Baby Hope lives for an hour... then becomes UK’s youngest organ donor
a BABY girl called Hope has become Britain’s youngest organ donor after she passed away at just over an hour old.
Hope’s kidneys were donated to an adult, while her healthy liver cells will help treat patients waiting for a liver transplant.
Her heartbroken parents have spoken out to say how proud they are of their daughter despite her brief life of 74 minutes.
Emma Lee, 32, said: ‘Just knowing she has done some good in her short life... We’re proud she’s achieved a lot.’
Her husband Drew, 51, added: ‘We now feel our little girl is a hero.’ The couple, from newmarket, suffolk, also paid tribute to the ‘absolutely fantastic’ staff at the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge, who supported them at the birth of Hope and her healthy twin brother, Josh, two minutes later.
The couple, who also have a fiveyear-old daughter Maddie, found out thirteen weeks into the pregnancy that Hope had anencephaly, a condition which prevents the brain and skull from developing properly. Doctors offered to abort her but her parents decided to continue with the pregnancy and donate her organs once she died.
Mrs Lee, who is a carer, said: ‘It’s quite a heart-breaking decision to make. If it was in different circumstances and she had just passed away after birth I think the decision would not have been that easy. But as we had known for so long we just felt it was right. We were so pleased it went ahead.’
The previous youngest donor in the UK was Teddy Houlston, from Cardiff, who only lived for about 100 minutes.