Derrick Morris
British heart transplant recipient
Intro | British heart transplant recipient | |
Places | United Kingdom Great Britain | |
Gender |
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Birth | 1 January 1930 | |
Death | 30 July 2005 (aged 75 years) |
Derrick Morris (c.1930 – 30 July 2005) was, at the time of his death, Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant patient.
Morris, a docker from Swansea, had suffered a heart attack in 1975, and received his new heart in an operation carried out by Magdi Yacoub at Harefield Hospital on 23 February 1980. The donor was a 26-year-old woman who had been killed in a car crash. Morris was given only a 15% chance of survival, and was told to "live six months at a time", but was eventually able to return to work at the docks. He was the eleventh person in the UK to receive a heart transplant, and by the 20th anniversary of his operation, he already held the European record.