Legacy of hope from tiny Teddy
Face to face with his twin, this baby boy lived for just 100 minutes. Moments later his kidneys were taken for transplant to keep an adult alive
HE was alive for only 100 precious minutes but Teddy Houlston’s legacy will endure.
His parents cradled him in their arms and felt him wriggle as his twin brother Noah opened his eyes for the first time and gazed at him.
Then little Teddy, who was born with a rare and fatal condition, slipped away as doctors had warned he would. However, his short life was not in vain as Teddy became the UK’s youngest organ donor.
He gave a new life to an adult stranger with kidney failure – and has created an extraordinary legacy of hope that more people of all ages will be become donors.
Three minutes after Teddy died, doctors performed the intricate operation to remove his kidneys. Even though they were only 1½in long – a third of the size of a typical adult kidney – they were able to function and grow in the body of the recipient, into whose body they were transplanted 20 hours later.
Teddy’s selfless parents spoke movingly yesterday of how they overcame their devastation at the soul-destroying news that he would not live to take the unusual decision that they wanted him to be an organ donor and give others a chance of life.
Teddy was diagnosed with anencephaly, an unsurvivable abnormality that prevents the brain and skull from developing, when his mother Jess Evans was 12 weeks pregnant. Babies with the condition either die in the womb, are stillborn or survive only minutes or hours after birth.
Doctors offered childhood sweethearts Miss Evans, 28, and her fiancé Mike Houlston, 30, a housing surveyor, the option of a selective abortion. But the couple, from Cardiff, decided against such action – saying they would cherish even holding their baby for a moment – and decided they wanted to donate his organs.
Miss Evans, who was told about the importance of organ donation as a child by her mother, said: ‘We thought even if we had a moment with him, or ten minutes, or an
‘We are so proud of him’
hour, that time was the most precious thing we would ever experience.
‘And it helps us so much to know he has helped someone else, and helped doctors realise donation from small babies is possible, and is something people like us want to make happen.’
Mr Houlston, in a joint interview with the Daily Mirror, said Teddy ‘lived and died a hero’, adding: ‘It’s impossible to explain how proud we are of him.’
Many newborns who die in hospital have the potential to be organ donors, but it is incredibly rare for them to be considered. NHS guidelines do not include transplants from donors younger than two months.
Dr Paul Murphy, of NHS Blood and Transplant, described Teddy’s gift of life as a ‘milestone moment’ and hopes his story will spark ‘a revolution in public attitudes’.
He said: ‘Every donation is inspirational. It is a selfless act of heroism. But Teddy’s story is exceptional.’
There are 7,000 patients waiting for an organ transplant but last year 40 per cent of families refused to allow organ donation when asked, sometimes even when a loved one was registered.
Three people die every day waiting for a donor.
Teddy was born at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff at 11.15am on April 22 last year, 33 minutes after his healthy twin Noah.
Babies’ kidneys are fully functional in the womb from around 37 weeks, and Teddy’s were unaffected by the anencephaly.
Reliving the 100 minutes his son clung to life, Mr Houlston told ITV1’s This Morning: ‘ We were always told that Teddy would probably be unconscious and he wouldn’t be able to do anything, but he actually made noises, he was moving.
‘He was very much conscious. And as soon as Noah was next to him you could see straight away they could sense each other. That was the first time Noah opened his eyes, when he saw Teddy.’ Teddy died at 12.55pm. A specialist organ retrieval team was on standby and the operation to retrieve his kidneys and heart valves began at 12.58pm.
The organs were placed in preserving solution and driven to St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, where they were transplanted into the anonymous recipient in a threeand-a-half-hour operation beginning at 5.15am the next day.
Angharad Griffiths, a specialist nurse in organ donation for NHS Blood and Transplant who was assigned to Teddy’s family, said: ‘There hasn’t been a donor of this condition for at least ten years in the world, we think. And planning a donation during pregnancy is not something we would normally do.
‘It was new to us. Until the referral came in to us the couple were being told that it was not possible.
‘It was amazing to be part of it. It was a privilege to be invited into such a private moment and to take Teddy to theatre was an honour.’
Britain’s previous youngest organ donor was a six- day- old girl born with severe brain damage whose parents allowed her organs to be transplanted after she died.
Two patients had life-saving operations using the donated kidneys and liver cells, specialists at Hammersmith Hospital in West London revealed earlier this year.
Miss Evans, who has a three-yearold daughter, Billie, from a previous relationship, and Mr Houlston have exchanged letters anonymously with the recipient of Teddy’s kidneys. The couple are urging others to sign the NHS Organ Donor Register so more lives can be saved. Miss Evans, who discovered that she was pregnant the day after she and Mr Houlston returned from getting engaged in Amsterdam, said: ‘In a lifetime, not many of us would have the opportunity to save a life, which is the greatest gift you could ever give someone.
‘So if, in our parting, we still have that opportunity, we should take it. There are so many people that could benefit and live, and so many families that could have be saved grieving if we could be a little more proactive.’
Teddy’s heartbeat was recorded when Miss Evans was pregnant and can be heard at the press of a button on a blue teddy bear that Noah plays with.
On the first anniversary of Teddy’s death on Wednesday, the family visited his grave. They have a Twitter account in Teddy’s name and tweeted: ‘Happy birthday to Noah and Teddy!! Brothers forever xxx.’