Sunday 26 July 2015

preotenial areas of focus - Babies who need donation.

Dr Richard Kirk, a consultant paediatric cardiologist in Newcastle, is caring for three tiny children in urgent need of a transplant.

He told the BBC: "They would be transplanted and home if the UK system was the same as in other countries around the world.

"There is a crazy double standard operating - it's forbidden to declare a baby 'brain stem dead' in the UK and yet no-one minds us flying to Europe, where the doctors are allowed to diagnose brain stem death, and bringing the donated organs back to the UK to use.

"Where is the sense or ethics in that?"


'No chance'
Sarah Cox, was initially a healthy baby. But she contracted viral meningitis, which damaged her heart, making her seriously ill.


When she was three weeks old, her family were told there was no chance she was going to survive.


At the moment Sarah's life was hanging in the balance, an organ became available in Europe.


Viral meningitis weakened Sarah Cox's heart leaving her in need of a transplant when she was just days old.
Her mum Jennie told the BBC: "It wouldn't have happened if we were only reliant on UK donors.


"Sarah was very fortunate to be in a position where there was no-one else in Europe that needed a heart at that time or suitable and she was able to have that.


"If the roles had been reversed and there was a child in Europe who was suitable, neither of them would have survived because we wouldn't have been able to agree to donate our child's organs and that seems an inconsistency, which is difficult to accept."


Around 10 babies every year in the UK need a transplant from a donor under two months old.
"In the UK, the original guidelines were written long before organ donation was a possibility for children and their families and they were really just cautious and rather conservative.

No comments:

Post a Comment