Deby and Caragh Rough

Organ donation, live life give life, transplantation, the gift of life – you may have seen a variety of slogans aimed at catching your attention relating to organ donation.

But have you ever really stopped to think what is like to be waiting on an organ becoming available to save a life? Your life? A loved one’s life? It’s probably something that many of us think will never affect us.

That’s what I thought – in fact if I am brutally honest I had never gave it much thought at all as I was too “busy living life”. Never did I think I would at the age of 25 give birth to a beautiful fiery Scottish red haired baby who screamed like all babies do and filled my heart with a love that is so strong and deep and a bond that words cannot describe, to then be told that without an organ donor that life would be taken away from us and that would happen very soon….

Life became full of doctors, nurses, hospitals, tests, tears, stress, questions…. and so much more that I didn’t want. The harsh reality is that we were watching our beautiful baby dying in front of our very eyes, and there was nothing that we could do. She had been born with Biliary Atresia, she had a failed Kasai procedure and was listed for liver transplant.  We waited…  We were given a pager to carry and waited for the bleep then the call….

Somebody somewhere had given some thought and taken the time to register as an organ donor, they were not to “busy living life” as I had been previously. That one decision to put their name on the register was about to save my 18-month-old daughter’s life, through the deep sadness of death brought the happiness of life, it was given through choice … as a gift …. A gift that no words can describe… a gift that would change my family for ever and one that we are eternally grateful for.

Anyone of us at anytime through a variety of reasons may find ourselves needing and waiting on a donor organ… Why waste such a precious gift when life ceases … Our whole family was affected, life before transplant was like living a virtual death sentence… life after transplant is like winning the lottery of life. But it still has its challenges along the way.

Live life give life the greatest gift of all, register as an organ donor .. you can take them with you but somebody somewhere is dying without one.

My daughter is now 18 and living life to the full. Special thanks and thoughts will always be in our hearts for the organ donor and the family … without you she would not be here today.

Deby Rough

Many thanks to our guest blogger Deby.  Deby is a proud mum of two, former mental health nurse and now works as a health & wellbeing practitioner for unpaid rural carers.

For further info about organ donation see:

Organ Donation Scotland: http://www.organdonationscotland.org/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/organdonationscotland
Twitter: @scotorgandonor