Dutch man named world’s oldest heart transplant patient

Reuters
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Forty years have passed since Bert Jansen was diagnosed with a serious heart condition and given only six months to live. Guinness World Records as the longest surviving transplant Patient.

“I want to be a role model for people,” said Dutch, who was 17 when he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood around the body.

He says he has proven that it is possible to live longer with a heart transplant.

In 1984, the first heart transplant had not yet been performed in the Netherlands, so cardiologist Albert Mataert referred the teenager to Harefield Hospital in England.

Janssen underwent a transplant in June of the same year after a heart became available following a tragic car accident that killed two young people.

The life-saving surgery was performed by transplant pioneer Magdi Yacoub.

“I think that day is more important than my birthday,” Jansen said. She is now 57 years old, married, has two sons, and is an avid glider pilot.

“I have never thought so seriously about the future.”

He is healthy and energetic, but has had to pick up his pace in recent years due to side effects from heart medications.

“I’m still doing more or less what I want to do, but at a different pace,” he said.

The average life expectancy of heart patients after a transplant is 16 years, said Janssen’s current cardiologist, Casper Uehlings.

Janssen’s achievement of living 39 years and 100 days after the transplant has been officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.

According to Guinness, the previous record was 34 years, 359 days, set by Canadian Harold Sokilka in 2021.

Transplant patients “need to maintain a healthy lifestyle and be active, and that’s what Mr. Janssen did,” Uehlings said.

Since then, Mr. Jacob has expressed his gratitude to Mr. Janssen for his work and dedication to global health.

“But I’m really the one who should be thanking him,” Jansen said.