Death of organ donor Daniel gives new life to others

Death of organ donor Daniel gives new life to others

Aug 17 2009 by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

Daniel Salaman’s death has helped to save the lives of at least three other people. Health Editor Madeleine Brindley spoke to Daniel’s mother, Assia Newton, about organ donation

DANIEL SALAMAN once told his mother Assia Newton that “they can have what they want,” when she asked him about organ donation.

He added: “They’re no good to me when I’ve gone.”

Those words came back to Assia last year, when 21-year-old Daniel died in an horrific road accident after a night out in Bristol, and she made the decision to allow his organs to be donated.

“When they asked me in the hospital, I knew it was the right thing to do – Daniel was the kind of person who would do anything to help someone else,” Assia, 40, said.

Daniel’s choice to become an organ donor has given three other people a fresh lease of life – his two kidneys and pancreas have been transplanted into people on the waiting list. Daniel’s heart valves have been frozen, to be used to help desperately sick children up to 10 years’ in the future.

Mel McColm, who lives in Devon, was one of the two people to receive one of Daniel’s kidneys. The 64-year-old would have died if he had not travelled from South Africa to England for dialysis and the transplant.

Assia, who lives with her three daughters in Pencoed, said: “Daniel was fun-loving and the centre of our lives. He had two sons – Evan and Caled – who he worshipped.”

Daniel, a carpenter, had been on a night out in Bristol in May 2008 when he got off the minibus home and was hit by a car.

He suffered horrendous and extensive injuries – his neck was broken in three places, his chest was broken and his liver was damaged. He was on life support at Bristol Royal Infirmary for two days before his family made the agonising decision to switch the machine off.

“They did everything for him, they did everything to bring him back but the brain damage was too much,” said Assia. “They had to switch the life support off and they asked us about donating his organs.

“Before this happened, I’d always wanted to give my organs – when I asked Daniel whether he’d give his organs if anything happened to him, he said, ‘Mum, they can have what they want.’”

“I was in shock [when they asked] but I knew from the moment that I said yes that it was the right decision. It’s helped Mel – we’ve met up and we know that he’s fighting fit – and we’ve had two letters from the other families.

“It gives us a bit of a boost because it helps us to know that he’s helped those other people to get well.

“The last year has been hard – you go into a bubble. I have the girls to look after and you put everyone else before yourself.

“It is still early days but I want to make people aware of organ donation and the gift that it gives to others.

“You get a kind of happiness from it – Daniel is still living on and he is helping other people to live.”

Assia, her three daughters Sameera, 13, Sophia, 14, and 18-year-old Charmaine and husband Kelvin, met Mel in Weston-super-Mare earlier this year, after arranging the meeting with transplant co-ordinators Sally Holmes and Mickie Dicks.

Mel said: “I imagined I had someone else’s kidney in me but it has very much become part of me now. When it was put in me it became my organ – I am the luckiest guy walking around.

“My year has been positive and such a difference after spending five years on dialysis carried out at home on a daily basis.”

Mel, who lives in Sidmouth, was diagnosed with polycystic kidneys when he was 47 while working in KwaZulu-Natal. He moved to England in 1996 with wife Ann because he knew he had no chance of a transplant there.

Dependent on dialysis to keep him alive, Mel was on dialysis for nine hours every night in the two-and-a-half years before Daniel donated his organs.

“That’s a long time to spend on a machine. Now that time is almost like it happened to someone else,” said Mel, who has become an advocate for organ donation and has given talks to local schoolchildren. “I have put on two stone, sleep better, eat like a horse, and my attitude is more positive.

“I enjoy working in the garden, walking, my physical strength has returned and I can lift and carry three times what I could before.

“It is not hard to understand the changes that Daniel’s gift has brought to myself and the McColm family. I feel 100%.”

He added: “Daniel’s mother Assia said she got a lot of satisfaction knowing the recipients were all doing well and had made such a difference to people’s lives.”

Assia said: “We thought meeting Mel was going to be emotional but it was as if we had known him for years – it was a really strange feeling.

“When we donated we were told that we could write letters to the recipients, but we were warned that they may not get in contact in return.

“I wrote three letters to the three people who had Daniel’s organs and 10 days after Mel had his operation he had written back. We’ve just kept in contact.”

Assia added that Daniel’s friends and family have been inspired to follow his example and sign up as potential organ donors.

“We discussed everything at the hospital, right down to the smallest detail but as soon as I made that decision, I knew it was the right one.”

To join the NHS organ donor register call 0300 123 23 23 or visit www.donatewales.org

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health-news/2009/08/17/death-of-organ-donor-daniel-gives-new-life-to-others-91466-24454483/