A former Midlands mayor has praised staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham for providing him with a new heart.

Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett, who was elected Mayor of Wolverhampton in May 2010, said he feared he was two days away from death when he was admitted to QEHB on 14 January 2012.

The 59-year-old father of four has now praised the surgeons, and other hospital staff, for giving him a new lease of life.

Coun Gwinnett, who is a Liberal Democrat, had been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, or heart muscle disease, about six years ago, and had a heart pacemaker fitted a couple of years later.

Now recovering at home in Wolverhampton, he said: “I can’t thank the hospital and the staff enough. I am truly amazed at how helpful everyone is and the treatment from when you come out of theatre into intensive care is absolutely unbelievable. It is absolutely first class.”

Councillor Gwinnett said he had been waiting for a donor heart since last December, but has been told he would not be allowed to know whose organ he subsequently received.

“It’s probably been around six years since I first started having heart problems. I was on tablets first, and then had a pacemaker fitted about four years ago, but it gradually got worse and it came to the ultimate of needing a transplant.”

He was discharged from QEHB less than three weeks after his transplant, which was performed by consultant cardiac surgeon Ian Wilson.