Transplant mum’s organ donor plea

A mum with the same heart condition that nearly killed her daughter wants the Government to back automatic organ donation.

Tracey Wilson was told to prepare for Skye’s death four years ago. But doctors managed to find an 11th-hour organ donor and her life was saved by a heart transplant.

Now Tracey and husband Graeme, from Kendal, have launched a petition for a change in the law which would assume everyone will donate their organs unless they join a register saying they do not want to.

The couple want England to be brought into line with Wales, which in July became the first country in the UK to have an “opt-out” organ donation system.

Tracey said: “So many people need a transplant, lots die waiting, and that’s why everyone should automatically be a donor.”

Tracey, 44, first took Skye to a GP in early 2009 when she complained of tummy ache. She went home after being told it would pass.

Tracey said: “Skye was having her sixth birthday party.

“But she just sat on her dad’s knee and watched all the other kids playing. I knew there was something wrong. She wasn’t getting better and I was worried.”

She sought the advice of a GP and a month later, in April 2009, Skye was sent to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary to be examined.

Within a day she was rushed to Alder Hey Children’s hospital, where she was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy.

This is when the heart becomes weak and fails to pump blood properly.

Skye was put on the organ donor list and airlifted to Newcastle’s Freeman hospital, where she was kept alive on a Berlin Heart a mechanical pump which took over her heart function.

The agonising wait for a suitable heart donation ended six weeks later and Skye had the life-saving op.

“Skye would have died within weeks,” said Tracey. “We had already said goodbye to her, she was so ill.

“We were over the moon when a donor was found. We were very lucky.”

The following year doctors made the devastating discovery that Tracey had the same condition.

She said: “I couldn’t believe it. I am on medication to stop the condition getting worse, so fingers crossed.

“Doctors will only start looking for a heart when I’m so ill I might die.”

Skye, now 10, has made a complete recovery.

But Tracey and Graeme want a Commons debate on automatic organ donation to help the 7,000 currently waiting for transplants.

There are still 44 million people in the UK who have not signed up to organ donation, and it’s hoped a change in the system would see waiting lists drastically reduced.

They also want to remove the rights of family members to overrule the wishes of dead would-be donors.

Their campaign has the backing of Lib Dem MP Tim Farron.

He said: “Tracey’s case is heartbreaking and I’d like the Government to look at an opt-out system for organ donation.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “The independent Organ Donation Taskforce examined the case for an opt-out system in 2008.

“They recommended against it, concluding that while such a system might have the potential to deliver benefits, it’d present significant difficulties.”