An Eccles man who is just one of 60 people in the UK to have had a four-organ transplant has urged people to talk to their family members about donating after death.
An Eccles man who is just one of 60 people in the UK to have had a four-organ transplant has urged people to talk to their family members about donating after death.
Elliott Manning was born with a number of conditions which meant growing up he was very ill and would even sometimes throw up almost his entire supply of blood.
The 23-year-old, who lives in Eccles between Attleborough and Thetford, said: 'It started because I had a clot in my portal vein which caused high blood pressure and a enlarged spleen. I used to bleed internally.
'On occasion I would throw up almost my entire supply of blood. When it first happened when I was four I went into a stage of fitting.'
By the time he was eight, he had an operation where a vein was taken from elsewhere in his body and transplanted to try and ease the pressure.
That was effective for a while but eventually he said: 'The pressure moved through towards my liver and all the veins around my liver got enlarged and blocked. So all the dirty blood which is supposed to leave your liver didn't.'
Mr Manning, who used to work for patient transport service ERS, was put on the list for a liver transplant, while routinely having CT scans to keep an eye on his condition.
'You just live with it pretty much,' he said.
But then medics noticed he had also stopped getting blood towards his bowel, and he was put on the list for a multi-organ transplant.
He said: 'They decided that so I found that out just before Christmas and I was only on the list for three weeks. I was not expecting it at all.'
A more normal waiting time would have been between three and six months, so Mr Manning was on a weekend away in Bristol when he got the call.
'I got the call on the 18th and I was told to be at the hospital by 5pm,' he said.
But disaster struck when around halfway to the hospital, Mr Manning's car broke down in Maidenhead and he had to get the train the rest of the way.
He said: 'I was pretty much ready to just go straight down to theatre. And then it got held back to the next day the 19th.'
The delay was down to the donor's family not being sure if they were happy to go ahead, something which underlined to Mr Manning how important these conversations were.
But after a tense 24 hours, they agreed.
Mr Manning said: 'I forced them to make me walk down because I knew I was going to be in a bed for a long time.'
And after 12 hours of surgery, Mr Manning was given a new liver, colon, small bowel and pancreas - although they did not remove his original pancreas so he's got two.
What followed was seven long weeks in hospital, moving through from intensive care, to the high dependency unit, and the transplant ward.
Mr Manning said: 'I would have been out sooner but I got pancreatitis in my second week.
'I had a 10kg of fluid built up in my stomach which stretched me out and opened up my wound so I got rushed back down and opened up again. But where I had been stitched so much it had torn my stomach muscles.'
Mr Manning still has a mesh fitted to hold his muscles together as he regains his strength.
And he is still recovering today six months on, with regular check up, sending in bloods twice a week, and taking what he estimates is around 900 tablets a month.
'I lost a lot of muscle weight down to being stuck in bed. I do things as much as I can.
'The majority of the tablets I take give me tremors so I can't write. And sometimes I struggle to hold my head up or get up the stairs. That was the thing what surprised me when I got home.'
But despite the side effects, Mr Manning said he was extremely grateful to his donor, even though he did not know who it was.
'The only thing I'm allowed to know is the age and the sex,' he said, although he was able to send the family a card.
But he said: 'I wouldn't know what to write. I would thank them for it but that doesn't feel like it's enough.'
Although in the end the family of Mr Manning's donor decided to go ahead, he urged people to talk to their families about ther decision even if they were signed up to the register.
Many people are not aware that even if they are on the organ donation register, their family can still block any transplant.
Mr Manning said: 'I watched some guy get prepped and the family over-ruled it. It's a shame because that happens all the time.
'Even if you sign up to donate you should talk to your family. That one person could change five or six people's lives.'
• To find out more about organ donation, visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk/
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