A MOTHER whose son saved four lives through organ donation has opened a memorial garden at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
Ann Fergusson’s son Chris Milenovic donated organs which have gone on to help at least four desperately ill people, including three teenagers.
And six months to the day since Chris’s death aged 30 from head injuries, Ann was invited to officially open a new memorial garden at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
The rose garden has been created by the organ donation team at the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust in memory of those who have donated their organs.
Ann, of Dalton, said: “Just knowing that a person is living a better life as a result is a huge comfort. People should sign up and make sure their families know their wish is to be an organ when they are gone.
“That way lives can be improved and saved and donors are very badly needed.”
Chris’s family have been told his organs saved a 16-year-old girl who received his lungs along with two boys aged 16 and 14 who both received a kidney.
His liver went to a 50-year-old woman who had suffered complications on the operating table.
And his long bones, skin and tissue are still being held for recipients.
Chris died as a result of a vicious unprovoked attack in Huddersfield town centre in 2004.
Chris was beaten up and left with severe head injuries, including a fractured skull, in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity. His attackers have never been found.
The former Newsome High School student’s injuries developed over time and two years on he was forced to give up working on account of his debilitating condition.
He regularly suffered fits and was left with brain damage, sight loss and epilepsy.
Eventually Chris required 24-hour supervision from his mum.
On January 12, he fell down stairs at his home and, due to his pre-existing injuries, died the next day.
Dr Peter Hall, the clinical lead for organ donation at the Trust, said: “Chris sadly died and went on to give the gift of life to several others including a 16-year-old girl and two teenage boys. This garden is to remember all those who have given the gift of life and to thank the families of the donors – and also to remember our former Trust chairman Dev Sharma who chaired the Trust’s organ donation committee and died suddenly last year.”
The trust’s organ donation nurse Jayne Greenhalgh, said: “More and more people’s lives are being saved and improved by people who want their organs and tissues to be used after they are gone.
“At the trust we are noticing a significant increase in the numbers of people who are signing the Organ Donor Register and talking to their families about their wishes to become a donor in the future, and it seems a fitting tribute that they are commemorated in this way at the hospital.”
A similar Rose Garden was planted at Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, earlier this year and the Trust also hopes to commission memorials inside both hospitals in the forthcoming year.
For more about becoming a donor see:
www.cht.nhs.uk/about-us/organ-donation
