The Sheamus brothers and Sean Fitzpatrick celebrated the 50th anniversary of a live donor kidney transplant at a fundraising event held at Egan, Mount Temple on Saturday.
Graham Dockery
A crowd of family, friends and wives join Bailin Farmers Sheamus and Sean Fitzpatrick at Egan's bar in Mount Temple on Saturday night, and finally raises funds for the Irish Kidney Association, commemorating the operation that saved Sean's life and made history along the way.
There was a time when Sean Fitzpatrick didn't know if he would live to see his 18th birthday. He has been ill since he was nine, and when he was 16, he was taken to the hospital after a car accident, doctors learned how badly his kidneys are failing.
“I was 16 and I didn't think about that much,” he said. West Meeth Independent. “But over time I found something really bad. I've been to Jervis Street for treatment for about three years, and it wasn't getting better.”
Seven years later, Sean was told he needed a kidney transplant. The first such procedure in Ireland was carried out in 1964, and the process was not easy at the time.
Healthy organs had to be sourced from relatives with tissues compatible with the same blood type. Still, there was no guarantee that Sean's body would accept the replacement kidneys.
Sean's younger brother, Dominic, was too young to donate his kidneys. His two sisters were also considered ineligible. However, when his older brother Sheamus was tested, he was told he was a match.
“I was getting worse at the time. Instead of falling into dialysis, I lifted up the Seamus and asked if I was going to proceed with the transplant earlier than I expected,” recalls Sean.
For Sheamus, who was 22 at the time, replacing the kidneys for the life of his brother was an easy decision. “They told me they had it [kidney] It was the same as having two, so it didn't make a difference for me,” he said.
Asked if he was nervous while preparing for the surgery, Sheamus replied, “I wasn't at all.”
The surgery was the seventh successful kidney transplant in Irish history, first performed without prior use of a dialysis machine. But when Sean woke up in intensive care, his life was still on balance.
If a patient's body is trying to reject a kidney implanted, it usually does so within seven days, he explained.
“I got worse for about a week. They were thinking about taking it out. One day the surgeon came down and said it hadn't gotten worse since yesterday, and they were happy with it,” he said.
“I was at home at the time so I didn't have to go back to the hospital to have kidney related,” he said. “It's as good as the day it was put in.”
Kidney transplants were in the early stages at the time, and Sean still counts his blessings as the procedure was successful. “There were a lot of people who weren't that lucky. At the time, they didn't know anything bad about it, but it worked perfectly for us.”
Fifty years after the life-saving business, both brothers are healthy and happy. Both are married, Sean, 74, has two adult children, while Seamus, 72, has four.
“Growing up, we've always noticed,” he said of what Sheamus did for her brother's daughter, Cathy. “As we got older, he always told us about the nurses and the enormous care he had in the hospital, the surgeons and all of that.”
“I think we all in our family are signed up for organ donation,” she laughed.
For the Fitzpatrick family, Saturday's event was an opportunity to celebrate the incredible tales of their brothers' lives and raise the necessary funds for the Irish Kidney Association.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects one in ten people in Ireland, and a recent Trinity College study found that 98% of affected people are unaware of the condition. Of those over 50, one in seven suffers from CKD, and the disease is currently on course to be the fifth cause of death by 2040.
On Thursday, March 13, Ireland's Kidney Association (IKA) marked World Kidney Day by launching a “1 in 10 people” campaign across the country to highlight the often quiet threat of kidney disease.
The campaign also draws attention to the fact that CKD is easily identified with simple blood and urine tests.
“This provides a real opportunity for early treatment that can slow the disease or prevent its progression,” the association said in a statement.
Without Sheamus' selfless decision, “We don't have dads and we won't be here,” Kathy said. “So it is important and we will encourage people who can feel they can do so to sign up to become organ donors.
The online fundraising campaign that Kathy set up for IKA will remain open until May 12th. idonate.ie/fundraiser/kathykathymaree1gmailcom11
*For photos from Mount Temple's Egan, check out this week's West Meeth Independent Print Edition
