Brother and sister tell of life-saving heart transplants

Aug 29 2009 by Helen Rae, The Journal

A BROTHER and sister suffering the same heart condition have both had life-saving heart transplants.

Claire Crozier, 33, was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy three years ago and doctors at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital told the former fitness instructor that only a new heart would save her.

The mother-of-two had a transplant in 2006 but as she continued to get on with life she and her parents Eve and John Dobing were left devastated when their son Peter was also diagnosed with the same heart disease. Peter, 37, who works in customer services, underwent a heart transplant last month at the same hospital carried out by the same surgeon as his sister.

Now the family are appealing to members of the public to go on the Organ Donor Register so that other families can benefit from the operation that has saved them from tragedy twice over.

Eve, a housewife and grandmother-of-four, of Darras Hall, Ponteland, said: “I do not know how to start to thank all the people who have helped us.

“Without the generosity of the people who lost their lives I would not have two of my children here today. It is awful to think I could have lost Claire and Peter.

“At the minute we are still devastated by what has happened because we thought we had got over it all once it had happened to Claire.

“When I was told about Peter I just screamed as I couldn’t believe what was happening. I didn’t know what to do.

“I wouldn’t wish what we have been through on anybody, it knocks the stuffing right out of you.