Well in the new year they will be no more Ronnie and Roxy as there will be gone forever. So Phil has the choice of either of them for his new liver

So who do you think that Phil will get his new liver from

Seems the show is trying to be as realistic as possible with this s/l, I think if R&R dies and then donates suddenly a liver to Phil it would look contrived.

Obviously they have to resolve this storyline some how (If Phil doesn't die of course), but I'm not sure this would be the right route.

There is a thread already asking this question - although it is called something totally different. It can be found here http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2189548

In it I wrote in answer to someone who said Ronnie's:

I'll say again what I have said every time this idea has been raised from Peggy, Paul, Grant.

Relatives have no say over who gets the deceaseds organs. You give oermisdion for them to be harvested and they go to the highest person on the list that is a match. The whole process is anonymous.

Enen if they were to say that A relative was on the transplant list and they wanted him to have it, their request would not be granted.

If by some freak chance Phil was the only match at The top of the list, it would happen without the family being told it had happened though they might suspect due to the timing.

Yes but this is EE and all things are pointing towards Phil getting saved by one of his cousins. The surprise will be if he doesn't.

It will either turn out that the Mitchell's have very rare genetics and one of the girls' livers is only compatible with Phil's in the entire country.

Alternatively, they will ignore all the rules.

As things stand Phil is at death's door and Ronnie & Roxy leave on or around New Year's Day. There is no way all three Mitchells are going to be leaving.

They've boxed Phil into a corner. Any positive outcome is likely to entail the show venturing into la-la land again.

Very true.

Either he gets saved by the deaths of R&R donating their livers (as others have suggested) OR he receives a Deus Ex Machina miracle.

I see no reason why Philth should jump the queue

Under some producers I would agree they'd ignore all the rules but SOC seems determined to take the shiw back to basics and that includes realism.

Now of course there is artistic license which is a necessary part of any drama, including a realistic one, but I do think some things are too important to give false information about and organ donation is one of them, especially with so many people not signing the register because they don't know the facts of what the procedures, rules and safeguards are.

Phil was told last Xmas that he had a year if he didn't stop drinking. He has stopped drinking so even though his liver hasn't regenerated as hoped, it hasn't worsened so he still has about a year from ehat was said on Monday. Therefore, him not ettorng Ronnie or Roxys liver doesn't mean he will.also die in January. He could get a transplant the correct way in a few months after having been on the list for a realistic period of time. They could still say it has taken months rather than years because he is a rare blood type and got 'lucky' that he was the first on the list matching a cadaver donor.

They could of course do that with Ronnie or Roxy, it would be the least bad option realism wise if they must do the soap thing of him getting oe of their livers but they wouldn't be able to have Jack or Gkenda agonising about whether to let Phil have it as it wouldn't be theur decusion, in fact they wouldn't even be told who the recepient was to be.

Another issue,the transplant teams might veto it if they were aware of a family link because of the potential emotional consewuences gor all involved and allocate it to the next match. Although, if Ronnuw is Branning by then, they might not realise.

I've been pleasantly surprised that they haven't broken the rules and had one of the characters that have died this year be his donor so I really hope they don't fail at this late stage.

He gets Roxy's liver.

After recovering neighbours and family notice Phil acting odd. He buys himself a new dress, gets blonde extensions and trys to bed Jack. Its only after he gets Amy to call him mummy that they realise he is possessed. Dot performs an exorcism and Ronnie's ghost returns to take Roxy into the light where they find peace.

He will get Ronnie's then go round the Square shouting "She's ma sistahhhhh" and getting into all sorts of accidents every New Year's Day.

Is Steve McFadden actually leaving EastEnders?

He is in a rut, and the characters most associated with him are suffering because of it, but Phil is still fundamentally a strong character and I think he can bounce back with some good writing. The show is doing a great repair job on the likes of Jane and Kathy at the moment.

