A NEW piece of medical equipment has been successfully used to help a NorthEast heart patient.

The arrival of the £100,000 Nav-X machine (a hi-tech imaging device which shows the inside of the heart) at the electrophysiology department at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, is good news for patients as it means more specialist procedures can be carried out at the hospital.

In February, Judith Milburn, aged 53, from Crook, County Durham was the first patient to have a successful heart operation carried out by doctors using the new machine at the Middlesbrough hospital.

Mrs Milburn was one of the first patients to have surgery to repair a hole in the heart, aged only eight. That operation was uncomplicated, but many years later she developed an arrhythmia (an electrical short circuit in the heart), which was a direct result of the previous surgical scar within the heart.

Tackling this type of arrhythmia is extremely difficult without an advanced system to map the electrical pathways in the heart. The procedure was carried out by Dr Stephen Murray, consultant cardiologist and electrophysiologist and cardiologist Dr Nick Linker, along with a team of technicians.

Dr Murray said: "It was a long procedure, around three-and-a-half hours.

Two areas of scar had been identified, with holes within the scars, which allowed the electrical circuit to leak through. These were then successfully spot-welded."

The machine was provided thanks to the fundraising achievements of the South Cleveland Heart Fund's dedicated volunteers.