‘I’ve seen the gift of life that my daughter’s organ donation has given’ | News

A mother from Godalming whose husband and daughter died in a house fire, is helping highlight the vital importance of organ donation.

In December 2000, Sue, now 57, was watching an episode of Holby City with her husband Dave, which was focused on a family making a decision about organ donation after the death of their child. The couple talked about the issue and while Dave was clear that he would want the donation to go ahead, Sue felt unsure, finding it hard to imagine ever having to make that decision.

Just two weeks after their discussion, a fire caused by an electrical fault broke out in their home and Sue found herself faced with making the devastating real-life decision the couple had so recently discussed.

She said: “It was the early hours of the morning when the fire broke out. I was able to get Charlotte, who was three and a half, and Billy, just seven months old, safely out of the house. But my husband Dave was trapped upstairs on the landing with our five-year-old daughter, Anna. Dave didn’t make it out. Paramedics worked to resuscitate Anna, and after 40 minutes, they were finally able to restart her heart.

“I was taken to Royal Surrey’s A&E with Charlotte and Billy and was told shortly afterwards that Dave had died in the fire. We were kept in for 24 hours for smoke inhalation tests and treatment and Anna was transferred to Guy's and St Thomas’s in London. 

“Friends and family stayed with Anna, who was put on a life support machine in ICU. When I arrived at Guy's I was told by the consultant that 40 minutes without oxygen meant she had suffered brainstem death and was not going to survive. 

“As I held her, the machine started bleeping loudly, signalling that Anna’s condition was deteriorating. The nurse said ‘she was waiting for you to come and now she’s ready to go’. 

“Organ donation had seemed an impossible decision to make just two weeks’ earlier when Dave and I were talking about it, but given his wishes and my understanding that she was not going to survive I said, ‘I’d like to donate her organs.’ 

“Things happened very quickly after that. The remarkable transplant coordinator for Guy’s and St Thomas’s arrived very shortly afterwards. She explained everything very clearly and stayed with me and my mother who was there with me, throughout the organ donation process.

"I wanted to be sure that I’d made the right decision and asked if I could be present for the consultant’s second round of neurological testing, which would confirm there was no hope of recovery. I was gently advised that it might be too distressing. In hindsight, I believe that witnessing the tests might have helped me process Anna’s death, but at the time I was in such a fragile state that I accepted the guidance I was given.

“I now know how much difference organ transplants can make. I’ve been to the British Transplant Games and seen children who are recipients taking part in the events, celebrating the gift of life.

“Anna’s donation has made a huge difference to several people – her liver was given to a young boy, two men benefited from her kidneys, tissues from her heart have helped a 3-year-old boy and a 15-month-old girl. I also know that Anna would have wanted to be a donor. 

“My children Charlotte and Billy are now 28 and 25 and we’ve been able to have the conversations about organ donation. I feel it’s important to normalise these conversations to both raise awareness of this subject and to mitigate some of the trauma that donor families experience. When I watched that TV programme two weeks before the fire, organ donation seemed unimaginable, but I now know the difference this precious gift can make to people’s lives.”

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust is part of a network that includes the South East Organ Donation Services Team, which provides support and specialist nurses to multiple NHS trusts, including Royal Surrey. This collaboration helps to maximise organ donation opportunities, ensure families are supported, and contribute to the national effort to save lives through transplantation. 

Organ Donation Week takes place from Monday 22 September to Sunday 28 September. The event, run by NHS Blood and Transplant, aims to raise awareness about organ donation, encourage people to register their decision to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register and promote conversations with loved ones about their wishes.