FIVE PEOPLE including a one- year-old girl are alive as a result of the family of a young man deciding to donate his organs, an inquest heard yesterday.
The coroner expressed his admiration for the family of Shane Kelly (24) from Roscommon who died after his car crashed near Drogheda, Co Louth, last December. The cause of the collision remains unknown and a verdict of accidental death was returned by the jury.
Afterwards the Kelly family urged people to carry an organ donor card. His parents, Carmel and Hugh Kelly, said Shane had a cousin just two years younger than him who had died when he was 16 from cystic fibrosis. He had needed a lung transplant. They said donating Shane's organs was "uppermost in our minds".
The coroner, Ronan Maguire, said: "I also wish to express my admiration for the family . . . the generosity probably saved the lives of five people."
Ms Kelly said: "It was a family decision made with Shane's brother Daragh and his sister Laura. I think it is something everyone should discuss now."
When the letter arrived from the transplant co-ordinator in Beaumont Hospital detailing who had received the organs, she said it was a consolation, "especially as a little one-year-old girl benefited".
The hospital was able to tell her that Shane's kidneys were transplanted, one to a woman (45), the other to a man also aged 45. His heart was transplanted in Middlesex hospital in England and the recipient was a 44-year-old man.
Both lobes of his liver were transplanted. One was given to the baby girl, the other to a 45-year- old woman. "All have done well post-surgery," the letter noted.