George and Jane Hall

A former NHS Forth Valley emergency nurse, who carried out her husband’s wishes to donate his organs, supported a series of local events to celebrate Organ Donation Week.

Jane Hall was at Forth Valley Royal Hospital and Falkirk and Stirling Community Hospitals to encourage people to sign the NHS Organ Donor register and highlight the importance of sharing their decision by telling  her story about how talking about organ donation with her husband prior to him taking ill, helped make the decision to donate easy.

Jane was working when she received a call to say her husband George was unwell.  She travelled to the emergency department at Forth Valley Royal Hospital to discover he had collapsed at Ineos in Grangemouth with a catastrophic brain haemorrhage and had been in cardiac arrest. Colleagues had given him CPR and kept him alive but although an Edinburgh hospital offered surgery, the chance of survival was only 10%.

Jane, who worked in both Stirling Royal Infirmary and Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary, said: “Knowing my husband’s wishes and my son’s wishes, my son said no to surgery. We were left with a short time to come to terms with what had happened and I reminded my son of our discussion many years before when we agreed at that point which route we wanted to go down. It was the easiest decision I made the whole day because of what we had discussed fully as a family.

George’s kidney’s went south and his heart was given to a woman in Newcastle. I am not sure where his liver and pancreas went but I would say to anyone facing this decision to do it in a heartbeat. I’m very proud of my husband for doing this. To know people are about because he took this choice. Once you’re dead your dead, and your organs can help someone live.”

An achievement award for a third year apprentice has since been set up at Ineos to remember 56 year old George, who had worked at the company for 40 years.

Jane supporting Organ Donation week at Forth Valley Royal Hospital

Jane was invited to the Kelpies to support the National Organ Donation campaign