Two of the UK’s top heart transplant centres — Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and Harefield Hospital in London — continued to implant a mechanical heart device despite knowing it was associated with significantly higher death rates than its rival product, a BBC investigation has found.
Concerns about the Medtronic HeartWare HVAD device were raised by the NHS as early as 2018, when data showed that nearly half of patients fitted with the pump died within three years. In comparison, only 15% of patients with the alternative HeartMate III device from Abbott died in the same period.
Despite the findings, both hospitals continued to use the Medtronic pump for several years, questioning the reliability of the NHS data. It was only withdrawn in June 2021, when the manufacturer cited safety concerns and evidence of higher rates of stroke and device failure.
Among the patients affected was Greg Marshall, a 26-year-old from Northumberland who was fitted with the Medtronic device in 2019 — months after the risks had been identified.
Greg suffered a stroke during surgery and later died in 2023 after the device failed to restart, a malfunction that Medtronic later confirmed in a safety alert.
His mother, Tessa Marshall, said she was “disgusted and appalled” that hospitals continued using the device despite the warnings.
“We were told this was Greg’s only option,” she said. “I kick myself now for not doing more research.”
Documents show that three patients may have died from the same type of device failure before Medtronic withdrew it from sale.
The BBC also learned that senior cardiologists at both hospitals — including Professor Stephan Schueler at Freeman and Dr André Simon at Harefield — had financial relationships with Medtronic as paid consultants.
Both hospitals were aware of these ties. However, Greg’s family said they were never told of Prof Schueler’s connection to the company, despite medical ethics guidelines requiring such disclosures.
Prof Schueler denied any conflict of interest, saying there was “never a financial incentive” to choose one device over another and that he “always worked within GMC standards for good medical practice.”
The Freeman Hospital said it was aware of the NHS data in 2019 but believed it was not scientifically reliable and noted that it had not been published in any peer-reviewed journal. It also said other studies at the time showed “excellent outcomes” for the Medtronic device.
Harefield Hospital, meanwhile, said the decision to continue using the pump had “collective clinical support” until the manufacturer’s 2021 safety notice and that the hospital commissioned an external review in 2019 which raised no concerns about its use.
Patient advocates have called for an independent inquiry into why the Medtronic pump continued to be used after serious safety warnings.
“It was entirely preventable,” said Robbie Burns, a patient representative with NHS Blood and Transplant.
“If I had received this device and later found out about the data, I’d be asking — why on earth did you let this happen?”
