Part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
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The newsletter for Trust members with an interest in heart and lung care
March 2023
Pioneering CPR service launched by Harefield Hospital and Thames Valley Air Ambulance
A new service that will see patients who have had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest receive advanced treatment, has been launched by Harefield Hospital and Thames Valley Air Ambulance.
The partnership, the first of its kind in the UK, will see eligible patients who don’t respond to standard CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) transported to Harefield Hospital by Thames Valley Air Ambulance to receive E-CPR.
E-CPR is a resuscitation method combining placing patients on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), a machine which pumps blood through an artificial lung outside the body when a patient’s own circulatory system is unable to function properly, and delivering CPR.
This technique has been found to improve survival rates of patients with cardiac arrests, including in a 2020 study which found survival rates reached 43% compared to 7% in patients who received standard CPR interventions.
Read more here.
“I knew I was feeling my own heart for the last time in my chest."
Sarah Pepper recalls the moment that her son Jack was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that causes the walls of the heart chamber to thicken and can restrict the flow of blood through the heart. “The doctor started to fill up with tears,” she says.
It was an unlikely turn of events for Jack, then aged 12, who had just joined an afterschool running club but found himself falling behind from the rest of the group. “I just put it down to not exercising a lot and just sitting around, because I’d only just started running,” he says. Cautious, his coach suggested he make an appointment with his GP, who, after an initial bout of tests which suggested “he was probably fine,” referred Jack to Glenfield Hospital, near his home in Leicester, where he was diagnosed.
Read more here.
Watch Jack Pepper’s heart transplant journey here.
Join us for our upcoming webinar, on the Road to Transplant, a webinar co-designed with patients and out multi-disciplinary Transplant team. To learn more and to register for this online event being held on Monday, 13 March, click here.
First UK centre to trial new medical device to help identify heart failure
A research project at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals aims to determine whether a new medical device can help the early identification of those with worsening heart failure.
The Acorai Heart Monitor is a specialist non-invasive device which uses a unique combination of sensors and artificial intelligence to analyse heart signals to understand the flow and pressure of blood through the heart and lungs. The Acorai device can provide a non-invasive, estimate of the specialist blood pressure in the heart to guide personalised heart failure treatment.
Heart failure is caused when the heart is unable to pump blood around the body effectively and symptoms can include breathlessness, fatigue, light-headedness or fainting, and swollen ankles and legs.
It is long-term condition that cannot usually be cured and tends to get gradually worse over time. It also accounts for 2% of the total NHS budget and for 5% of all emergency hospital admissions in the UK.
Funded by Acorai, this research aims to determine whether the device can provide an accurate non-invasive measure of cardiac output and pulmonary pressures compared to the current standard of care, which is invasive right heart catheterisation, and involves the insertion of a catheter into the heart.
Read more here.
10 top tips for a healthy heart
To celebrate National Heart Month, in February we spoke with Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation and consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital, about some of her top tips for maintaining a healthy heart.
Read Dr Sonya Baby-Narayan’s 10 Top Tips here.
Putting Safety First
In his latest blog Luke Blair, Director of Communications, shares insight into the formidable role carried out by quality improvement and patient safety teams who advocate for patients.
‘We’re all familiar with complaints, whether making or receiving them. Mostly, it’s about irritating but mundane stuff like parcels and deliveries.
But now imagine a complaint about life and death. Imagine it comes from a bereaved partner, son or daughter. Then imagine it is your job not only to hear that complaint, but do something about it – and try to ensure it never happens again.
That formidable role is carried out every day of the week in the NHS by patient safety teams or, to give them their proper titles, quality improvement and patient safety teams. As you might imagine, in a hospital of any size this is a significant, and valuable, job.
So for each directorate in this particular organisation, there is just such a team. And today I am speaking to the team in the cardiovascular directorate.’
Read the full blog here.
Here from members of our staff
Aisling Mcintyre, specialist nurse in organ donation (SNOD) shares what motivates her to go to work, what she does day to day and what part of her job she finds most challenging.
What motivates you to wake up and go to work?
I’m constantly in awe of our donor families. I have so much admiration for their strength and generosity; their willingness to help save the lives of other people at the most tragic time in their lives is truly amazing. Many donor families have fed back that donation provides comfort in an otherwise devastating situation. Each family is given the option to receive recipient outcome letters through donation services, which also provides comfort during the grieving process.
Read the whole interview here.
To meet members of our Transplant team, please join our upcoming webinar, On the Road to Transplant, being held online Monday, 13 March from 1-2pm. To learn more about the webinar and to register, click here.
Join our free health and wellbeing webinars
Living well with heart failure
Thursday, 23 March
11.30 -13.00
To register, please click here.
Join our multidisciplinary team of experts who will cover aspects of living with heart failure from causes, symptoms, treatments and medications to patient choices, how to live well with heart failure and where to find out more. This webinar has been co-designed with patients, for patients and we are delighted to welcome Nick Hartshorne-Evans, founder and CEO of Pumping Marvellous Foundation, the UK’s patient-led heart failure charity, who will chair the event.
On the road to transplant
Monday, 27 March
1pm to 2pm
Online via MS Teams
To register, please click here.
Drawing on the experience of transplant patients, this webinar brings together experts from the disciplines patients and their families may meet on the road transplant.
This webinar aims to answer the many questions patients and family members often have and also covers important topics that may yet not be on their horizons.
Getting involved in Patient Experience and Improvement
Thursday, 27 April
11am – 12pm
To register, please click here.
Understanding and involving patient, family and carer lived experience is an essential component for improving our services.
Meet peer leaders Lindsey Stedman and Jude Irvine to learn more about our work:
- improving family and patient centred care
- supporting and training for involvement of patients in quality improvement
- the role of our patient and public engagement group and how to join
- opportunities for involvement
We’ll end with a Q & A
This webinar is open to any HLCC patient, carer or public member interested heart and lung care.
Webinar recordings
Catch up on any webinars you may have missed. Access the webinar recordings here.
The Brompton Fountain
Royal Parks Half Marathon
The Royal Parks Half Marathon is one of the most prestigious running events of the year. Why not challenge yourself and join #TeamBrompton for this year's event which takes place on Sunday, 8th October. The 13.1 mile course takes in some of London's most iconic landmarks. The Brompton Fountain have guaranteed charity places available so to find out more about joining their team please email [email protected]
Heart Month
February was Heart Awareness Month so we shared heart facts, information on common conditions, and patient stories on our social media feeds. We celebrated Wear Red Day on the 14th to raise money for our Healing Hearts Appeal, which goes towards funding medical equipment and vital resources for young patients and their families at Royal Brompton Hospital.
Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity
A special celebration of Harefield Hospital
Tickets are now on sale for the 40th Harefield Fun Run and Family Day. This year, as it’s a big anniversary, Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity is arranging an especially big celebration of Harefield Hospital and all the lives the hospital has helped.
The day will kick off with a 4mile walk, jog, run or roll along a course that winds through the beautiful Harefield countryside and ends up at the hospital. This will be followed by the Harefield Family Day, where there will be food, music and stalls. It will be fun for the whole family.
Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, who helped set up the first Fun Run in the 1980s, will be the guest of honour and we hope to welcome back many past Fun Runners.
The Fun Run is taking place on Sunday 10 September, but for a limited time the tickets are on sale at a discounted price so grab yours now.
You can find out more and get tickets on the Charity’s website.
To learn more about your Trust membership, share your feedback or update your contact details, please contact Nancy Dickinson at [email protected]
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