38-year-old transplant patient sees her own heart at an exhibition

She was given a prompt diagnosis of restrictive cardiomyopathy. This disorder limits the heart's capacity to pump blood throughout the body, and she was informed that she would not survive without a heart transplant. 

This might be one of the strangest reunions you’ll read about.

Jennifer has come face-to-face with her heart, which was removed in a transplant operation 16 years ago.

It’s part of a display at @HunterianLondon about advances in medical science. https://t.co/ad4e7ypWPO

— NHS Organ Donation💗🫀🫁 (@NHSOrganDonor) May 17, 2023

While waiting for a transplant, the 22-year-old's condition quickly declined, but in June 2007, she learned that a match had been identified. She had been especially worried because her mother passed away after the same surgery when she was just 13 years old.

She described to the BBC how, upon waking up after the transplant, carried out at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire (U.K.) by Mr. Stephen Large, she thought, "Oh my goodness, I am actually a new person." 

Since then, she gave the Royal College of Surgeons permission to use her heart as an exhibit, and it is now on show at the museum for anybody to view.

Mr Large highlighted that the hospital's survival rate for a heart transplant after one year was about 93 percent and that Ms. Sutton's recovery had been "spectacular."

"She's done incredibly well... without the rejection a third of patients get and no setbacks at all," he added. 

Ms. Sutton made it clear she wanted to do everything in her power to encourage organ donation, pointing out that significant life events like her wedding would not have occurred without it. 

"It's been 16 fantastic years, and I wouldn't have had any of them without my donor," she said. "I'm incredibly busy, active, and keeping this heart as healthy as possible - keeping myself going for as long as possible."

She encouraged others to enjoy life to the fullest, urging those putting off plans to "do it today."