Family of heart patient Emma Mallett, 13, fight to save Leeds heart unit

A YOUNG heart surgery patient who underwent a life-saving operation will today celebrate becoming a teenager – as the service that saved her hangs in the balance.
As Emma Mallett, a chorister at York Minster, turns 13, her father, Simon, has joined other parents to demand that the NHS scraps a plan to move children’s heart surgery services from Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) to Newcastle.
Mr Mallett said: “I know from personal experience how important it is to have a unit close to where you live,” he said.
“To have to travel to an unfamiliar city, miles away from home would only have added to the stress.
“It would also have been impossible for family members to have supported Emma during her surgery.”
Emma, a pupil at the Minster School, was diagnosed with a serious defect of the aorta at the age of six and was rushed to LGI the next day for life-saving surgery to correct the problem. “It was definitely life-threatening,” said Mr Mallett.
“If it hadn’t been picked up, she probably wouldn’t be around.”
He said: “Her surgery was just procedure and she was out a day later.
“But if it’s an emergency, you are going to be in that ward a long time.
“Children should be able to be treated, in life saving situations, in a hospital close to their home.”
Mr Mallett, a barrister and former Conservative parliamentary candidate for York, said: “A five or six-hour round trip for family members to visit, either before or after surgery, would have been impracticable.”
The NHS Safe and Sustainable review proposes a major overhaul of paediatric heart surgery services in the UK, with more surgeons, expertise and facilities concentrated in fewer centres.
However, three out of four of the proposals for our region would see surgery services moved from LGI to Newcastle.

Seeking views over heart unit’s future

PUBLIC consultation meetings on the future of the region’s children’s heart unit at Leeds General Infirmary are to be held today.
The consultation has been organised by the Safe And Sustainable review, which has proposed moving children’s heart surgery services from Leeds to Newcastle, in a move it says will provide better quality standards. Two sessions will take place at Savile Hall, next to the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, at 3pm and 6pm.
Professor Roger Boyle, national director for heart disease and stroke, who is on the review panel, and Professor Martin Elliott, of the British Congenital Cardiac Association, who is also a consultant paediatric cardiac surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, will both be present at the meetings.
A session for young people affected by heart illness to give their views on the future of surgery services in the region is due to take place at The Royal York Hotel, on Saturday, May 14 from 11am to 1pm.