{"id":836750,"date":"2026-08-01T00:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836750\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:46:16","slug":"familys-plea-after-time-limit-prevents-daughter-from-donating-organs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836750\/","title":{"rendered":"Family’s plea after time limit prevents daughter from donating organs"},"content":{"rendered":"

John and Anne Apter say their daughter Sheridan was unapologetically herself, but also very generous with her time.<\/p>\n

“There is no doubt whatsoever that if she could have helped someone, she would have said yes, 100 per cent,” Mr Apter said.<\/p>\n

But in the 35-year-old’s final moments she was unable to give one last gift, and Australia’s definition of death may have got in the way.<\/p>\n

The last time Sheridan’s parents saw her conscious was a family lunch that, typically, she had organised, before she left to spend the evening at a friend’s place.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sheridan Apter’s parents say she was unapologetically herself and very generous with her time. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)<\/p>\n

Later that night she was found unconscious and blue in the bathroom.<\/p>\n

Sheridan was taken by ambulance to hospital and put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at Sydney’s St George Hospital.<\/p>\n

Her family was told she had suffered severe brain damage from a lack of oxygen. Eight days later, they were informed her condition would not improve.<\/p>\n

Mr and Mrs Apter knew Sheridan would like to donate her organs, so she was moved to a theatre in the hospital where surgeons waited as her life supports were removed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sheridan Apter’s death is being investigated by the coroner.\u00a0 (Supplied: John and Anne Apter)<\/p>\n

She continued to breathe and have a heartbeat for four hours. It meant her organs had deteriorated too much to be suitable to be used as transplants.<\/p>\n

Her parents were devastated, having lost their daughter and knowing she wasn’t able to donate her organs.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t be more certain of anything in my life than what she would have wanted with her organs,” Mr Apter said.<\/p>\n

“She would have loved to go, ‘Yep, yep. My heart’s beating somewhere else.'”<\/p>\n

The Apters want a discussion on how Australians could change the system so people like Sheridan could still donate their organs.<\/p>\n

“If there is a way that those organs can be maintained \u2026 so that when that person finally passes away, the organs are still able to be donated, well, that would be magnificent,” Mr Apter said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John and Anne Apter want more of a discussion about increasing the possibility of organ donation. (Supplied: John and Anne Apter)<\/p>\n

Laws on death<\/p>\n

What may have prevented Sheridan from donating her organs is the way Australia defines death.<\/p>\n

That definition under human tissue law says death is either the irreversible cessation of circulation of blood in the body or the irreversible cessation of all function of the brain.<\/p>\n

Helen Opdam, national medical director with the Organ and Tissue Authority and an intensive care specialist, says no other country has that precise wording around blood circulation.<\/p>\n

“Our wording in our legislation is very specific and fairly unique, and particularly the fact that we’ve got [the] wording irreversible cessation of circulation of blood in the body of the person,” Dr Opdam said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Helen Opdam says the way Australia defines death is relatively unique.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“For example, in the UK, they talk about permanent loss of consciousness and the capacity to breathe. That’s their definition of death.”<\/p>\n

Experts say Australia’s definition prevents the use of modern technology that protects the organs from deterioration and increases their suitability for transplant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) is one method used in countries such as Spain, France and the UK. It restarts circulation to part of the body, as a form of organ support.<\/p>\n

However, Dr Opdam said using NRP arguably invalidated the determination of death because of the restarting of circulation.<\/p>\n

“It can be argued that if you restart blood flow to even just a part of the body of the person, the donor, the patient, then you’re invalidating the criteria on which death was determined,” she said.<\/p>\n

Health ethics professor Dominique Martin, from Deakin University, said NRP could increase the number of organs donated.<\/p>\n

A 2023 study in the United Kingdom found the number of organs able to be donated increased from 2.6 to 3.3 per donor when NRP was used.<\/p>\n

“That might sound like sort of a small difference, but when you think about the number of DCD [donation after circulatory death] donors overall, it can make quite a big difference in terms of opportunities for transplant,” Professor Martin said.<\/p>\n

Dr Opdam said there were 2,000 people on the waitlist for an organ transplant, while just 557 people were able to donate organs last year, resulting in 1,438 people receiving donations.<\/p>\n

She said there were also 14,000 people on dialysis, some of whom could benefit from a kidney transplant.<\/p>\n

“The opportunity or the chance for donation is actually quite small,” Dr Opdam said.<\/p>\n

“In fact, any of us, we’re all more likely to need a transplant in our lifetime than we are to die and be a donor.”<\/p>\n

Death definition under review<\/p>\n

An Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) review of the death definitions is due to report to the federal Attorney-General on August 16.<\/p>\n

A discussion paper released by the ALRC proposes a brain-based definition of death, which may open the door to NRP.<\/p>\n

The paper explains that NRP is not used in Australia because it is considered inconsistent with the existing legal framework for determining death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Opdam says the definition of death was last done in Australia in 1977 and should be modernised.<\/p>\n

“It’s clear that our current human tissue acts need to be updated to reflect contemporary medical practices and understanding of death,” Dr Opdam said.<\/p>\n

Any change of laws would need to be done by the states and territories.<\/p>\n

702 ABC Sydney approached the office of NSW Health Minister Ryan Park for comment, but our enquiry was redirected to the NSW health ministry.<\/p>\n

“NSW has contributed to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review process and will carefully examine any findings or recommendations included in the final report,” a spokesperson for NSW Health said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More conversation about organ donation needed<\/p>\n

While she wasn’t able to give her organs, Sheridan’s corneas were still able to be donated and restored sight in someone.<\/p>\n

Her family has also continued her generous spirit in supporting the Confident Girls Foundation, which uses her beloved sport of netball to support girls from marginalised communities.<\/p>\n

While the Apters were unaware of NRP at the time of Sheridan’s death, they hope her story can spark discussion about increasing the possibility of organ donation.<\/p>\n

That discussion during DonateLife week this week is timely as recent NSW figures show the number of registered donors has been falling.<\/p>\n

Just 34,516 in NSW joined the Australian Organ Donor Register last year, a 19 per cent decrease from the year before.<\/p>\n

“More lives could be saved if there was more of a discussion around exploring all the alternatives out there around organ donation and having more donors,” Mr Apter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John and Anne Apter say their daughter Sheridan was unapologetically herself, but also very generous with her time.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,408783,408784,408785,44,408779,54215,408781,408780,408782],"class_list":["post-836750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-death-definition","tag-definition-of-death","tag-donating-organs","tag-news","tag-nrp-in-australia","tag-organ-donation","tag-organ-donation-brain-death","tag-organ-donors-nrp","tag-sheridan-apter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}