Daughter: You should have let my father die instead of giving him a liver transplant

Twenty-nine year old Nadine Woods is publicly criticizing the NHS in Great Britain for “wasting” a liver transplant on her mentally ill father after he tried to commit suicide.

Woods said doctors gave her 56-year-old father, David Woods, who is diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, a new liver after he damaged his own with a drug overdose.

The senior Woods was left brain damage after a 2006 suicide attempt, and according to Nadine, her father is now “trapped” in his house where he constantly speaks of taking his life.

Nadine said she is angry that the doctors gave her father the liver transplant without consulting with her family.

“It is shameful that a donor has wasted his liver and it’s horrible to think someone else could have been enjoying a healthy life,” Nadine said. “My dad has not had a day’s happiness since the operation.  All he thinks about is wanting to die. He is obsessive about it.”

The receptionist said because her father is in such agony, she is considering taking him to the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland where he would be able to end his “abysmal” quality of life.

“I keep saying that I will give him another year but most of the time I think it’s the kindest thing I could do to my dad.  Every day is torture for him.  I am prepared to go to jail if necessary,” she continued.

In December 2006, the former office furniture salesperson, who was diagnosed with mental illness since he was 16, attempted for a second time to commit suicide by taking an overdose of the painkiller, Co-codamol.

He was rushed to a hospital where doctors estimated he would not last longer than 24 hours.

Nadine said before her 27-year-old brother Ashley, her 21-year-old sister, Laura, and herself got to the hospital, the doctors had already given him the liver transplant, after a psychiatrist advice them it was the best thing for Mr. Woods.

After the surgery, Nadine said her father was in a coma for six weeks and when he came out, he was transferred to the psychiatric unit of the hospital.

She said if “living wills” or the Mental Capacity Act was in effect when her father attempted to commit suicide in 2006, he would have written one before taking the overdose.

In February 2008 after he was moved to an assistant living home, his ex-wife said she was shocked to hear that he had been given the transplant, saying, “David fully intended taking his own life because he’d had enough of the condition he was in.”

“He has had a wretched existence for the past 18 years as he deteriorated.  The doctors knew there would be brain damage but went ahead anyway,” she continued.

So far this year, 314 people in the U.K. are on a waiting list for a liver transplant and in 2008, 642 people received a donor organ.

To date, the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland has helped more than 100 Britons commit suicide.