Kidney transplant: Owen Kelleher waited on the call for over 12 years

They refer to it, simply, as “the call”. For the 550 people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant it’s the moment the hospital rings to say a donated organ has been found that matches their needs.

To change their life they need to get to the renal transplant unit in Beaumont Hospital as quickly as possible.

Owen Kelleher waited on that call for 12 years and eight months, never letting his mobile phone lose its charge and never straying out of coverage. It was 1.30am on Christmas Day when it finally arrived.

“I was confused at first, disbelieving. We were down in Wexford for Christmas and the weather was terrible.”

Kelleher and his wife dashed to Beaumont and within hours he was the recipient of a functioning kidney, donated anonymously.

“The first thing I saw on waking was a catheter and bag and it was full. After 12 years of not producing urine this was just the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.”

Diagnosed at age seven with inherited kidney disease, Kelleher (51) had been on dialysis since 2000. Three times a week he spent four hours hooked up to a machine that performed the functions his kidneys were no longer capable of.

“Some days you’d feel great, others you didn’t have any energy. I tried to get on with my life as best I could,” he said.

Fantastic feeling

He continued to work at Tallaght hospital for three days a week.

When he first went on dialysis he was told to expect a transplant within a year, but a year turned into a decade as the numbers on the waiting list grew. Finally in 2012 his unexpected Christmas present arrived.

The transformation was immediate and comprehensive. “I felt fantastic. My skin got better and my eyes grew clear. I could eat all the food types and copious amounts of water.”

He returned to work full-time and threw himself into gardening with unaccustomed vigour.

Transplanting healthy kidneys into patients with non-functioning organs isn’t just a life-changing event. It also saves money. A kidney transplant pays for itself in little over a year compared with the cost of dialysis, and that doesn’t take account of the reduced spending on social welfare as patients re-enter the workforce.

Yet the HSE’s inability to recruit suitably qualified transplant surgeons means the programme in Beaumont is operating under capacity.

Ambitious plans to increase the number of kidney transplants carried out each year to 250 people will not be realised. Staff shortages are so acute they may lead to donated organs being sent abroad.