13 year old girl says no to a new heart
A 13-year-old schoolgirl who successfully battled a hospital decision to forcefully give her a heart transplant said today she had had enough of being treated by medics.
Hannah Jones said she understood her decision may lead to her death, but explained: 'I didn't want to go through any more operations.'
'There is a chance I will be okay and a chance I might not be, but I'm willing to take the chance.'
Doctors had warned the brave schoolgirl, with a hole in her heart, that the transplant itself might lead to her dying on the operating table - but insisted she have the operation.
Health chiefs eventually abandoned the High Court proceedings after Hannah told them she would not let surgeons operate. She has chosen instead to spend her remaining time at home.
She said: 'They explained everything to me but I didn't want to go through any more operations. I'd had enough of hospitals and wanted to come home. 'I put my point across, I told them I don't want this and I don't want to have it.
'I just decided that their were too many risks and even if I went ahead there might be a chance that there was a bad outcome. 'I have not had a month or a year go by when I've not had hospital treatment. My doctors all are looking after me, they are supporting me 100 per cent and so are my parents, my mum sitting here with and my dad, who is at work. "They never thought I would make such a recovery.
Her parents were disgusted by the initial decision by a hospital to force Hannah to have a heart transplant. "I think I have made the right decision at the moment and I am not going to change it. "Hospital holds some bad memories for me and I don't want anymore treatment."
In a letter to the Jones family, Herefordshire Primary Care Trust chief executive Chris Bull said the Trust had concluded that it was 'not appropriate' to seek a court order requiring Hannah to be admitted to hospital.
He added that Hannah appeared to 'understand the serious nature of her condition' and that she 'demonstrated awareness that she could die'.
She had been previously warned that she had only six months to live and that the only potential long term solution was a heart transplant. At present the law states that a child under 16 may be judged able to give their consent for an operation, but there is nothing written down about them refusing the treatment.
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