Family's comfort as Lorna's death gives others gift of life

A GRIEVING mother has told how her daughter's sudden death will not be in vain as her organs have already saved the life of a man who was given little hope of survival.

Lorna Stoddart, 29, who suffered from epilepsy since she was a baby, died unexpectedly at the city's Western General Hospital, leaving her family devastated.

Doctors have so far been unable to determine the exact cause of death and her mother Margaret said the family was trying to come to terms with the fact that they may never know.

But one source of comfort for the family is that, due to Lorna's caring nature, other lives have been saved by the tragedy.

Lorna, from Dedridge, who worked at British Home Stores in The Centre, Livingston, was an organ donor and Mrs Stoddart received a letter from the NHS's Blood and Transfusion department telling her that her kidney has saved a man's life just in time.

The letter added that if he had not had the transplant when he did, he would have become too ill for the procedure and that his family were forever grateful for Lorna's gift.

"This is the one thing that has kept me going," said Mrs Stoddart. "Otherwise I think I would have been in a madhouse. I'm so proud of her.

"Lorna had plenty of seizures before, nothing she never came round from and she was a fit young woman. She was an early riser and got up for work that day as normal, went shopping with pals afterwards but had a seizure when she came home at about ten past seven.

"There was no rhyme or reason to it and we still don't know what happened. There may never be an answer.

"I must thank the paramedics and staff at the hospital because they gave her every chance to live but just couldn't save her.

"After she was pronounced dead they had to examine her for 26 hours and we stayed in the hospital all that time. It was quite surreal.

"She was very popular and everyone who knew her will tell you she was a real character, very down to earth. Loads of people knew Lorna and she will get a great send-off. She will be missed."

A woman in her 40s received Lorna's other kidney, which has given doctors confidence for a recovery, while another woman was given Lorna's pancreas.

The NHS said due to this, the patient was now independent of insulin and had normal blood sugar levels. They added that she was making a good recovery and wanted to thank Lorna and her family.

Mrs Stoddart added: "A lot of people have come up to me since Lorna's death and told me they are now going to be an organ donor, taking their inspiration from Lorna.

"If her death can do this I think it will help me through it. We've also asked for people to give donations to epilepsy charities in her memory."

Lorna died on February 20 and her funeral is set to take place on Monday at the West Lothian Crematorium.

CEO of Kidney Research UK, Charles Kernahan, said: "Increasing the number of organ donors in the UK is vitally important, as there is currently a severe shortage of transplant organs.

"Ninety per cent of people on the UK's organ transplant list are waiting for a kidney - approximately 7000 patients - and even those lucky enough to receive an organ may need future transplants during their lifetime.

"We urge as many people as possible to follow Lorna's example and sign up to become organ donors. Doing so quite literally saves lives."