• last year
Terry Archbold was joined by his daughter Beatrix, two - who received a new heart in June - to promote the importance of organ donation.
Transcript
00:00 I'll give you a wave and take your picture.
00:03 Don't press your pedal though.
00:05 Foot on the floor.
00:05 Keep your feet on the floor.
00:10 - Dad, can you go round to the other side
00:13 so we've got a head rather than a butt.
00:15 (laughing)
00:18 - Okay then, Terry,
00:21 if you'd just start by telling me a bit
00:22 about Beatrix's situation
00:24 and what her situation is currently.
00:26 - Yeah, so when Beatrix was 15 months old,
00:29 she fell ill suddenly with heart failure.
00:33 There was emergency admission to the Freeman
00:37 where she was found to have a condition
00:39 called dilated cardiomyopathy.
00:41 They went into cardiac arrest
00:46 and her life was saved
00:49 by the intensive care team up there.
00:52 And she had to have emergency surgery
00:57 to connect her to an artificial mechanical heart
01:01 which kept her alive for the next 14 months
01:06 while she waited for a heart transplant.
01:08 - And just how anxious was that for you
01:11 before donor came forward?
01:12 - The honest answer is every day we wondered
01:17 whether that would be her last.
01:19 Wondering whether a donor would be available.
01:23 Wondering if the team could keep her going
01:25 and keep her alive while she waited for that heart to come.
01:29 It was, yeah, difficult.
01:33 - I understand there's a shortage of donators,
01:35 so just how important is it that people do come forward?
01:38 - It's really important.
01:39 If you look at Bea now,
01:41 full of life and with her life ahead of her,
01:44 and you look at all of the children
01:47 that have been saved by donors,
01:51 that's all possible due to parents being able to say yes
01:56 when they are asked if they would consent to organ donation.
01:59 At the minute, there's over 250 children across the country
02:06 waiting for life-saving transplants.
02:09 But sadly, on average, only 50 child donors per year
02:13 because it's an incredibly difficult decision
02:17 in the midst of loss to talk about and to think about.
02:22 So the question is, if you would accept a donated organ
02:31 to save your child, would you give that same gift of life
02:35 to save several others?
02:37 - On this wrist.
02:42 Right, hold on to that bit as well then.
02:44 Hold on tight.
02:46 Don't let it fly away.
02:47 - Okay, so what is the situation
02:52 with organ donation at the moment,
02:53 and how vital is it that people come forward?
02:55 - So at the moment in the UK,
02:57 there's about 7,000 people on the waiting list
02:59 awaiting to receive an organ.
03:01 That might be heart, lungs, kidney, liver.
03:05 Within the UK, there's only 1% of the population
03:07 that die in circumstances that are in a position
03:10 to save other people's lives
03:11 through the amazing gift of organ donation.
03:14 - And how can people sign up?
03:15 What do they need to do?
03:16 - So the easiest way to sign up
03:18 is by going onto the NHS Organ Donor Register
03:21 and confirming your decision to donate.
03:24 - Daddy, what funny faces do I do?
03:28 - Silly ones.
03:29 - Silly ones?
03:30 (laughing)
03:32 - You guys just keep looking straight towards.
03:34 (laughing)
03:36 - Yeah, you lot have all gotta be here.
03:37 (laughing)

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