The parents of one organ donor they were able to listen to their son’s heart three years after his death. The family of 30-year-old Kitt Blake, from Norwich, Norfolk, met the man who has their son’s heart after organ transplant. Tim Head, 64, from Wymondham, visited Kitt’s parents so they could, with a stethoscope, listen to their child’s heart beating again. “It gave me some strength,” said Kitt’s mother Jane, adding: “To think that Kitt helped Tim and that his life is so different now to how it was, it’s wonderful.”
Kitt Blake passed away in the spring of 2020, and his parents decided to donate four of his organs. Tim Head who was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy – a disease that weakens the walls of the heart, meaning it cannot contract properly, took Kitt’s heart. Before the transplant he had been ill for five years and admitted he “wanted to die” as he “had no life”.
He said meeting Kitt’s family was one “very emotional” moment. “It’s hard to accept. I look at them knowing I have their boy’s heart. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what I’ve been through and how the other family is coping,” he emphasized and added: “I’m enjoying life now, it’s fantastic. I work full time and I live a normal life now.”
When 30-year-old Kitt died, he was not on the donor register, but his family agreed to his organs being used to help others after speaking to a specialist nurse. According to NHS Blood and Transplant, 1,643 people in the UK have received a transplant in the last six monthswhile another 7,219 remain on the waiting list.
Yesterday saw the start of Organ Donation Week in Great Britain, during which it is hoped that 25,000 new organ donors will be added to the national register. Natalie Ashley, a specialist organ donation nurse at Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital, said: “We really urge people, if they support donation, to put that decision on the donor register. But also, to talk to their family to let them know that this would be what they want.”
Last year, 439 patients died while waiting for a transplant. Another 732 patients were removed from the transplant list because of worsening health.
Watch the touching video:
Source: News Beast
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