Latest news with #heartTransplant
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Sally Adams obituary
My mother, Sally Adams, who has died aged 73, worked for many years at Papworth hospital in Cambridge, where she was a sister in the intensive therapy unit and was one of the nurses who cared for Keith Castle, the UK's first successful heart transplant patient, in 1979. She worked at Papworth from 1975 to 1990 (except for a two-year spell at Treliske hospital in Truro in 1986-88). Then she switched to bereavement counselling until her retirement in 2019. Sally was born in Royston, Hertfordshire, to Betty (nee Pigg), a dinner lady, and Alan Whitmore, a lorry driver. Sally attended the local Meridian school, where she decided early on that she had to be a nurse. After completing her training at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge in 1973, she became a district nurse. She joined Papworth two years later, was promoted to be a sister in the ITU within a year, and spent much of the rest of her time at Papworth looking after transplant patients. When Castle's pioneering heart operation, carried out by Terence English, attracted interest around the world, she had to deal with reporters climbing the trees outside the ward, trying to get a glimpse inside. She also set up Papworth's first care of patients at end-of-life group with a colleague, Sylvia Reid. In 1991 Sally was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and as a consequence decided to retrain as a bereavement counsellor, a job that would be less physically demanding. Thereafter she worked at St Julia's Hospice, Hayle, in Cornwall, where she pioneered a bereavement service for grieving relatives and set up the Rainbow Room, a space for families filled with books, sofas and a PlayStation. While working at St Julia's she studied for a degree in counselling at Exeter University, which she completed in 2007. Two marriages – to Tony Hall (1971-74), and Richard Bloss (1975-88) – ended in divorce. Sally was married to her third husband, Ian Adams, from 1990 until his death in 2023. She met Ian in 1989 at a Christian retreat centre, where, after overhearing him loudly holding forth on how to bring up children, she walked over to inform him that he was 'talking a load of crap'. They were brilliant verbal sparring partners and had a relationship that was full of happiness. She is survived by her three children – Simon, from her first marriage, and Marc and me from her second – by Ian's son, Alex, and by five grandchildren.
Irish Times
30-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
The Story of a Heart author Rachel Clarke: ‘I couldn't stop thinking about this story'
The Story of a Heart is a beautifully written account of how the lives of two families – both facing immeasurable suffering – become inextricably entwined through the donation of a heart from a nine-year-old girl with catastrophic brain injuries to a nine-year-old boy with end-stage heart failure. First published in 2024, with compassion and clarity, Rachel Clarke draws readers into the details of the lives of Keira Ball's family, who made the decision to donate her organs when they realised that she wasn't going to recover from the injuries she suffered in a car crash which also left her brother Bradley and her mother Loanna seriously wounded. 'I couldn't stop thinking about this story when I first read about it in 2017,' explains Clarke, a palliative care doctor and former broadcast journalist. The two families had told the story of their meeting to journalist Jeremy Armstrong. This meeting broke all the rules of anonymity, usually sacrosanct in organ donation protocols. It came months after Loanna Ball reached out to Emma Johnson, the mother of Max, after the Ball family received their anonymous letter of thanks. READ MORE In her Facebook message to Johnson, Ball wrote: 'I think you may have our daughter's heart and it's the most beautiful heart in the world.' Max's identity was already public after the Daily Mirror had earlier told the story of his long wait for a heart transplant as part of its campaign for opt-out rather than opt-in legislation for organ donation. (When the legislation for opt-out organ donation was introduced into Britain in May 2020, the law was called Max and Keira's Law). The Story of a Heart will bring readers to tears again and again as the details of parents and siblings spending time with their youngest sister before she died are told in parallel to that of a young boy, hanging on by a thread, knowing that he will die without a heart transplant Clarke made contact first with Keira's family, meeting them for several hours, asking them to consider her telling their story. 'They immediately said yes, but I gave them a few months to change their minds. When they didn't change their minds, I approached Max's family and the NHS Blood and Transplant,' she explains. Therein began four years of research and interviews with family members and key health professionals who cared for both children and worked on the transplant teams. The Story of a Heart will bring readers to tears again and again as the details of parents and siblings spending time with their youngest sister before she died are told in parallel to that of a young boy, hanging on by a thread, knowing that he will die without a heart transplant. In June, Clarke won the 2025 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction for her extraordinary book. The prize, which complements the long-running Women's Prize for Fiction, was first awarded in 2024 after research found that female non-fiction writers were less likely to be reviewed (26.5 per cent of non-fiction reviews in national newspapers were allocated to female writers) or win prizes than their male counterparts (one in three prize winners across seven UK non-fiction prizes over the past 10 years were women). In the story, Clarke writes: 'From the moment Keira was fatally injured, her heart began a journey so momentous it was scarcely believable. First, there was the emergency chest compressions at the scene of the crash… Next, the strange metaphysical limbo between life and death as Keira lay in intensive care, warm, flushed, apparently sleeping, yet somehow – unfathomably - brain dead. Then, the moment when her heart was stilled by an anaesthetist's drugs so that the surgeons, silently at work within the cave of her chest, no longer faced a moving target. 