More Than A Hospital

 Tal Golesworthy was born with a genetic condition called Marfan syndrome which affects the body’s connective tissue and can lead to cardiovascular, skeletal and visual problems. For Tal, an engineer by trade, the condition took a particular toll on his heart, weakening the walls of the aorta and causing them to expand. Surgical intervention would involve total root replacement of the aorta, including the valve, and re-implanting the coronary arteries. The idea of major surgery, and the ensuing lifelong dependency on anticoagulant medicine to prevent blood clots, was enough for Tal to explore an alternative route.  With the help of Professor John Pepper, consultant cardiac surgeon at Royal Brompton Hospital, Tal drew on his expertise as an engineer to develop a prototype of a device – called a Personalised External Aortic Root Support (PEARS), pictured above – that could be placed around the ascending aorta and prevent aortic root expansion. Four years on since conceiving the idea, in 2004 Tal became the first patient to undergo this surgical procedure, which was performed by Professor John Pepper himself. In this episode of More than a Hospital, Tal and Professor Pepper recall the journey that led to that moment, and how they forged an unexpected partnership to help not only Tal, but the hundreds of lives that the revolutionary procedure would go on to benefit. 

As part of Creativity and Wellbeing Week (Monday 20 to Sunday 26 May), we explore the power that arts can have on physical and mental health.In episode 8 of More than a Hospital, we go behind the scenes of Royal Brompton and Harefield's arts programme, rb&hArts, as our head of communications, Luke Blair, visits Harefield Hospital to attend ‘singing for breathing’, an initiative that gives patients techniques through vocal exercises and song to help manage their breathing. Largely aimed at patients with respiratory conditions, we meet those who have experienced first-hand the benefits of singing for breathing to their physical and mental wellbeing. We also hear from Rosie Watters who facilitates the sessions.   Also in the episode, Mary Paterson, head of arts at Royal Brompton and Harefield, shares why a personal story about her mother-in-law’s dementia brought the importance of art in a clinical setting to the forefront of her mind. 

What links Harefield Hospital so strongly to Australia and New Zealand?A question not many people may know the answer to, but Harefield wouldn't be one of the leading heart and lung centres it is today without its connection to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the First World War. In this special episode for ANZAC Day 2024, we explore how Harefield Hospital became the No.1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital in treating injured Australians and New Zealanders, and why, one hundred years on, this connection remains so important to Harefield and its staff - including Australian-born Clair Mullins (Theatre Services Manager) and Mark Bowers (Divisional Interventional Lead) who explain what the connection between their workplace and home means to them.Also in this episode, Sarah Chaney, a historian who led on the Harefield Centenary project, offers fascinating stories from this moment in Harefield’s history – from the special community spirit forged between Harefield villagers and ANZAC soldiers, to the wallabies that would roam around the hospital fields.

As part of International Women's Day 2024, Episode 5 of 'More than a Hospital' features Dr. Nitha Naqvi (paediatric consultant in cardiology and director of the paediatric cardiac network at Royal Brompton), Dr. Carole Ridge (consultant radiologist at Royal Brompton and honorary senior clinical research fellow at Imperial College London) and Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan (consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton, associate medical director at British Heart Foundation and reader at Imperial College London), who speak candidly about their career journeys as women in medicine and how far the profession still needs to go to achieve greater inclusivity.Dr. Naqvi won the Asian Women of Achievement Chairman's Awards in 2019 and was subsequently noted by several national media outlets as an ‘inspiring women leader’. Yet her journey to success has been far from smooth. In an open and honest conversation with Dr Ridge, she names a dismissal due to pregnancy as one of the professional hurdles she has overcome. Meanwhile, Dr Ridge leads the long tumour ablation service which won the ‘Healthcare Outcomes’ at the LaingBuisson awards in 2022. She was recently recognised for her role in interventional radiology service at the National Clinical Impact Awards. However Dr Ridge has also experienced career barriers as a woman and speaks frankly about how a lack of research on pregnant women in radiology led to the premature birth of her baby twins.Later in the episode we hear from Dr. Babu-Narayan. In 2022 she won an ‘inspiring communicator’ award for campaigning tirelessly on behalf of heart disease patients. She is passionate about the need to better understand women’s cardiac health to ensure better outcomes, and shines a spotlight on the lack of representation of women working in cardiology.

Fresh from a recent UK Government announcement that disposable e-cigarettes are to be banned from sale and supply, Professor Andrew Bush, consultant paediatric chest physician at the Royal Brompton hospital, gives his reaction to the news in Episode 4 of ‘More than a Hospital’. Professor Bush, who has authored nearly 700 papers in peer reviewed journals, has long been involved in a campaign to introduce legislation to stop the advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes to young children. He has also spoken to a number of media outlets about the issue, where he has re-emphasised that there is simply not enough research on the ‘potential damaging’ effects of vaping. In the episode, he also talks about the changes in medicine in his long and illustrious career, which include over 33 years at the Brompton where his clinical practice and research spans many areas of paediatric respiratory medicine, especially invasive and non-invasive assessment of airway inflammation in asthma and cystic fibrosis and clinical respiratory physiology. 

Like many patients at Harefield Hospital, Krishna Patel has become a well-known and popular face with staff and patients alike.Coinciding with Heart Month 2024, in the third episode of ‘More Than a Hospital’, podcast host and fellow transplant recipient Oli Lewington speaks with Krishna about his heart transplant journey, his time at Harefield, and how the hospital and its staff incite a sense of community that isn’t often found in clinical settings.His time at Harefield inspired Krishna to not only volunteer to help other patients on the transplant waiting list, but to also raise almost £6,000 for our charities. Krishna now plans to set up his own charity to raise public awareness and education about the work that healthcare staff do on a daily basis.

In the second episode of ‘More than a Hospital’, find out how consultant cardiac surgeon Jullien Gaer became involved with developing the cardiac surgical unit at a hospital based in Kabul, during the height of the Afghan war in 2005.Working with the French humanitarian association, La Chaîne de l’Espoir (The Chain of Hope), Jullien continues to this day to help train cardiologists in Afghanistan to support the needs of cardiac patients in the country as well as building crucial educational links between the hospital and Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.Jullien who has worked across several different healthcare systems around the world, also details in this episode the moment when he invited a collection of artists including Grayson Perry, to watch him perform open-heart surgery, to help raise vital funds for the hospitals.