Sir Terence English: Surgeon who led first UK’s first heart transplant dies aged 93
Surgeon behind UK’s first successful heart transplant dies
- Sir Terence English, the surgeon who led the UK's first successful human heart transplant, has died peacefully at his Oxford home aged 93.
- The pioneering operation took place in August 1979 at Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire, on 52-year-old builder Keith Castle.
- Mr Castle lived for five years after the transplant, a significant achievement following a 10-year moratorium on heart transplantation in the UK due to previous failed attempts.
- Sir Terence, who worked at Royal Papworth Hospital from 1972 to 1995, travelled to California to learn techniques that improved transplant success rates.
- His notable contributions to medicine also included performing Europe's first heart-lung combined transplant in 1984, and he was knighted in 1991.