'From there, the light-aircraft dash halfway across the country to deliver the organ, chilled on ice, into gloved and poised surgical hands. Finally, the intricate knitting of the heart's great vessels into another child's torso – and the agonising wait to see if its chambers would resume their vital work.' As well as telling the personal stories so sensitively, Clarke weaves through the book rich details of medical research and history. Such as the origins of intensive care units or the importance of immunosuppressant medicines or how the heart is the first of our organs to form and the last to die. Or how, one in five children die while waiting for an organ transplant. She also includes details such as how surgeons will sometimes write up operation notes for teddy bears, used for comfort, distraction and to demonstrate to a child certain procedures. And how a nurse can find time to bring a distraught sibling for a hot chocolate while his younger brother lies in hospital close to death. Clarke draws readers into the lives of these brave and dignified families sharing a time in their lives when they are at their most vulnerable. 'How Keira's family in the darkest, bleakest circumstances can summon all their strength to look outwards to save others from the fate that befell them,' she says. [ How to be an organ donor: 'The surgeon said he wasn't going to take my kidney out if I wasn't sure' Opens in new window ] Keira Ball's family have since set up the charity, Inspired by Keira, to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation and to support families in the south of England confronting the sudden loss of a child. And while she chronicles in detail the 'the modern day miracle of transplantation' and the hundreds of health professionals who make it happen, Clarke is also cogently aware that more organs are needed to be donated. 'When then [UK] prime minster Theresa May brought in the legislation for opt-out organ donations, it was to be called, Max's Law,' explains Clarke. But, after Max himself said it should be called, Max and Keira's Law, it was. Seven years on from his transplant, Max Johnson has just completed his GCSE exams. Similar legislation to allow opt-out rather than opt-in (ie, assumption that the person agrees to donating their organs unless they have specifically registered their objection to it) was introduced into Ireland in June 2025 . 'Changing the law has helped but not as much as people thought. Awareness is what counts. Make sure that you have signed opt-in for organ donation on your driver's licence and tell loved ones what your wishes are and ask your family members and children what their views are on organ donation,' she says. Because, in spite of the opt-out legislation now in place in Britain and Ireland, ultimately, it's the family who decides when facing the death of a loved one. 'If that person's wishes to donate their organs are known, 90 per cent of families will say yes, but if that person's wishes are not known, only 40 per cent will say yes,' explains Clarke. Clarke says that studying medicine as a mature student, she has always 'cared about patients as people, not just body parts'. She says that she firmly believes stories such as this display such deep humanity, making them an antidote to the depressing newspaper headlines and 'doom scrolling' that we all do. 'It says something very profound about our species,' she adds. [ Waiting for an organ donor: 'It was the beginning of the hardest chapter in our family's life' Opens in new window ] Clarke now works as a palliative care consultant in a hospital in England. 'I knew when I returned to study medicine as a mature student [she was 29 when she left broadcast journalism to train as a doctor] that I wanted to work in oncology, haematology or palliative care,' she explains. But that didn't stop her writing. Her first book, Your Life is in My Hands chronicles her life as a junior doctor. Next came, Dear Life, a book exploring death, dying and end-of-life care. And in 2020, she wrote Breathtaking, a book about the first wave of Covid in the UK which was later adapted for a television series. Clarke says that while being around dying people makes a lot of people nervous, she finds the combination of the physical and moral challenges fulfilling. 'End-of-life care is profoundly important. There is a huge amount you can do for people at the end of their life. 'In my work, I see more of the goodness, strength and decency people are capable of. It's not just the physical complications we have to deal with, but the suffering that comes with having to lose everyone in the world dear to you.' And, yes, it has influenced her entire philosophy of life. 'We are all a whisper away from tragedy. Living your life holding on to just how precious it is is an important way to try to live. We never get enough time to be with the people we love.'
