MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE:I THINK I can call January 7th, 2009, my second birthday, because life hasn't been quite the same since. I suppose it all started for me back in October, 2007, when I was attending the diabetic centre at St James's Hospital in Dublin, and the staff spotted something and referred me to the hepatology department.
It was a suspected liver malfunction, and they established three months later that I had a tumour. I was treated with medications to see if this might help, but a year later, in October 2008, I was told I needed a transplant.
It took me a while to absorb this bit of information. I’m a practising barrister, having initially taken a business degree at what’s now known as NUI Galway. I was 64, due to get the bus pass in February 2010, and my initial reaction was that I was too old for this. However, there was another part of me determined to get that bus pass! The staff referred me to St Vincent’s Hospital liver transplant unit, where they carried out tests.
In December last year, I became very ill and was admitted to hospital as an emergency case for transplant. Normally, you’d go on a waiting list, but for me there was no list.
My wife, Pauline, was due to have a hip replacement operation in January and here I was, seriously ill in hospital myself. She could do nothing for me and I could do nothing for her, so it was up to our two adult children, Sharon and John, my sister Bernadine and my brother Peter. Somehow they managed to visit us both regularly while we were having surgery at opposite ends of the city.
My transplant was on January 7th last – I was so lucky that the hospital found a matching liver so soon as I would not have survived for much longer. I was discharged on February 12th. Before the operation, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t lift a glass of water, I needed constant care.
It was only recently that my daughter showed me photos of how I was and, to be honest, I got an awful shock. While I was working – and I was handling cases just days before the operation – I had grown a beard and wore dark glasses to hide the jaundice.
I had terrific support and care, and what struck me was the amount of people involved in keeping me alive – surgeons, doctors, nurses, physios, co-ordinators, technical and laboratory staff, caterers, cleaners – about 30 people in all.
And family were terrific – you become very dependent in hospital, but also very dependent on those visits. They are much more important than people might think. Fellow patients kept me going, also, in a way I had not anticipated.
I was back to hospital every fortnight after my discharge, but that’s down to six weeks now. I feel terrific and I am back up to my normal weight, after losing four stone.
I don’t know the donor family, and they don’t know me, but we have been in correspondence on the basis that identity is not disclosed. I wrote to thank them and they sent me a really lovely response. They said they were really helped by the fact that so much good had come out of the death of their loved one, which suggests it may have been a multi-organ donation. I was one of several people whose life has been turned around by that generosity.
I was back in court in mid-March and back full-time practising at the bar from June. I feel terrific. I was so fortunate. There were people in hospital with me who had been on the waiting list for years, and there were people who came in and were sent home without a suitable match and who had to wait at the end of a telephone.
I carry a donor card and I know where it is now!
There’s a very special sort of generosity shown by people who have lost someone dear and permit organ donation. It’s the sort of generosity which could make such a difference to society in general if more of us were aware that it exists.
If you have had a health experience – good or bad – that you would like to share, e-mail health supplement@irishtimes.com
Donor cards: the gift of life
More than 50 people have had liver transplants in Ireland this year, according to the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) which recently marked 11th European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation with a picnic in Merrion Square, Dublin.
IKA chief executive Mark Murphy says there has been nine heart transplants to date and 124 kidney transplants, of which 15 were from living donors. Four lung transplant operations were performed at the Mater hospital, Dublin, including one double-lung on a cystic fibrosis patient.
Last year, some 214 organs were transplanted here, from 81 deceased donors. Almost 2,400 people are enjoying extended life as a result, Murphy notes, paying tribute to the generosity of the bereaved families who gave consent.
However, Ireland’s rate of transplantation overall is low in comparison with other European countries. The IKA is trying to encourage more people to carry the organ donor card, and to discuss their wishes with their next-of-kin in the event of an untimely death.
Organ donor cards are available in pharmacies, and can also be obtained directly from the IKA by texting DONOR on a mobile phone to the number 50050. More information is also available on www.ika.ie
