Redditch teenager Jim Lynskey gets battery-powered heart

Jim Lynsley said a heart transplant would "change my life"

One of two twins who caught meningitis when a week old has had an eight-hour operation to keep his heart beating.

Grace Lynskey fought off the virus but her brother Jim was left with a badly damaged heart.

The 19-year-old from Redditch in Worcestershire has had an operation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to fit a battery-powered pump connected to a computer.

His mother Colette still hopes he will be able to have a heart transplant.

Mr Lynskey was seriously ill in January, before doctors fitted the special pump.

"I'm just grateful for the technology, for the doctors, that I can get my life back," he said.

Twins Grace and Jim Lynskey caught meningitis when they were a week old

His mother said the family would continue to try to give her son "the best life we can provide for him", but hopes a donor heart can be found.

Since the twins contracted the illness in childhood she has campaigned for a change to the consent laws for organ donation so people have to opt out rather than opt in.

"It seems very straightforward to me, it's not a difficult thing to do and it would be absolutely fantastic if it could happen here," she said.

Mr Lynskey said to get a heart transplant would "change my life".