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wearside stories you might have missed this week
From jubilant lottery winners to Elon Musk-style spending reviews - here are some of the stories from Wearside you might have missed this week. A builder who won £1m on the National Lottery says he has fulfilled "every parent's dream" by paying off his four daughters' mortgages. Terry Gillings, of Stanley, County Durham, said he would "never forget" phoning his children to tell them about the win. However, the triumph was accompanied by heartbreak as his 85-year-old father, who had prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease, died two days later. "I like to think knowing [my wife] Caroline and I, and the girls, were all well set up for the future meant he slipped away more peacefully," Mr Gillings said. A woman who was the first baby to have a heart transplant in the UK says families should not be able to overturn a loved one's decision to donate their organs. Family-blocked donations have almost tripled from 255 in 2020/21 to 680 in 2023/24, according to official figures, leading to an estimated 2,040 "missed opportunities" last year. Kaylee Davidson-Olley, from Houghton-le-Spring, who had transplant surgery at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital in 1987, said lives were continuing to be lost. NHS Blood and Transplant said families were "always involved" in donation and they might have important information which was vital in understanding whether organs were safe for donation. A festival has been cancelled after attempts to save it failed, organisers have said. Northern Kin was due to take place at Thornley Hall farm, in County Durham, at the beginning of August. Organiser Wannasee Ltd had previously said discussions were under way to preserve the festival after 10 of its other events, including Stone Valley North and Kubix, were cancelled at the end of May. But a social media post on Wednesday confirmed Northern Kin would not be going ahead, despite the team having worked "around the clock" to find a way to run it. A council is set to undergo an Elon Musk-style review into its spending. Reform UK, which took charge of Durham County Council following the elections in May, has set up a unit to look into "wasteful spending", inspired by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in the United States. The party said teams of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors would "visit and analyse" the local authorities it controlled, starting with Kent County Council this week. Promoting the party's scheme, Durham County Council leader Andrew Husband posted on social media: "Coming to a county near you." Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
03-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Houghton heart donation recipient calls for change in rules
A woman who was the first baby to have a heart transplant in the UK says families should not be able to overturn a loved one's decision to donate their donations have almost tripled from 255 in 2020/21 to 680 in 2023/24, according to official figures, leading to an estimated 2,040 "missed opportunities" last Davidson-Olley, from Houghton-le-Spring, who had transplant surgery at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital in 1987, said lives were continuing to be Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said families were "always involved" in donation and they might have "important information" which was vital in understanding whether organs were safe for donation. Last year, families refusing donation gave reasons including not knowing what the patient wanted, feeling the donation process took too long, not wanting any further surgery to the body, or it was against religious and cultural research carried out by Bangor University found some families did not understand the soft opt-out laws, introduced in England in 2020, where patients are presumed to have given consent for donation unless they specifically opted out of the organ donation register. "The knock-on impact is lives won't be saved, it's as simple as that. Organs need to be used here, not in heaven," Ms Davidson-Olley, now 38, said."The figures [for organ donations] are extremely low, and we need to boost that up and we need public help to do that."Ms Davidson-Olley praised the NHS, but said the sole decision to remain opted-in to the Organ Donation Register should be honoured, where appropriate. According to the NHS, for every one donor, an average of three organs can be transplanted, potentially saving additional lives."You're giving a life, you're giving a gift, look at me 38 years post-transplant - I love my life and I couldn't be thankful enough to what I've been given," Ms Davidson-Olley said."Have the conversation [with your family] and