Woman visits her own heart inside museum 16 years after it was removed
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Tom Evans
A woman has been able to do the unthinkable by visiting her own heart which has been put up on display in a museum.
Transplant patient Jennifer Sutton is now able to see her own heart some 16 years after it was removed, with it now being on display in an exhibition at the Hunterian Museum in London.
She described the experience of seeing her own heart as 'surreal' and hopes that it will encourage people to donate their organs for transplants.
Jennifer was just 22 years old when she realised that she was struggling with even the most basic physical exertion, such as walking up gentle hills.
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After visiting a doctor, she was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy and told that she would not survive unless she had a transplant.
She became increasingly ill while on the waiting list. However, in June 2007 she got the great news that they had found a match for her.
Jennifer was extremely anxious about the surgery as her own mother had died while having the same procedure when she was just 13-years-old.
However, her surgery was a success and now, 16 years later, she can look at her old heart on display.
She told BBC News: "I remember waking up after the transplant and thinking 'oh my goodness I am actually a new person'. I remember doing a little double thumbs up dance to my family and saying 'I made it I made it'."
Jennifer gave her consent for her heart to be part of the exhibition and she wants people to encourage others to donate their organs, calling her heart 'the greatest gift possible'.
Speaking about the exhibition, she said: "The minute you first walk in you think 'that used to be inside my body'. But it's quite nice too - it's like my friend. It kept me alive for 22 years and I'm quite proud of it really.
"I've seen lots of things in jars in my lifetime but to think that's actually mine is very weird."
Mr Steven Large, who performed Jennifer's transplant operation at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, said: "She was as sick as anybody with pump failure. She's done incredibly well."
Now 38, Jennifer has since tried to live as full a life as she can. She has since married, something she said would not have happened without the donation.
She said: "It's been 16 fantastic years and I wouldn't have had any of them without my donor. I'm incredibly busy, active and keeping this heart as healthy as possible - keeping myself going for as long as possible."