A PORLOCK man who underwent emergency life-saving surgery to have a battery-powered pump fitted to his heart recently suffered a severe blow when the mechanism broke down.

As reported in the Free Press just over a year ago, Stephen Hardy, aged 30, was fitted with the revolutionary pump at a top London hospital but just before Christmas it failed.

Stephen, of Dunster Steep Cottages, has now been placed on the heart transplant list by doctors as a priority case, but matters are complicated by the fact that he has an unusual blood group.

After the pump broke, Stephen was given an external pump, which acted as an artificial heart, to carry around with him in a holster.

Stephen was only the 15th person in the country to have the mechanical pump when it was fitted by leading heart surgeon and professor of medicine Sir Magdi Yacoub at Harefield Hospital.

He underwent the unique surgery after a bug attacked his heart just before Christmas 2000 and spent the next four months in hospital.

He is now back in hospital until a heart becomes available - surgeons only have 40 minutes to carry out a transplant before the organ becomes useless.

Heart specialists at Harefield Hospital always knew that Stephen would need a transplant, but they did not expect it to be so soon.

His mother, Marianne Guest, of Allerford, said: "I was told by the doctors that, although the pump was expected to last a lot longer, it is just like the engine in a car and can break down at any time.

"We always knew he would need transplant and I was trained in what to do if the pump broke down.

"But both Stephen and I remain optimistic that a heart will become available because he is on the high priority list for a transplant."

She added: "This last year has been very draining on us all as we have had to travel up to London and stay overnight with him in a room or the corridor."

Marianne said she was trying to raise enough money to get her son a laptop computer to pass the time in hospital: "His spirits have been up and down lately, which is not surprising.

"We are also going to be given counselling. For someone to donate a heart, then someone must be grieving, but I have been told not to think like that.

"I have witnessed so much while at Harefield and learned that donorship is the ultimate gift.

"It may sound like a cliché but, while it's heartbreaking seeing other people go through similar problems to Stephen, you become close to the other relatives."