Heartfelt thanks of transplant patient

FULL of life: Hammond Buckley with his four-year-old grandson, Dylan

ROYTON grandfather Hammond Buckley got the best birthday present ever.

For he woke on his 60th birthday with a new heart and a new lease of life, following eight hours of surgery the previous day.

He has now been back at home in Marlborough Drive for five days, where he is recovering with the help of his wife, Janice.

And he is looking forward to having the energy to play with his four-year-old grandson, Dylan Buckley, and getting the youngster to dump the nickname he has for Hammond... “grumpy grandad.”

Hammond explained: “He called me grumpy because I couldn’t do anything with him. I only came out of hospital on Wednesday so I’m not up to much yet, but hopefully I will soon be able to play with him.”

Hammond was the 500th person to have a heart transplant at Wythenshawe Hospital, and said he was very grateful to have been given the gift of life.

He discovered he had a damaged heart muscle five years ago when he went for a health MOT and doctors found he had an irregular heartbeat.

Shocked to be told it could have been the result of a virus, and been caused by nothing more than the common cold, he was fitted with a pacemaker and a defibrillator implant, but his health went into a steady decline.

“I was gobsmacked when they told me,” he recalled. “I had had my own drainage firm for 30 years, working in wet and muddy holes, and I used to walk on the moors so I thought I was fairly fit.”

Hammond had to give up working with his partner in Royton-based A and B drains, and concentrate on his health.

But last September he was taken into the Royal Oldham Hospital when he had difficulty breathing and was retaining fluid, where he spent five weeks before he was transferred to Wythenshawe Hospital. He was put on the urgent transplant list and given six months to live.

A heart became available three weeks later, and he had to undergo three operations — the transplant, followed by two operations to drain fluid.

“That knocked me back a bit,” he said. “It was a real shock when they said I had got just six months, but then it was wham bam and it was all done.

“The transplant should have taken six hours but they told me afterwards it took eight hours because my heart was the size of a football and they had a struggle to get it out. They also told me I wouldn’t have lasted six months, so I feel very lucky I was able to have a transplant so quickly.”

Hammond has two grown-up children, Dean, who is Dylan’s father, and Jenna.

And last week it was the youngster’s turn to have a great birthday present, when he turned four in the week his grandfather came home from hospital.

Now on the road to recovery, Hammond is keen to thank staff on F8 ward and the coronary care unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital and said: “They were all lovely.”

He is also grateful to his cardiologist Professor RV Venkateswaran and said: “It’s just amazing how everyone at Wythenshawe works as a team.”

Around one in five people die while waiting for a heart transplant and Hammond urged people to sign up to be an organ donor.

“It is very important. Without a donor I would not be here today, and for that I am very grateful,” he said.