Special bond of heart-op friends

Both men underwent transplant surgery

Two men who met in a hospital waiting room discovered they shared a unique bond - one gave the other his heart.

Peter Allinson now has the healthy heart of James Baxter, donated when James was given the heart and lungs of an unidentified donor.

The two men realised their connection when they met while awaiting routine check-ups at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, nine months after their operations.

He stood up and said 'you've got my heart'

Peter Allinson

As they talked they realised that Peter had James' heart.

Peter told a national newspaper he remembers saying: "Thanks for the heart" when they met.

He added: "It seemed so inadequate, but what else could I say?"

James said he speaks to Peter on the phone every week.

He said: "It's like giving your car or an old bit of furniture away.

"You want to make sure it gets a good home and that it's being well looked after."

Chance meeting

Peter had needed a heart transplant after his own failed after a viral infection.

James received a new heart and lungs in a final attempt to treat his cystic fibrosis.

Although his lungs were affected because of his condition, James' heart was unaffected, meaning it could be used for someone else - Peter.

As they compared notes in the waiting room, they realised they had had their transplant operations on the same day.

Peter, 33, told the Daily Express: "We knew he was my donor.

Sir Magdi Yacoub, who carried out James' operation

"He stood up and said 'you've got my heart'. And we both sat there for three minutes looking at each other. We were a bit stunned."

A spokeswoman for Harefield Hospital said it did not usually allow donors know the identity of organ recipients in case one did better than the other.

Crucial operations

James, 28, needed a transplant after suffering a series of severe lung infections in his late teens and early twenties.

The heart is transplanted along with the lungs because the donor lungs do less well when transplanted alone.

This means that there is a "surplus" healthy heart, which can be given to another patient.

When a match eventually became available, James was taken to the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, London - the sister hospital to the Harefield.

The five-hour operation to give him the organs of someone who had just died was carried out by the renowned surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub.

On the same day, January 21, Peter , received a call from the Harefield to tell him a heart had become available.

Peter who is married to Anita and has a young son, had been a keen triathlete, but fell seriously ill in October 2000.

Although complications meant he was in intensive care for two months, he has now made a complete recovery.

James' operation went well, and he noticed an immediate improvement. Now, he says, he could walk and breathe properly.

He knows little about his donor, except that his heart and lungs came from a 27-year-old Welsh man who had suffered a brain haemorrhage.

James, who is engaged to Natalie, said: "I can't express in words how grateful I am to him and his family for what they have given me.

"It seems demeaning simply to say thank you. But not to say thank you is rude as well.

"I've tried writing a letter which the hospital would pass on to the family. But every time I've tried, I've not known what to write."

Both men are now in training, hoping to enter the European Transplant Games in June.