32-year-old saves four lives after tragic heart attack

Adam Quinton is learning to live without his wife, the mother to his children.

It's been just four months since she died after a sudden heart attack at their Bushbury home, aged just 32.

But Adam finds solace in the fact that Zoe saved the lives of four people because she was a transplant donor.

Zoe's heart, lungs, kidneys and liver were passed on after her death.

But she only became an organ donor by chance after being given the option when she changed her driving licence details, 13 months earlier.

Adam, 28, admitted that when tragedy struck the issue of Zoe's organs being passed on was difficult to get his head around.

"It was incredibly difficult because it was pretty much after she died that the staff asked about Zoe being a donor," he said.

"But she wouldn't have put herself on the donor register if it wasn't her wishes, so as far as I was concerned there wasn't any alternative.

"It was a hard experience because it was as soon as she had gone, although I totally understand why they have to do that because the organ has to be as healthy as possible.

"It was still difficult for me to get my head around, but it has provided some comfort knowing that she has helped four other people who may be alive or have much healthier lives because of Zoe."

The couple, who married in April 2011, have three sons, Shayne, aged six, Oscar, two, and Archie, one, while Zoe also has an eight-year-old daughter, Courtney, from a previous relationship.

Adam, a former supermarket manager who is currently unemployed, said there had been no warning of Zoe's heart attack.

"She was only 32 and hadn't had any illness, so it was totally unexpected.

"In the early hours one Tuesday she had a heart attack which meant she didn't have any oxygen going into her brain because her heart had stopped.

"She was in New Cross Hospital for two days but then they did a brain scan and found there was no activity."

Bushbury Crematorium hosted her funeral service but it wasn't big enough to hold all the people who wanted to go, showing just how popular Zoe was.

Adam is trying to move on with his life and hopes to spread the issue of being an organ donor.

He is also fundraising for the British Heart Foundation and has set up a fundraising Facebook page, called 'Just Say Zo'.

Although the number of organ donors is on the rise, as figures recently released during National Transplant Week showed, three people a day still died because of a shortage of donors.

By 2020 the NHS wants to increase the donor rate by more than 50 per cent.

Health bosses are toying with the idea of people automatically being on the transplant register, and only taken off if they 'opt out' to do so.

That is a scheme recently introduced in Wales after being overwhelmingly given approval by the Welsh Assembly last year.

There are currently no plans to do so in England, but Adam said as many people should be organ donors as possible so that more people like Zoe could save lives.

"If it was a bit more accessible then I think a lot more people would join," he said.

"From Zoe's perspective, if she hadn't have changed her driving licence details then she wouldn't have thought to sign up."

There were 4,655 transplants carried out in 2013-14 - a 10 per cent rise on the year before and the eighth year in succession the numbers have gone up.

But there are currently 7,000 people on a waiting list for a transplant.

Of those 4,655 transplants, the Organ Donation and Transplantation Activity report shows that 3,509 were procedures involving organs from deceased patients.

Adam said he would be open to the idea of meeting the four people that Zoe saved.

"It's in their court," he said.

"I've told them that if they want to contact me they can.

"I think it would be nice to tell them something about Zoe, about what she was like, if it helps them," he said.