Lives put at risk as 770 waiting for transplants

NHS chiefs have launched a new drive to sign up new potential donors to help give someone the gift of life.

The Yorkshire Post can reveal nearly 770 people across the county were waiting for potentially life-saving surgery last month.

More than 350 people in West Yorkshire and 217 patients in South Yorkshire were languishing on the organ transplant list.

A further 136 patients in North Yorkshire and 64 in East Yorkshire were also waiting for a donor to come forward last month.

But 73 people have died in East and North Yorkshire over the last five years waiting for an organ donation – a further 15 have died waiting for new organs in West and South Yorkshire in the last year.

Angela Filarowski from Leeds is backing the NHS’s drive to recruit more organ donors across the county. Her daughter Gabrysia was born with a serious heart defect and despite surgery, and Mrs Filarowski and her husband, Andrew, were told a transplant was vital.

The youngster was given just months to live unless she received a new heart. But four years later the five-year-old from Horsforth, Leeds, has made a strong recovery.

The inspirational youngster loves her ballet classes – something her parents did not even dare to dream would be possible.

Mrs Filarowski said Gabrysia’s donor also helped to save the lives of seven or eight other children.

She said: “We pray for that family every night and we thank God for her new heart. We know that family saved the life of seven or eight other children.

“It’s so difficult and nobody wants to face losing a child or any other member of their family.

“It was hugely traumatic for the donor family. We know through the letters we have had that it’s given them the strength to know that some good has come out of their absolute tragedy.”

NHS Blood and Transplant has launched a new drive to encourage more families to talk about organ donation and to persuade more people to sign the donor register.

Over 200 people in Yorkshire have been given the gift of life with a lifesaving organ transplant last year.

Mrs Filarowski added: “It’s an absolute miracle.

“Gabrysia can do pretty much anything that any other child her age can do and she is living life to the full.

“We just treasure every minute.”

NHS Blood and Transplant’s director of organ donation and transplantation, Sally Johnson, said: “Without organ donors there can be no transplantation and we are grateful to the families of the 1,212 deceased donors and to each of the 1,101 living donors who made these precious donations possible.

“But although we have seen year-on-year increases in activity, the UK can and must do more to save and improve lives through organ donation and transplantation, and family refusal is now our biggest problem.

“If the NHS is to save even more lives, more people need to sign up to be a donor, more people need to discuss donation with those close to them and more families need to support donation on behalf of a loved one.”

For more information about the NHS Organ Donor Register, visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk or contact 0300 123 23 23.