go-ahead for Mr Westaby, 52, to use it for the first time in the UK at his base at the Oxford Heart Centre later this year.

The cardio-thoracic surgeon has completed much of the research into the cork-sized Jarvic 2000 together with Howard Frazier, director of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston.

Funds have already been raised for four of the six operations scheduled to take place in Oxford and Mr Westaby has campaigned for the Department of Health to fund similar pioneering operations in other parts of the country. Today's procedure is taking place in America because the John Radcliffe does not have sufficient indemnity insurance.

Mr Westaby said: "These pumps will become as common as pacemakers in the next few years and I believe they will become a more effective and cheaper long-term treatment than anything else.

"There are nothing like enough transplant organs available and one in three donated hearts is rejected within five years." While the larger devices were only for temporary use, the titanium Jarvic 2000 will last longer than a heart transplant.

Patients fitted with the pump will not have their own hearts removed or need to take anti-rejection drugs.

It is operated by a battery pack - worn in a waistcoat - connected to a wire fitted into the skull to avoid infection.

Story date: Monday 10 April

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