Ryan Brookhouse's grandfather calls for transplant law-change
The grandfather of a baby boy who died after waiting almost eight months for a heart transplant is to lobby MPs for a change in the law.
Ryan Brookhouse, from Wolverhampton, died while attempts were made to find a replacement heart from abroad.
Steve Brookhouse, from Walsall, wants British rules preventing children under two months from being organ donors to be changed.
Existing guidelines are under review, with a report due in the summer.
Ryan had been waiting for a donor heart from France or Italy, where rules on transplants are different.
Mr Brookhouse said he had started contacting MPs and has called on the public to sign an e-petition supporting his campaign for a change in UK organ donation guidelines.
More than 1,000 names have been collected on his e-petition, but it needs over 100,000 signatures before being considered for debate in the House of Commons.
He added: "We just need to get in touch with the rest of Europe and the rest of the world.
"It's not going to save Ryan, but it is going to save another child."
Ryan, who was born with an enlarged heart, was being kept alive with an air-driven pump device at a specialist unit at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Mr Brookhouse said the family found it frustrating when "experts have got their hands tied around their backs by stupid legislation".
A report, published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, says bringing UK rules into line with Europe, Australia and the US would transform care.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is reviewing the science behind the guidelines and is due to report in the summer.