Howard Richards -child patient

I got a phone call this afternoon from Howard Richards who had a heart operation as a ten year old in Sully hospital.

He says:" My mother kept saying that there was something wrong me and eventually a surgeon confirmed it. I had a heart murmur."
He was to become one of the first children ever to be operated on using the new heart-lung machine.

I have asked Howard to write his own account of his memories which he says are still "very vivid".



Now in his early 60's and recently retired he still has his hospital appointment book and he would over to make contact with the surgeon who saved his life. His parents were told that he would be dead by the time he was 13 or 14 and if he did have the operation then there was only a slender chance that he would survive.


What a dreadful decision for his parents to be faced with! Well, they took the chance and Howard survived and went on to lead a very healthy life.

Now he would like to say a big "thank you" to that surgeon who saved his life.