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A County Limerick man has become the first person in Ireland to receive a liver and double lung transplant.
Robert Sheehan, 29, who has cystic fibrosis, suffered a severe deterioration in his health, including his lungs collapsing three times, and became dependent on oxygen until he received a life-saving organ.
Robert told Sean O’Rourke on RTE’s Today program that the major surgery he underwent in June had left him with a “wide open future”.
He said: “The future is wide open and I can now think of literally anything I might want to do that I haven’t had the opportunity to do for a while.
“Organ donation saves lives, and we encourage anyone considering organ donation to discuss this with their family.”
The 29-year-old, from Ashkeaton, Co Limerick, said he didn’t really start experiencing the effects of cystic fibrosis until he was in his mid-20s.
lungs collapse
He said he “never really felt the effects of it.” [CF] Until my mid-twenties, which is when my liver and lungs started to deteriorate and rapidly deteriorated. The lung collapses happened so quickly that it really took the wind out of my sails.
“I became oxygen dependent, had limited mobility and was very sick.
“In the summer of 2018, I had three lung collapses, the first of which was quite dramatic and had to be taken to hospital.
“Last December, after collapsing for the third time, I was taken by ambulance to Mater Hospital, which became my home for the next eight months.
“I was transferred from Cork University Hospital to the Mater Hospital in Dublin, where discussions became more serious about a possible double lung transplant and subsequent liver transplant.”
best birthday present
Robert also recalled waking up surrounded by his family on his 29th birthday after the successful surgery.
He went on to say, “I asked her [the nurse] She said if you need advice on what to do, call your parents and have them come here.
“So my parents came with my brother and we waited until 1am, playing with him, and then we were told we were going to move on to the next stage where we would definitely know what was going on.
“Once I was washed and ready to go, I knew, oh, this is it.
“I was wheeled into the theater in a wheelchair, and I remember the last thing Dr. Nolke said to me, ‘Okay, Robert, we can do the plumbing, but we can do the rest. ‘You should do it.’
“The next thing I remember was waking up in the ICU on my 29th birthday and my family singing Happy Birthday all around me. What a gift I was going to get.
“Donors are never far from my thoughts.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank my donors and their families. Without their very important decisions, I would not be here today.
”[The donor] It’s never far from my thoughts. I think about them a lot. ”
Robert was discharged from the hospital in August.
Meanwhile, Dr Lars Nolke, Head of Martell’s Heart and Lung Transplant Unit, revealed how a donor from Limerick saved multiple lives with his donated organs.
“While they were doing the liver transplant, I was in the next room doing the heart transplant from the same donor,” Dr. Rath said.
“This brings us to the slogan that donations save lives, and this is a very good example of how one donation helped two people in Martel, and a kidney helped two more.”
