A 63-year-old woman from Tadworth is well on the road to recovery after becoming the first person in the UK to undergo a pioneering procedure to fix a leaking heart valve.

Jennie Keefe, who suffers from mitral valve disease, which is thought to affect about one in 50 adults in Britain, went under the knife at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea in April.

Ms Keefe was found to have a heart murmur in her 40s, before tests at her local hospital revealed she had severe mitral regurgitation (MR).

MR is a disorder characterised by the valve which controls blood flow through the chambers of the heart (the mitral valve) collapses and fails to close properly.

This collapse causes a backflow of blood when the heart contracts and can cause breathlessness, fatigue, dizziness, chest pain and, if left untreated, can lead to heart failure and death.

Ms Keefe explained: “In the last year or two I started to experience symptoms. I was very tired, breathless and couldn’t keep up with friends and family when we were out walking. My family and partner were worried because they noticed the difference in me.

“The day after I had the procedure my friends and family visited and said I looked better than I had in months. The team at Royal Brompton was brilliant and I was able to leave five days later.

“I’m privileged to be the first person in the UK to be offered this new technique. My recovery is going well and I’m improving every day, which has given me a more positive outlook.”

The innovative technique uses a piece of equipment known as the Harpoon device to repair a leaking mitral valve through a small incision in the chest, replacing the need for major conventional surgery – often administered while heart as stopped beating.

Repairing a leaking mitral valve usually requires open-heart surgery, which involves making a large incision to the chest and dividing the breastbone.

The operation can take place while the heart is not beating, but the new procedure is carried out while the heart is still beating.

Mr Neil Moat, consultant cardiac surgeon at Royal Brompton Hospital, performed the new technique for the first time in the UK as part of a new clinical trial, with the help of imaging colleague Dr Alison Duncan.

He said: “We are excited about the impact this procedure could have for many patients with mitral valve disease. Conventional surgery is very effective but is quite invasive.

"This procedure is truly minimally invasive, not only in terms of the incision, but also in the avoidance of cardiopulmonary bypass and the need to stop the heart beating.

“The new method takes half as long to perform, is thought to halve the time patients spend in hospital and leads to shorter overall recovery times. It is like fixing broken strings of a parachute.”

The procedure is still in trial phase at Royal Brompton Hospital.

For more information, visit www.rbht.nhs.uk