- She had her first transplant
- heart and lungs
- in 1985.
- She returned to her council office job. But
- her body began to reject her new organs;
- she had another transplant in 1989.
- There were complications.
- 31 hours of surgery.
- 80 pints of blood.
- Afterwards
- she had no stamina.
- Listless, falling
- asleep, fainting.
- She collapsed regularly.
- Blackouts. In
- and out of hospital.
- 2013.
- Her assessent was at a test centre
- eight miles from her home. Twenty minutes
- answering questions. Her husband, who drove her,
- was not allowed in to support her.
- She was judged fit for work.
- She typed her appeal
- on an iPad
- as she lay in hospital
- with a chest infection
- crying.
- Criteria for ability to work include
- ‘You can understand simple messages
- from a stranger’
- and
- ‘You can use a keyboad or mouse
- and a pen or pencil
- with at least one hand.’
- The Department wrote to her
- two months later.
- Six days later
- her husband was called to the hospital.
- Two days after that
- they put her on palliative care.
- The letter said:
- ‘We have decided you are not entitled to support.
- You have been found to be capable of work.’
- Her husband sat with her all night.
- The next morning
- her breathing changed.
- It took half an hour
- for her to die
- drowned in her own body fluids.
[Daily Mirror, 26/05/2013, Linda Wootton: Double heart and lung transplant dies nine days after she has benefits stopped]