'How we said goodbye 3 times to our dying Sally'

THE EXHAUSTED parents of six-year-old Sally Slater, given hours to live after being struck down with a heart virus, told today how they had said goodbye to her three times before the 11th-hour heart transplant that saved her.

Sally's father Jon, 36, said: "We have basically said goodbye to her three times in the past three weeks. We don't know whether she was sufficiently conscious to know what we have been saying. The prognosis has been so bad on three occasions we thought we would never see her again.

"As you can imagine it is a fairly emotional time but after each of those times we are still here and still hanging on. She has shown how much strength and courage she has."

Speaking at a press conference at Newcastle-upon-Tyne's Freeman Hospital, where Sally is being treated, Mr Slater gave his backing to an "opt-out" transplant scheme that would mean those who did not want to give organs carried a card to say so, otherwise it would be assumed the patient wanted to donate an organ.

He said: "There is no use having these doctors and surgeons who can perform miracles when there aren't the organs to put in. It is remarkably fortunate on our part that she is still alive but at the same time we have to temper it with the fact that somewhere, somebody isn't."

Sally, from Malham, North Yorkshire, remains very poorly but is recovering after the seven-hour transplant operation early yesterday. It will be 48 hours before her parents know whether the transplant has been a success.

It was also revealed today that Sally was fitted with a revolutionary artificial heart to prolong her life. She was in a critical condition and doctors feared she had only hours to live. It is only the sixth time the operation using the 40,000 "plastic heart" has been used in the UK - and only the second time on a child, surgeons said.

At today's press conference, Sally's mother Bridget, 36, said: "Sally was sedated about three weeks ago but some of the time she has been lightly sedated and we have been able to cuddle her. I can clean her teeth and do her hair, and we read to her. She is a big fan of Roald Dahl.

"The people who donated for Sally have been very brave.

We hope it makes other people think about it more."

Earlier Mr Slater said the worst bit had been knowing that someone had died for a heart to become available. He said: "We have seen Sally as near to death as you can possibly be and she's still near to death. We know quite a lot about how they must be feeling about losing someone you love. I think 'thank you' is inadequate."

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