{"id":312807,"date":"2026-03-04T16:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/312807\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:31:16","slug":"nzs-first-open-heart-surgery-patient-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/312807\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ’s first open heart surgery patient dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first person to get open-heart surgery in New Zealand, Christchurch resident\u00a0Helen Harris, has died aged 78.<\/p>\n

Helen (nee Arnold) was about 10 or 11 when she underwent open heart surgery, performed by Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes at Auckland’s Greenlane Hospital in September 1958.<\/p>\n

Helen died on Saturday, February 28, surrounded by her family.<\/p>\n

Her death notice said she was the\u00a0“beloved wife of Kevin, loved mother and mother-in-law of Craig, and Danielle and Graham, step-mother of Darrell and Justine, and Sonya, Nanny of Julie, Mikayla, and Sarah, Ashlea, Gemma, and Jessica”.<\/p>\n

The family said donations “would be appreciated” and can be made to Heart Kids,\u00a0heartkids.org.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Helen was born with a large hole between her right and left ventricles.<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0surgery in 1958 was a ground-breaking procedure, using new surgical techniques that drew attention from the international medical fraternity.<\/p>\n

“I was a blue baby,” she told RNZ <\/a>in 2020.<\/p>\n

An important innovation used in the procedure was a piece of equipment called The Melrose Machine.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019d been working for two years to get the heart-lung machine up and running – they\u2019d done 17 sheep before me,” Helen said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One out of 100 babies are born with some form of heart defect. Prior to her operation, there was no effective treatment.<\/p>\n

In 2020, RNZ reported Helen had undergone five procedures, including four pacemakers, which helped keep her heart beating.<\/p>\n

“They didn\u2019t expect me to live this long and I could have gone at any time when I was little … I thank medical science for allowing me to live this,\u201d she told\u00a0the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

After the medical breakthrough, Barratt-Boyes continued to lobby for improvements and changes to healthcare in New Zealand hospitals.<\/p>\n

He was knighted in 1971.<\/p>\n

A celebration of Helen’s life will be held at AvonPark on the corner of Kerrs and Pages Rds in Linwood, Christchurch, today at 2.30pm.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The\u00a0Open Heart from RNZ\u2019s Eyewitness podcast\u00a0<\/a>details Dr Kerr\u2019s relationship with Sir Barratt Boyes and the day that changed Helen’s life.<\/p>\n

– Allied Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first person to get open-heart surgery in New Zealand, Christchurch resident\u00a0Helen Harris, has died aged 78. Helen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-312807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}