Brave toddler Erin Nicks has become a transplant record setter just weeks before her third birthday after surgeons at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital gave her a new liver and a new life.
The two-year-old from County Armagh in Northern Ireland has made history after receiving the 120,000th transplant to be registered on the UK Transplant Database; 35 years after the database was launched in 1972.
Erin underwent a first liver transplant at the hospital in June 2005 when she was just eight months old after doctors diagnosed her as suffering with biliary atresia, a condition which causes bile to build up in the organ.
An infection caused her body to reject the liver two years later, but doctors say the new organ is functioning normally and she is doing well.
“We are overjoyed,” said Erin’s mum Orla, 32. “We were stricken with worry not knowing whether a new liver would be found. We had only just started to relax after the first transplant; we had even begun planning our first holiday.”
“Someone has given our daughter the most precious gift, the gift of life,” said Erin’s dad Simon, 32. “It is such a selfless act and one which we will never forget.”
The National Transplant Database is managed by UK Transplant and includes details of all donors and patients who are waiting for, or who have received a transplant, including some of those carried out in the UK before 1972.
In total it holds more than 200,000 entries, including 70,997 organ transplants, 49,003 ocular transplants, and 72,856 donors – both living and cadaveric, as well as the details of the thousands of people who currently need a transplant.
One of the first people to benefit from a transplant after the database was launched four decades ago was Star Wars prop maker William Hargreaves, 53, from Bracknell in Berkshire.
The married grandfather of three had his kidney transplant when he was 17 and went on to work designing props for some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters including Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
“It wasn’t until a few years later when I started having a family of my own that I began thinking about the gift someone else had given me in their death,” said William.
“Without that gift I don’t think I ever would have had my career, or more importantly my family.”
Chris Rudge, UK Transplant Managing and Transplant Director, said: “Since the launch of the National Transplant Database, thousands of lives have been saved and transformed thanks to the generosity of donors and the continued improvements in transplantation services.
“There is still a desperate shortage of donors though, which is why it is important that those who want to help talk about their wishes with their loved ones and join the NHS Organ Donor Register.”
* You can find out more about organ donation and join the NHS Organ Donor Register by telephoning 0845 60 60 400 or visiting www.uktransplant.org.uk.
ENDS
Media contacts: UK Transplant press office on 0117 975 7477 or pressoffice@uktransplant.nhs.uk
Notes to editors
- Erin’s parents and William Hargreaves are available for interview. Contact the press office for more information.
- The 120,000th transplant does not refer to the number of recipients; it refers to the actual number of transplant operations registered on the database as some recipients will have had more than one transplant.
- The National Transplant Database was launched in 1972.
- The database has a number of purposes including assisting in the process of matching and allocating organs for transplant and monitoring the success of those operations.
- In the year the database was launched, 456 people are recorded as having benefited from a transplant. Last year (April 06-March 07), that figure grew to a record 3,087 while a further 2,402 people were given the gift of sight through a cornea transplant.
- An increase in the number of people being referred for transplants meant that waiting lists ended the year at an all-time high too, with 7,234 patients actively listed.
- UK Transplant is the NHS organisation responsible for matching and allocating donated organs. It is part of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), a Special Health Authority within the NHS that manages the National Blood Service, Bio Products Laboratory, and UK Transplant.
