OUR LITTLE GIRL’S HEART SAVED MAX’S LIFE
Loving nine-year-old crash victim’s organs went to transplant lad and three others
A GRIEVING family have revealed that their tragic daughter’s heart saved the life of 10-year-old Max Johnson.
Joe Ball, dad of nine-year-old Keira, said: “I knew it is what she would have wanted.”
He is calling on MPs to back the Mirror’s campaign to bring in an opt-out law.
Keira’s mum Loanna said: “Max has got the most beautiful heart in the world.”
AS nine-year-old Keira Ball lay in hospital with fatal injuries, her dad kept thinking about her caring nature and it made him realise what she would have chosen to do.
The decision to donate her organs saved four lives including that of Mirror boy Max Johnson, 10.
Wiping away tears, Keira’s dad Joe said: “She was the most loving child you could ever wish to meet, she would give anything to help anyone.
“When they came to ask me about organ donation, I knew it is what Keira would have wanted.”
He added: “I have always said that once I pass I want to be an organ donor. But you never think of that with your children. It was Keira who swayed me to give her organs.”
He has backed the Mirror’s Change the Law for Life organ donation campaign which would mean everyone being presumed to be a donor unless they opted out.
It is being dubbed Max’s Law. It goes to a vote in Parliament on Friday and Joe urged MPs to “do the right thing” in memory of his daughter.
Keira’s mum, of Barnstaple, Devon, says she was so loving it means Max now has “the best heart in the world”.
Keira died in a road accident which left her mum Loanna Ball, 33, and seven-year-old brother Bradley fighting for life.
The trio were taken to three separate hospitals as dad Joe dashed to be with his loved ones.
Three days after the accident, train fitter Joe, 35, made the decision to donate his daughter’s organs as wife Loanna was in critical care.
The mum was unable to help decide what to do because she was drifting in and out of consciousness due to the injuries she sustained in the collision in July 30 last year.
Even in his darkest hour, Joe was inspired by the way Keira had been so selfless in her short life.
The family have spoken of her love of the little creatures she found in the garden, her desire to “protect nature” on her grandparents’ farm, and her selfless devotion to her family.
Joe said: “My daughter gave her heart to Max. A gentleman in his 30s on the waiting list for two-and-a-half years got one kidney.
“A lady in her 50s got her other kidney, she had been waiting nineand-a-half years.
“Her pancreas and liver went to another little boy.
“She helped to save four lives. I watched as the ambulances left the hospital with her organs, she was in the operating theatre for nine hours, and it was hard sitting there knowing it was Keira. She lives on, and that gives us great comfort now.
“I believe organ donation can make such a difference.
“If you can help others when your organs are no good to you any more, then why not do it?”
Max had been waiting for eight months for a new heart at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart to enlarge.
An eight-year-old friend he made on the ward lost her life as she waited in vain. Max received the transplant in August when he was nine – the same age as Keira. Her mum Loanna said: “I’m so glad it has gone to a boy of Keira’s age.” She added: “If there was a snail on the pavement on its side, she would put it safe.
“Her birthday is the week before mine and she had £10. She bought me presents from her brother and sisters. She would give her last. When it came to organ donation, we knew that would be her wish. Max reminds me so much of my daughter.
“He is always smiling, a bouncy little boy, and that is exactly how she was, the most loving, happy child. I see her in Max. I get such comfort knowing he
is doing so well.” Loanna – still recovering from injuries she sustained in the crash on the A361 near West Buckland in Devon – says hundreds who donated to the charity set up in her daughter’s name have signed up to be donors.
The mum is caring for Bradley, who suffered severe internal injuries in the crash. She also has two daughters Keely, 13, and Katelyn, 12.
In the moments before Keira died, Loanna was wheeled from her ward and held the hand of her little girl to say goodbye. She felt a tiny squeeze.
Loanna recalls: “I felt Keira holding my hand. I find it so hard that I was not there with her in those last days.
“Katelyn and Keely will never understand how proud I am of them.
“Afterwards, they brushed her hair and painted her nails, and I know as an adult how hard it is, they were so very brave.”
Loanna’s parents Fred and Wendy Chugg believe Keira’s legacy should be part of Max’s Law. Farmer Fred, 52, said: “I say to the MPs – what if it was one of their nearest and dearest who needed a viable organ? They are no good to a person in the ground.
“Keira was beautiful inside and out... She had the best heart in the world, she lit up any room. It is wonderful to think that little Max is so like her. It is a great comfort to all of us.
“Organ donation means Keira’s death was not for nothing... Keira helped others right to the end.”
After learning who had donated his new heart, Max wrote to Keira’s family. He said: “I can’t thank you enough for your kindness... I was very poorly but I love my new heart and I feel so much better.” His parents Emma, 47, and Paul, 44, of Winsford, Cheshire, say they hope to meet Keira’s family soon.
Paul, a civil servant, said: “We cannot express in words the gratitude we feel to Keira’s family. Joe Ball made the decision to give the gift of life to other children by donating Keira’s organs, to make their lives better, when his own heart was in a thousand pieces.”
Keira’s sister Keely wants to listen to the heart now beating in Max’s chest.
An inquest is to be held into the cause of the fatal accident when Loanna’s Vauxhall Vectra was in collision with a Ford Ranger 4x4.
Visit www.facebook.com/inspiredbykeira/ for details about the charity in Keira’s name which is helping families “the angels leave behind”.