Professor John Wallwork led a team of doctors who carried out the pioneering surgery in 1984 at the then Papworth Hospital in the village of Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire.
The patient, Brenda Barber, was 36 years old at the time of the surgery, which took place overnight between April 4 and April 5.
His mother, who lives in south London, agreed to the surgery several days after his death.
She continued to live with a new heart and lungs for another 10 years, passing away in 1994.
Since then, approximately 360 heart-lung transplants have been performed at major cardiovascular hospitals.
Professor Wallwork, who stepped down as chairman of the current Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge earlier this year, was reunited with some patients and former colleagues at the hospital on Thursday.
The 77-year-old moved to the United States in 1981 and helped perform the world’s first heart-lung transplant at Stanford University Hospital in California, where he was chief resident.
He then performed Europe’s first successful heart-lung transplant at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire in 1984.
“The onus was on us to get it right,” he said of the Papworth operation.
“We did our homework and I had previously performed a heart-lung transplant myself in the United States.”
He said that after the surgery, Barber “returned to a normal life, went back to caring for her daughter, went back to work as a child care assistant, and lived for 10 years after the transplant.”
Professor Wallwork said: “I think it’s really amazing to see people who have had such a low quality of life, or really no enjoyment, are actually living a good, normal life.” he said.
“It’s important to take something that is essentially pioneering and make it routine, because then you can help more people,” he said.
Celia Hyde, an operating room nurse at the theater who was part of Barber’s transplant team, said: How you breathe, how you speak, etc. after a few days.
“Really nice.”
The 68-year-old said she worked in a transplant clinic, where she cared for Mr. Barber after his surgery.
“I think people forget how simple it is,” Hyde said.
“Being able to dress yourself is the same as being able to talk and laugh.
“These are things that are extremely important for us to be happy people. I think Brenda went into life thinking, ‘Now that I’m a mother, I want to do all these things.’ I did that to my daughter.”
Dawn Wheeldon, 80, also a theater cleaning nurse on the medical team, said: , and the ability to continue watching her daughter grow.
“That was one of her ambitions.
“It’s pretty daunting.
“I don’t know if everything will go as planned, but it did. John Wallwork is a very good teacher and led the team very well.
“I think if you have faith in your leaders, everything else will fall into place.”
She said she was “delighted” to be reunited with former colleagues, adding that working at the former Papworth Hospital had been “one of the happiest times of my career”.
One of the longest surviving heart transplant patients, Tineke Dixon from Exmouth, Devon, also attended Thursday’s reunion.
The 51-year-old’s transplant, which took place at Great Ormond Street Hospital in November 1988, was also led by Professor Wallwork, who had helped train the hospital’s surgeons to run their own cardiopulmonary programme.
She said that before the surgery more than 35 years ago, she had difficulty walking, was pale and “almost lost her life.” She then enjoys sailing and skydiving.
The project manager said he was “very happy” to be reunited with Professor Wallwork and the medical team.
“It feels like the right time to say, ‘We’ve accomplished amazing things in the last 40 years,'” she said.
“But now we have to almost reinvent it and rebuild it for the new and difficult patients that are coming.”
Freya Potter, 18, a university student from near Salisbury, Wiltshire, attended Thursday’s reunion after undergoing a heart-lung transplant at the Royal Papworth Hospital on her 17th birthday in 2022.
Meeting other cardiopulmonary patients at the reunion was “very inspiring,” she said.
“I’m really worried about how long the transplant will last,” she said.
“But when I look at people who have been there for 30 years, I really think that they are okay and that they can live longer than they think.”