share your wishes." Figures from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 showed that 140 families overruled a patient's "opt-in decision". A further 540 families did not support "deemed consent", where there is no expressed decision and so the patient is assumed to support organ all those cases, no donation went ahead. Terry Archbold previously told the BBC he and his partner were split over organ donation after their daughter Isabel was his partner Cheryl agreed, Mr Archbold said he had initially refused organ donation as he had never given the subject consideration, and a "protective instinct kicked in" that "didn't want anyone to touch her".However, it was only after having a discussion he said he realised they would be "hopefully saving other parents from experiencing the same feelings we had". Families consulted A spokesperson for NHSBT said families were often aware of a patient's "medical, travel and social history" and which was "vital to understanding" whether their organs were "safe to transplant", or had more recent information than a decision recorded on the donor said while families were expected to support a patient's decision to donate, the circumstances in which a person died were "often very sudden and traumatic", and said it was encouraging people to be clear with family members about their wishes."Families are far more likely to support donation when they already know it was what their relative wanted," the spokesperson said."Almost 90% of people honoured their family members decision last year when they had either registered their decision to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register or had spoken with their family about wanting to be an organ donor."The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it was encouraging everybody to "register their decision" which "only takes two minutes and could save up to nine lives".A spokesperson added the DHSC was making it "as easy as possible" for those to record their preference on the register. Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
01-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Derbyshire post-transplant runner 'wanted to do my donor proud'
"I wanted to do my donor proud by exercising with my heart transplant", says Karen 65 year-old transplantee, from Wirksworth in Derbyshire, completed her 50th parkrun on Saturday and said she wanted to show that you can still be active, even after receiving a life-saving Hodgson said doing the Park Run with 11 other transplantees was also a great way of urging people to "give the gift of life" through organ running 19 years after her transplant, Mrs Hodgson said: "We want to show how well and active we can be after receiving a life-saving transplant and to also show that despite a history of poor health, it is possible to get fit." Karen was 26 when she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart said she didn't need a transplant at first after her in 2006, when she was 46, Mrs Hodgson received a new heart after being given just 18 days to live due to her health Hodgson said she was still alive due to the "gift of life" and wanted families to discuss whether they wished to have their organs donated."I'd like people to have the conversation about organ donation because it will save lives and it means families can enjoy each others company for longer", said Mrs of 30 April 2025, NHS Blood and Transplant said around 580 people in the East Midlands were on the waiting list for an organ transplant, including 131 people in 8,000 people in the UK were currently waiting for an organ transplant, NHS Blood and Transplant law surrounding organ donation in England was changed in May 2020 so people had to opt out rather than opt in to become adults in England are now considered to have agreed to be an organ donor when they die, unless they have recorded a decision not to donate or are in one of the excluded groups. Seven of Mrs Hodgson's group that participate in the Long Eaton parkrun have been selected to represent Team GB at this year's World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany."I will be competing in the 5k road race and the 1500m and 800m track", said Mrs Hodgson."We are a mix of heart, lung, kidney, pancreas, bone marrow and liver transplantees all with amazing stories to tell. "We also have Charlotte running with us who is an altruistic kidney donor and also kidney donors who were able to save their loved ones lives with family donation."Mrs Hodgson said she was "grateful and humble" to represent her country in the upcoming games."I think about my donor and her family whenever I cross a finishing line", she said."I didn't know who she was but her gift has meant I can continue my life and I keep my heart strong to be able to continue running for as long as I can."
