Thomas Wheeler-Osman is a 34-year-old newly married man from Devon. Tom has a history of heart disease in his family and has a genetic condition from birth called Cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.
His brother had a heart transplant at just 24 years old and now, ten years later Tom is needing the same transplant.
Tom’s dad sadly passed away last year after battling years of heart failure. He was too poorly to be considered for transplant.
The impact of Tom’s heart failure has now had a major effect on his liver which has directly resulted in his needing a heart and liver transplant. Two of the biggest and rare combined transplants that you can have.
Whilst awaiting the big day Tom has been completing a 1000km indoor bike ride challenge from his hospital room to raise vital funds for the new Birmingham Transplant Centre.
Tom has been so impressed by the care and support from the transplant team and wanted to give something back. The challenge has taken him 10 weeks to complete and he has raised over £2500. Tom has found it very hard to find a hospital that will accept him for a double transplant and thankfully the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is able to do that.
The new Centre is a University Hospitals Birmingham Charity, £2 million fundraising appeal, This will be a national centre of excellence for organ transplantation, and will be funded by UHB Charity. It will put patient care at the forefront of transplantation and will create a “one stop shop” for patients undergoing organ transplants. The new Centre will bring all the specialist care to patients, including pre-transplant consultations, additional fitness classes before surgery, patient support groups, and rehabilitation classes after surgery.
There are only two hospitals in the UK that carry out all four organ transplants: heart, lung, liver and kidney – the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Freeman Hospital Newcastle. The organ transplant programme in Birmingham is nearly twice as large as Newcastle’s.
UHB Charity wants to bring all of the specialist care available to the patient, taking away a huge amount of stress and therefore speeding up recovery time. University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust will be able to offer even more transplants and therefore save even more lives.
Find out more about the Centre here: https://www.hospitalcharity.org/birminghamtransplantcentre.
