Chippenham toddler waiting for transplant faces Christmas in hospital

Amelia Bolter, from Chippenham, has been an inpatient at Great Ormond Street Hospital on a Berlin heart since November 2022, after she was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, SVT and tachycardia.

The two-year-old's parents Jodie Woolford and Rich Bolter, and her younger sister Blossom, face a second Christmas in the hospital while she waits for a vital heart transplant.

Ms Woolford said: “All this started while I was pregnant with Blossom. She has never seen her home, she thinks hospital is her home.

“We arrived with a one-and-a-half-year-old and I was 11 weeks pregnant. Now I have a nearly three-year-old and nearly one-year-old. I don’t know when we’ll be home.

“It is challenging but we’re ok, we’re cracking on each day.”

Amelia Bolter (Image: NHS Blood and Transplant)

Amelia, who will be three in January, was born with a heart condition but was doing well until her health deteriorated in the summer of 2022.

“I thought we’d be going home with medication, but they said her heart function was too bad”, said Ms Woolford.

“Amelia then went on to get sepsis, pneumonia and had a tough time.

“She was listed for a heart transplant in the autumn and a few weeks later was given a Berlin heart.

“She will live in Great Ormond Street Hospital until she has her heart transplant. She is doing okay and is a typical nearly three-year-old in some ways, always on the go.”

Amelia is one of 230 UK children who urgently need an organ transplant.

There is currently a significant lack of child organ donors, but Amelia has been included in the powerful Waiting to Live campaign to encourage parents and families to consider organ donation.

The scheme sees children like Amelia transformed into dolls to raise awareness of their stories across the country.

Jodie Woolford with Amelia's doll (Image: NHS Blood and Transplant)

Ms Woolford added: “Organ donation is so important, it gives a child a gift of life and be able to go home and live with family instead of living in hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses, injections every day, the beeping of monitors and sharing a bed-space with different children.

“Without the organ donor there is no story, no hope, no transplant, but when there is an organ donor, life springs from death, sorrow turns to hope, and a terrible loss becomes a gift.

“If you are willing to accept an organ from someone else to save yours or someone you love's life then why not donate your organs once you pass.”