It's quite clear he cannot do the invici-Phil, throwing his weight around routine any more. Maybe this near-death experience will inspire a Damascene conversion and we'll see a more humble, human Phil in future?

I like the idea of the Mitchells having a rare blood group so that when R&R die, Phil is top of the list for that blood group to get one of their livers. A good way to approach it could be not to have Phil know it was one of their livers, but show a scene with the doctors discussing it in private *cue some kind of dramatic reveal when a doctor blurts it out after the transplant*

Am I right in thinking that ordinarily, neither party (giver or receiver's families) would know anything about the other party other than perhaps a few basic generic details such as rough location, age, sex?

I totally get where you are coming from and completely agree that this is an important issue that should be handled realistically. It so far has been handled well by all accounts.

If they did go down the route that he has rare genetics, then they could have Jack or Glenda working it out, especially if they know that the girls also have rare genetics. They may even be persuaded to consider donation on account of the rare genetics - and later work it out from that.

Personally I would prefer they stuck to realism on this but as someone else put it, they have "boxed" Phil into a corner. So one way or another it is increasingly looking like he will get Ronnie's or Roxy's liver.

I must admit that I have not really watched much, so am mainly going by spoilers. But yesterday it was strongly implied in a BBC press statement



So all things are pointing to Phil being saved by one of his cousins - as others keep saying. However I hope we are all wrong.

That's is absolutely right, yes and usually those basic details are only revealed post transplant.

There is also a way for letters of good will or thanks to be exchanged but it is done through the Transplant teams with no names on the correspondence.

Sadly a friend of mines 5 year old daughter died and was an organ donor about 10 years ago so I know a bit about the process.

I don't think he is that boxed in with it to be honest as he is now eligible to go on the Transplant list (unless he fails the tests or continues to refuse to go on it in which case he wouldn't be eligible to receive Ronnie or Roxy liver anyway) and he will move higher up the list as his condition worsens. So, he could still receive a transplant in the next few months, or even weeks via the normal process of a strangers donation.

Perhaps more interesting would be somebody (Ben or Billy) demand that Phil get one of their livers if they are on the register and it being explained why it can't happen. Then, a couple of months later, perhaps the anniversary in February, he gets a transplant as per procedure.

Or I think they could do it in a poignant way. Assuming that he gets Ronnie's liver, we could see Jack grieving and talking about how she loved her faaaamily, then in the next scene Phil is in hospital recovering, becoming a better person and talking about how he will respect life blah blah, then we just see the file of the donor, with Ronnie's details on it, then Julia's theme plays. It could be something that is never found out, but the viewers know.

Of course they could leave it to speculation. Phil gets a phone call saying they have a liver for him....2 mins later Glenda phones to say they are switching off the life support machine on the 'surviving' sister....

If they do do it it would have to be in such a way that the audience know but characters don't. ER managed this in its last season with Carter's kidney transplant though he was in another city.

I really hope it has nothing to do with R&R and if Phil does get a transplant it's because of a genuine match from an unknown, unrelated donor.

There's a good educational story here and with SOC's apparent liking for realism, it would seem a bit unnecessarily sensationalist to have Phil get a liver from one of his cousins' conveniently-timed deaths.

Not a good message to be sending that you can catapult yourself up the list if you can manage to bump off a few family members in the hope that they're a match!

Exactly this.

Aside from a family member conveniently dying and being a match which I personally think is predictable and lazy storytelling, it does send out some very misleading and potentially dangerous ideas about how queue jumping get the Transplant list can happen.

But if Phil waits another year without a transplant then he wont survive. So he will get a liver from either Roxy or Ronnie as their are family. Because i cant see him getting a new liver from some stranger

He should demand both livers from R&R. One to use now and one to keep in storage for the next time he falls off the wagon.

I don't see why Ben, Louise, Jay, Dennis, Sharon, Billy and Honey aren't offering up their livers too. This is King Philth we're talking about here! Don't they know he's God???

Aunt Sal, don't think I've forgotten about you, you old freeloader!