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The longest surviving single lung transplant recipient, a 77-year-old woman from Sligo, has been honoured as she reaches the 30-year milestone.
Vera Dwyer, from Keish, was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an irreversible disease that scars the lungs and makes breathing difficult, and underwent surgery in 1988. After waiting two years to find a donor, she travelled to Harefield Hospital in the UK for the operation, which was not yet available in Ireland at the time.
The Irish Heart and Lung Transplant Association presented Dwyer with a gold medal to mark the 30th anniversary of his transplant at a ceremony yesterday at Dublin's Matter Hospital, where he meets every three months with his consultant, Professor Jim Egan.
Mr. Dwyer
