BritishTeenager wins right to die

Hannah Jones, 13, said she could not face any more operations and that she hoped a donor heart meant for her would go to save the life of someone else.

She wants to spend her final days at home, surrounded by her family, after fighting off a legal attempt by Herefordshire Primary Care Trust to make her have the potentially life saving transplant.

Explaining her agonising decision, at her home in Marden, Hereford, Hannah said: "I know there's a big waiting list for heart transplants and I'm happy to save someone else's life. I just decided that there were too many risks, and even if I took it there might be a bad outcome afterwards.

"I've been in hospital too much and I've associated hospital with bad memories, so that's why I didn't want the transplant. Not a month or a year has passed when I have not had medical treatment.

"There is a chance I may be OK, and there is a chance I may not be as well as I could be, but I'm willing to take that chance.

"I don't know if I will come to regret my decision. At the moment, I think I have made the right decision and I'm not going to change it."

Hannah developed a hole-in-the-heart after being struck down with leukaemia at the age of five.

Chemotherapy beat the cancer into remission but she suffered heart failure as a result and has been in and out of hospital ever since. She had previously been warned that she had only six months to live.

Doctors say her only chance of long-term survival is a heart transplant but that could itself result in death and would weaken her immune system, meaning the leukaemia could return.

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.

Earlier this year Hannah was almost dragged from home and forcibly operated on as child protection officers threatened to remove her from the custody of her parents, who back her decision.

She remained adamant she did not want any further treatment even when Hereford Hospital started High Court proceedings.

The hospital has backed down and agreed she can be left in peace with her father Andrew, 43, an auditor, mother Kirsty, 42, a nurse, and siblings Oliver, 11, Lucy, 10, and Phoebe, four.

However, Hannah was still forced to plead her case to a child protection officer during a tense hour-long meeting in her bedroom.

Hannah said: "I was shocked really to hear that they could do such a thing. I put my point straight across, I said I've been in hospital too much, I've had too much trauma associated with hospital. I said I don't want this thing, it's not my choice to have this."

Hannah's heart only has 10 per cent of the function of a normal heart but she still attends school three days a week.

She said: "I get tired really easily but I'm just a normal teenager. I talk to my friends and I love reading Enid Blyton. I do struggle doing day-to-day things but I manage as best as I can."

However, her wish to visit Disney World in Florida before she dies is now under threat.

The children's charity, Caudwell Children, offered to take her there with 40 other very ill children but cannot find an insurer for Hannah.

Hannah said: "It's been my dream to go for so long but I never thought it would happen. I'm angry that they are stopping me going and it's upsetting because I am the only one who can't go."source>>>

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