Post by SoCrazyInLoveWithGUY on Dec 11, 2004 3:56:27 GMT 10
This is a sad yet uplifting story.
I sent the link to Guy via email c/o his website because I'm sure he would like to read it. Hope the message gets passed onto him.
Bubbly Zaidee's love will survive
Jen Kelly
medical reporter
11dec04
Gift from tragedy: Zaidee Turner.
A LIVELY seven-year-old's tragic death last week has given a second chance at life to up to 10 other children.
Zaidee Turner, of Shepparton, is the only child aged under 16 to donate organs in Victoria this year.
The Grade 1 student died after a blood vessel unexpectedly ruptured in her brain and caused a large bleed -- a tragedy similar to a stroke.
Zaidee's parents, Kim and Allan Turner, did not hesitate to donate all her organs -- including her heart, kidneys and liver -- to help save the lives of other children.
Since the age of five, Zaidee made it clear she wanted to donate her organs if she died.
"She was really such a giving child that it was something she was happy to do," Mrs Turner told the Herald Sun.
"Even though our hearts were breaking, we knew there were other parents sitting in another hospital, or even the same hospital, hearing the news their child was going to get a second chance."
Zaidee, whose name means laughing princess, went to bed after a day of school like any other.
Yet only 24 hours later the popular and athletic schoolgirl was dead in a tragedy no doctor can explain.
About 500 people including scores of Zaidee's young school friends farewelled her at a thanksgiving service this week.
She was remembered as a fearless and vivacious girl who adored her ballet, little athletics, swimming, and riding her scooter with all the boys on their BMXs at the skate park.
"She never walked anywhere. She either ran or danced," Mrs Turner said. "She embraced everything life had to offer.
"People were saying she must have known, because she packed a lot into her short life."
The day of the tragedy, Zaidee spent the day in class at Orrvale Primary School.
Afterwards she came home, had dinner, worked on some Christmas cards and went to bed.
But about 9pm she emerged from her bedroom to tell her mum she had a pain over her eye.
"The onset was just as sudden as that, severe pain, and she pretty much semi-collapsed after that," Mrs Turner said.
The couple took her to Goulburn Valley Base Hospital's emergency department in Shepparton.
An emergency team from the Royal Children's Hospital was taken by plane from Melbourne and she was rushed to the city hospital.
Royal Children's surgeons tried to release the pressure on her brain, but Zaidee lost her battle.
She had no symptoms before her collapse and there is no medical explanation why she was struck suddenly by the extremely rare condition.
Called arterio-venous malformation, it means a blood vessel in Zaidee's brain ruptured, putting too much pressure on her brain and depriving her of oxygen.
A post-mortem examination is being done on her brain in the hope of explaining her death.
The Turners had discussed organ donation with both children over the past two years and knew exactly what Zaidee wanted.
The family signed up on the national organ donor register, never believing for a moment their youngest member would be the first to donate organs.
"We never thought it would be them donating. We thought it would be us," Mrs Turner said.
Zaidee was a huge Guy Sebastian fan and was given his CD for her birthday on November 8.
Sebastian's song Make Heaven Wait was the first song played at her funeral. "The whole song was like it was written by me for her," Mrs Turner said.
Sebastian sings:
"Why am I here without you when there was so much left for us to do.
"How could the angels come so soon. If I could make heaven wait I'd find a way to ask God if he had made some mistake."
Zaidee's classmates released hundreds of coloured balloons with goodbye messages into the sky at the funeral.
Her friends remembered with joy her cheeky smile, her devotion to her family and her love of kiss chasey.
Mr Turner said the sudden loss was yet to fully sink in, but the family wanted to share their story to urge other families to discuss organ donation as they did.
"It's all surreal. We still think this little seven-year-old is going to pop up and run down the corridor," Mr Turner said.
"But we are not going to let this little girl's life go to waste."
