Lola Plimmer, five, is thriving three and a half years after a life-saving heart transplant at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital. Her mother, Ella Watt, has told ChronicleLive how the family's experience drives her to raise awareness of the need for more organ donors.
Life-saving flight and transplant
Lola was flown to Newcastle by air ambulance and kept alive on board thanks to an Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) device, used for the first time on such a flight in her case. She had been hours from death after a common cold triggered an underlying condition and led to heart failure.
Her parents, Ella and Rob, from Stone in Staffordshire, were told the wait for a transplant could last more than a year. However, an appropriate donor organ became available in a matter of months.
‘Every birthday is amazing’
Ella told ChronicleLive: “It's going well. Lola's five now! We were really lucky in our situation. It was within a couple of months. We had been told to expect to be waiting for a transplant for twelve or eighteen months.”
“Every day that she gets to go to school is a blessing. Every birthday is amazing, given we thought she wouldn't see two. Now she's five and gets to do so much stuff you'd never have imagined.”
“She’s coming on leaps and bounds. Every day, I swear she grows an extra centimetre, and she learns something new. She’s just brilliant. She’s so excited to go in the morning. She’s like, ‘Is it school today?’ She just loves it. Everything that she starts new or really thrives in, it just sort of brings it all back for me. It makes me think, this might not have happened at one point.”
“Just to be able to give her these opportunities, that at one point we never thought we were able to do, is amazing. For her, it absolutely is possible. She’s taking it all in her stride and is open to everything. It’s just brilliant. It’s lovely to be able to see a future for her.”
Lola is also set for a trip to London this week for the British Heart Foundation's Heart Hero awards, something the family are very excited about.
Support from Scott House
Ella is keen to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation and say thank you to the charities and healthcare teams who played a vital role in Lola's earliest years. She highlighted the provision at Scott House, where the Sick Children's Trust support families with accommodation if they have had to travel hundreds of miles to hospital.
She said: “If I had had to think about finding somewhere to live or travelling to and fro from where we live in the Midlands... You only realise how lucky you are when you look back.”
“It took a lot of stress away from an already incredibly stressful situation. If we had been there for over six months and there was still no sign of a heart, one of us would have had to move up and find somewhere to rent, which would have cost us thousands.”
“To think that’s something I could have had to deal with alongside potentially losing my child… it was just so lovely to know that someone had taken control of that for me. It was like, ‘Of course you can stay by your daughter. Of course you can do this. It’s not a problem. You’ve got a room. It’s sorted.’”
She also paid tribute to the community that develops at Scott House and among families with loved ones at the Children's Heart Unit. “We could all relate to each other, some of the stories were so familiar. We were all able to be there for each other. If we didn’t have Scott House, I genuinely don’t know what we would have done.”
As for the staff at the Freeman, Ella added: “Everyone there has been amazing. We had to go back for a CT scan this summer. We just walked through the door and they were all saying to Lola how lovely to see her! When you go back, it's like going back to see family.”
Organ donation awareness
This week has been organ donation week, and the NHS Blood and Transplant agency has highlighted a “shortfall” in donors, with rates falling in part where families may not have known their loved one's decision.
Ella added: “Every year when we get to organ donation week I always share as much as I can about it. I don't think this gets talked about enough. It's so, so important for people to know this information.”
“If you want to donate organs, you need to make sure that your family are aware. You need to have that conversation before anything happens. Yes it's a morbid conversation, but it's a necessary one - and the time to have it is now.”
“Unfortunately we do need to shout about this. it's so important and is a subject very close to my heart. Everyone needs to know about organ donation, that's what I'm trying to do.”
To find out more, or confirm support for organ donation, visit organdonation.nhs.uk, call 0300 123 23 23 or use the NHS app. It is important to tell loved ones about your decision, as while the system is now “opt-out”, it is common for families to overrule a loved one's decision.
