A FORMER Worcestershire schoolgirl has won a legal right to die at home after health bosses tried to force her to have a heart transplant against her wishes.

Child protection officers used a court order to try to take Hannah Jones, a former pupil of Whitbourne Primary School, near Worcester, from her family and make her have surgery.

But health chiefs have now abandoned the High Court proceedings after speaking to the 13-year-old former leukaemia sufferer and her family and she will now spend her remaining time at home.

The teenager, who moved with her family from Whitbourne to Marden, near Hereford, has a hole in her heart – meaning it can only pump a fraction of its normal capacity.

The damage was caused by treatment for a rare form of leukaemia diagnosed when she was five.

Hannah had been previously warned that she had only six months to live and that the only potential long term solution was a heart transplant.

Her father Andrew, aged 43, said he received a phone call one Friday night warning him that his daughter would be removed from the family unless they agreed to her having the transplant.

But he persuaded the officials to speak to Hannah before taking any action, he said.

Mr Jones said: “Hannah must have done a good job of convincing them because after consulting lawyers they said on Monday no further action would be taken.”

He added: “My wife and I agreed that whatever Hannah wanted to do we would support her. Hannah knows she can change her mind at any time and go on the waiting list for a transplant.

“She’s a clever girl, but she was just fed up with operations and spending most of her life in hospitals.”

Hannah’s mother Kirsty is a former intensive care hospital nurse.

The teenager has a brother, Oliver, 11, and sisters Lucy, 10, and Phoebe, four.

In a letter to the Jones family, Herefordshire Primary Care Trust chief executive Chris Bull said the trust had concluded that it was “not appropriate” to seek a court order requiring Hannah to be admitted to hospital.

He added that Hannah appeared to “understand the serious nature of her condition” and that she “demonstrated awareness that she could die”.

Mr Bull also defended the decision that a heart transplant on the teenager was necessary, saying it was “appropriate”.