Royal Papworth transplant patient meets surgeon 35 years on

"Without him I wouldn't be here" - Katie Mitchell is reunited with Prof John Wallwork

A woman has been reunited with the surgeon who carried out her lifesaving heart and lung transplant operation 35 years ago.

Katie Mitchell, 50, of Sidcup, south-east London, was so breathless she could barely climb the stairs before she had the operation in 1987 aged 15.

She returned to Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge to meet her surgeon, Prof John Wallwork, on Thursday.

"Without him I wouldn't be here," Ms Mitchell said.

When Ms Mitchell's operation was performed, she was one of the youngest patients to undergo the surgery and she remains one of the longest survivors.

Katie Mitchell pictured before her lifesaving surgery at the age of 15

Ms Mitchell meeting Princess Diana at Papworth in 1988, the year after her surgery

Ms Mitchell initially believed she had asthma until she was diagnosed with Eisenmenger Syndrome at the age of 11.

The congenital condition causes irregular blood flow in the heart and lungs, which can lead to heart failure and irreversible lung damage.

At that time, in 1983, there was no treatment for it - and most patients died before the age of 30.

Katie Mitchell, now 50, was the youngest patient to undergo the surgery at the time

Ms Mitchell is reunited with her surgeon Prof Wallwork and consultant transplant physician, Dr Jas Parmar

The following year, a team at the then Papworth Hospital performed Europe's first successful heart-lung transplant.

Surgeons at the world-renowned unit had already carried out the first successful UK heart transplant in 1979.

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Ms Mitchell said she owed her life to the doctors, the donor and their family, and that "looking back, it was probably very worrying for my parents".

"I knew I was on the waiting list," she said. "I didn't ever think it wouldn't happen."

She said: "I was so breathless and so blue from not getting any oxygen that literally as soon as I woke up from the surgery I was very pink and I could breathe, and I remember thinking how easy it was to breathe compared to the day before.

"It made such a big difference."

Prof John Wallwork carried out Ms Mitchell's heart and lung transplant in 1987

Prof Wallwork, 76, now chairman of Royal Papworth Hospital, said at the time of the operation there was not the experience to predict how long people may live for.

"35 years is exceptional, there's no doubt," he said.

"She was very blue and she was coming towards the end of her life at the age of 15. To see her now this many years later having led a good life, not just having survived, is wonderful."

The hospital moved to the Cambridge biomedical campus in 2019, having been granted its royal title by the Queen

Ms Mitchell's childhood friend Samantha Hardwick, 50, said "watching that decline" as a 15-year-old was "very difficult".

"I don't think there are even words in the dictionary to describe it," she said.

"I've had 35 years of my friend that we wouldn't otherwise have had."

In addition to her heart-lung transplant at Papworth in 1987, Ms Mitchell has also had two kidney transplants from deceased donors, in 1994 and 2015, at a hospital in London.