TO become an organ donor call the Australian Organ Donor Register on 1800 777 203
www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11652707%255E661,00.html
I sent the link to Guy via email c/o his website because I'm sure he would like to read it. Hope the message gets passed onto him.
Bubbly Zaidee's love will survive
Jen Kelly
medical reporter
11dec04
Gift from tragedy: Zaidee Turner.
A LIVELY seven-year-old's tragic death last week has given a second chance at life to up to 10 other children.
Zaidee Turner, of Shepparton, is the only child aged under 16 to donate organs in Victoria this year.
The Grade 1 student died after a blood vessel unexpectedly ruptured in her brain and caused a large bleed -- a tragedy similar to a stroke.
Zaidee's parents, Kim and Allan Turner, did not hesitate to donate all her organs -- including her heart, kidneys and liver -- to help save the lives of other children.
Since the age of five, Zaidee made it clear she wanted to donate her organs if she died.
"She was really such a giving child that it was something she was happy to do," Mrs Turner told the Herald Sun.
"Even though our hearts were breaking, we knew there were other parents sitting in another hospital, or even the same hospital, hearing the news their child was going to get a second chance."
Zaidee, whose name means laughing princess, went to bed after a day of school like any other.
Yet only 24 hours later the popular and athletic schoolgirl was dead in a tragedy no doctor can explain.
About 500 people including scores of Zaidee's young school friends farewelled her at a thanksgiving service this week.
She was remembered as a fearless and vivacious girl who adored her ballet, little athletics, swimming, and riding her scooter with all the boys on their BMXs at the skate park.
"She never walked anywhere. She either ran or danced," Mrs Turner said. "She embraced everything life had to offer.
"People were saying she must have known, because she packed a lot into her short life."
The day of the tragedy, Zaidee spent the day in class at Orrvale Primary School.
Afterwards she came home, had dinner, worked on some Christmas cards and went to bed.
But about 9pm she emerged from her bedroom to tell her mum she had a pain over her eye.
"The onset was just as sudden as that, severe pain, and she pretty much semi-collapsed after that," Mrs Turner said.
The couple took her to Goulburn Valley Base Hospital's emergency department in Shepparton.
An emergency team from the Royal Children's Hospital was taken by plane from Melbourne and she was rushed to the city hospital.
Royal Children's surgeons tried to release the pressure on her brain, but Zaidee lost her battle.
She had no symptoms before her collapse and there is no medical explanation why she was struck suddenly by the extremely rare condition.
Called arterio-venous malformation, it means a blood vessel in Zaidee's brain ruptured, putting too much pressure on her brain and depriving her of oxygen.
A post-mortem examination is being done on her brain in the hope of explaining her death.
The Turners had discussed organ donation with both children over the past two years and knew exactly what Zaidee wanted.
The family signed up on the national organ donor register, never believing for a moment their youngest member would be the first to donate organs.
"We never thought it would be them donating. We thought it would be us," Mrs Turner said.
Zaidee was a huge Guy Sebastian fan and was given his CD for her birthday on November 8.
Sebastian's song Make Heaven Wait was the first song played at her funeral. "The whole song was like it was written by me for her," Mrs Turner said.
Sebastian sings:
"Why am I here without you when there was so much left for us to do.
"How could the angels come so soon. If I could make heaven wait I'd find a way to ask God if he had made some mistake."
Zaidee's classmates released hundreds of coloured balloons with goodbye messages into the sky at the funeral.
Her friends remembered with joy her cheeky smile, her devotion to her family and her love of kiss chasey.
Mr Turner said the sudden loss was yet to fully sink in, but the family wanted to share their story to urge other families to discuss organ donation as they did.
"It's all surreal. We still think this little seven-year-old is going to pop up and run down the corridor," Mr Turner said.
"But we are not going to let this little girl's life go to waste."
TO become an organ donor call the Australian Organ Donor Register on 1800 777 203
www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11652707%255E661,00.html
