I became a nurse after heart swap ...now I need a new kidney
Mum backs opt-out campaign
A MUM of two who was inspired to become a nurse after a heart transplant saved her life aged 10 has been told she now needs a new kidney.
Emma Standish’s organs are failing due to damage caused by immunosuppressants taken to stop the body attacking the donor heart.
The 27-year-old said apart from her kidneys she is in good health.
“My heart is fabulous – they found the perfect heart,” she said. “People are shocked when they find out about my transplant as I’m just a normal girl.”
Emma, from Bolton, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, which is believed to be triggered by an infection, at the age of nine. She became poorly over a year as her heart muscle stretched and it could not beat properly.
She had been given just 72 hours to live when she was rushed 150 miles from the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital to Newcastle Freeman Hospital to be fitted with a mechanical heart. But word came through on the journey that a suitable donor had been found.
Since surgery she has lived a normal life and had children – Ava, seven, and Harrison, three – with partner Wayne.
She said: “I think my parents didn’t tell me much about what was going on to protect me because I was still so young.
“The doctors told my parents that if I didn’t get a heart transplant I was going to die. I had no idea what was going to happen and I was so poorly I just wanted to give up fighting.”
Emma, who works at Royal Bolton Hospital, supports our Change the Law for Life campaign calling for organ donation to be opt-out unless relatives object.
The Government announced this year that it will change the law by 2020, saving up to 500 lives a year.
Campaigners are this week urging people to make sure relatives know they wish to donate as part of Organ Donation Week. Around 80% of people support donation but only 33% have told their family, research shows. Emma is not yet on the register to receive donor organs but has been told it is only a matter of time. She said: “You don’t need your organs when you are gone, why take them to the grave? I totally support it [the law change]. “I asked my daughter if I could sign her up to the organ donor register, she asked why? “I explained about her organs and that you don’t need them once you are an angel. “So she agreed that I could sign her up to the donor register.”