The mother of a 26-year-old man who died after being fitted with a faulty heart pump at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital is still seeking answers more than a year after his death. Greg Marshall, from West Yorkshire, died in September 2023 after complications with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) called the Heartware device, manufactured by Medtronic.
Greg, a former Royal Marines recruit, developed heart failure in 2019 and underwent surgery to have the device fitted at age 23. During the procedure, he suffered a stroke, which severely impacted his health. A year later, the device failed while he was having dinner with his family, causing him to go into heart failure again. He was rushed to hospital but later died.
The Heartware device continued to be used at the Freeman Hospital even after data from 2018 suggested that an alternative device, the Heartmate III, offered statistically superior survival rates. Leading medics at the hospital dismissed the data as 'lacking scientific value', despite other UK hospitals switching devices. The device was eventually withdrawn in May 2021 due to increased evidence of strokes and deaths.
Greg's mother, Tessa, told ChronicleLive that she sent the trust 17 questions but has not received proper answers. She expressed concerns that the family was not informed about the device's risks or that senior medics had ties to the manufacturer. 'If we had been given the true facts I would have said actually we don't want this,' she said. 'He could have been prioritised for transplant instead.'
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust defended its decision, citing the 'cumulative knowledge and expertise of our specialists'. Tessa described the moment the device failed as 'terrifying', with Greg turning blue and requiring an urgent ambulance journey to Newcastle. She said her son struggled greatly after the stroke and would only have undergone another surgery for a heart transplant.
