North East families welcome new opt-out organ donation law
By Kris Jepson
North East families have told ITV News Tyne Tees they welcome a new opt-out organ donation law, which was introduced on Wednesday.
Max and Keira’s law sees a shift to an opt-out system, whereby those aged 18 and over are deemed to have given consent to donate their own organs when they die, unless they explicitly state otherwise or are in an excluded group.
The NHS estimates 700 more transplants a year could be carried out by 2023 as a result of the change in legislation.
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The new law is aimed at boosting the number of transplants to those who need life-saving operations.
The change in legislation was brought about thanks partly due to the campaigning of a young boy who got a new heart from a nine-year-old girl who died after a car crash.
Keira Ball saved four lives, including that of Max Johnson, also aged nine at the time, after her father allowed doctors to use her organs for transplants following a crash in 2017.
A former transplant co-ordinator at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, where Max received his heart, said the change in law still gives people a choice.
In the North East there are currently 349 people on the transplant waiting list, according to NHS Blood and Transplant:
31 in Northumberland
122 in Tyne and Wear
95 in County Durham
101 in North Yorkshire
Thalia-Beau Wright from Scarborough has restrictive cardiomyopathy, which restricts blood entering parts of her heart. There is no cure and she needs a heart transplant.
Thalia’s grandmother, Christine Johnson, told ITV News the law will make a huge difference.
Baby Carter Cookson was born prematurely on Boxing Day 2018, but within hours fell seriously ill. He needed a heart transplant and was put on an Ecmo machine to keep him alive, however a heart could not be found and he died 25 days later at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.
His parents have campaigned for the law and raised awareness since he passed away and told ITV News the change in legislation is welcome, but warned decisions still need to be made by parents of under-18s.
Sarah Cookson said "to me it’s like for a portion of the population, the decision is already made, if you don’t un-make it, but there’s still obviously the children that people need to think about."