THE parents of a 10-year-old boy with a terminal heart condition have appealed for a donor.
His parents, Kay and Seamus Murphy, are at Thomas's bedside in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, where he has been in intensive care since early January and on a ventilator for over a week.
"We decided to make a public appeal for a heart to make other people aware. It is very hard when someone dies, but their heart could help a lot of people, not just Thomas. You do not realise until you come into a place like this that other donor organs are needed as well," said Mrs Murphy.
Thomas, an only child, from Whitemills, Faughart, Co Louth, began getting tired and breathless last August. Initially it was thought he had asthma, but further tests found he had cardiomyopathy, a viral infection of the heart.
Doctors have told his parents they have about a week to find a donor. Already Thomas's heart is enlarged and dilated and no longer able to pump blood effectively.
"He could take an older heart from a young adult male or a woman in her 30s," Mrs Murphy said.
A team of surgeons is waiting to carry out the operation once a suitable donor who has the blood group A plus is found. The decision was taken to perform the operation in Our Lady's Hospital because Thomas is too weak to travel to the Mater Hospital.