We often tell you really moving stories that make us think about what we would do if we were in those parents' shoes. Today I am going to talk about a very special story. Sad, because it is about the death of a newborn, but at the same time it gives hope.
The doctors at the University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, performed a pioneering surgery three minutes after little Teddy Houlston died of anencephaly less than two hours after birth, becoming the youngest organ donor in Britain.
Anencephaly is a serious congenital defect in which the upper end of the neural tube does not close properly. This cerebral malformation is characterized by the partial or total absence of the brain, skull, and scalp. Most of the time the baby dies before birth or within a few hours or days of birth, and rarely survive childhood.
Teddy's parents, Mike Houlston and Jess Evans, were expecting twins. But on the ultrasound of week 12 they detected this serious malformation in one of them. Although they were offered the possibility of selective abortion, aware of the importance of organ donation, they decided to continue with the pregnancy. How hard to know that if you are born, your child will die within a few hours of life, right? Terrible.
Even so, they kept on knowing that even if he lived only 10 minutes or a few hours, it would be a precious time to share with him. They also knew that their short life could serve to help someone else live. A great strength
The twins were born on April 22 of last year, but one of them, Teddy, lived less than two hours. His parents say that "it was pure energy."
Organ donation in newborns was unprecedented until then, less in children with anencephaly, but it was worth a try. In a pioneering intervention, the baby's kidneys were used to save the life of an adult in Leeds, becoming the youngest organ donor in Britain. A sad but beautiful story that encourages awareness about the importance of organ donation.
