Overview
- Six-month-old Rory Fletcher remains in intensive care at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital on a mechanical heart pump and is listed for an urgent heart transplant.
- Her parents from Knutsford have issued a public plea for a size-matched donor because few organs are donated from babies.
- NHS Blood and Transplant reports 8,000 people on the UK waiting list, a record high, and a 2% year-on-year fall in deceased donors.
- The presumed-consent system still depends on relatives’ agreement, with 173 registered wishes overruled and 520 other potential donations not supported by families last year.
- Over the past decade more than 12,000 people died or were removed from waiting lists before transplant, while over 44,000 lives were saved or improved through donation, according to figures highlighted for Organ Donation Week.