Right-to-die campaigner Hannah Jones changes mind over heart transplant

[okarol]

Right-to-die campaigner Hannah Jones changes mind over heart transplant

By Geoffrey Lakeman 21/07/2009
Hannah Jones (Pic:SWNS)

Sick 14-year-old Hannah Jones yesterday told how she "changed her mind" about having a new heart.

The right-to-die campaigner took herself off a transplant list eight months ago, saying she could not bear to go through any more operations.

The cancer survivor even overturned a legal bid by doctors to force her into the life-saving surgery.

But now - as a result of suffering partial kidney failure last Sunday, just a week after her birthday - she has told mum Kirsty and dad Andrew she is prepared to undergo the "trauma" of getting a replacement heart. She said from her hospital bed: "Everyone is entitled to change their mind."

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And ex-nurse Kirsty, 42, beamed: "We are so delighted she's reconsidered her decision."

Hannah's own heart - terribly weakened by her successful battle against the leukaemia she developed aged four - is not beating on the right side and so could not cope with dialysis treatment.

She said reversing her original decision to die with her family at home in Marden, Herefordshire, was "difficult". But going back on the transplant list and having to take fewer pills eventually outweighed facing certain death from total kidney failure.

Hannah will now get the first suitable organ available in Great Ormond Street.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/07/21/right-to-die-campaigner-hannah-jones-changes-mind-over-heart-transplant-115875-21536254/

[okarol]

‘Right to die’ girl has life-saving surgery: report
29th July 2009, 10:45 WST

A young British girl who made world headlines after opting against life-saving heart transplant surgery last year has changed her mind and undergone the operation, according to reports.

British newspaper The Sun reports on its website that 14-year-old Hannah Jones had a heart transplant yesterday after making history last November for fending off doctors trying to force her to have the transplant.

Plagued by acute heart problems since developing leukaemia when she was four, she declared she was “sick” of hospitals and did not want to go through the trauma of more surgery.

But last week The Sun revealed she had changed her mind - delighting parents Kirsty, 42, and Andrew, 43.

Hannah suffered partial kidney failure five days after her birthday on July 12 but could not receive dialysis because her heart was too weak.

It meant she had no option but to go back on the transplant list or risk total kidney failure and certain death.

PERTH
STAFF REPORTERS

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=158829