Terminally Ill Girl Rejects Organ Donation So She Can Complete Her Bucket List
Channan Petrides suffers from cystic fibrosis and the 22-year-old recently made a bold decision to turn down a new heart and lungs so that she could be well enough to complete her bucket list. Channan decided that due to the risks involved in the operation, she would like to take herself off of the transplant list.
Doctors told her that there was a chance she could die on the operating table or even with survival, her new organs could fail her in just six months – and with the support of her family, she was set on trying to make the best of the time she did have left.
“I know I’ve taken a massive risk but I want to enjoy the time I have left, rather than stick waiting to get a call that may never come. Nobody could say for sure that the transplant would work, and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything on my bucket list because of risk of infection,” Channan explained.
“Cystic fibrosis feels like having a plastic bag over your head and breathing through a straw so a lot of patients who have transplants have to learn to breathe again because they aren’t used to taking in that much air. If it brought me another twenty years, of course I’d do it, but doctors told me there was a chance I’d die on the operating table or my new organs would fail after just six months.”
Initials concerns were raised by doctors about Channan’s health as a baby when she struggled to gain weight. The diagnosis became official three months later after a nurse kissed a crying Channan and noticed her skin tasted salty; this is a telltale sign of cystic fibrosis.
According to Dr Jim Littlewood (OBE), chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, due to advances in treatment the average life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis is around 40 to 50 years old but Channan’s health started to deteriorate at just 19.
“I was a normal kid. I loved sport. I was captain of Little Thurrock Dynamos football team in Essex. When I got a bit older, I’d go out with friends, go to festivals – typical teenage things. I broke up with my then boyfriend when I was 19 and the stress made me lose weight. From there, I began developing chest infections and even got pneumonia and swine flu.”
Last November caused real heartbreak and worry to the family when they feared the absolute worst after Channan was rushed to hospital with a chest infection and it was this close call that made her rethink her future.
After posting her bucket list online at Christmas time, it has gone viral with over 35,000 shares and as you can see, she’s doing very well to tick many of her dreams off the list.
Aside from completing the bucket list, she also wants to spread awareness and educate others on cystic fibrosis.
“People struggle to believe how ill I am because I don’t look it. But the truth is that I do only have a certain amount of time left to live. I sleep 20 hours a day and I can’t manage stairs anymore. My lungs rip so I cough up blood, and I’ve been on morphine since November for chronic chest pain. We really need better understanding of cystic fibrosis and how to treat it.”
I really wish her the best with her bucket list and I have so much respect for the decision she has made for her own future.