Longford man puts out call for the gift of life

The reasons behind the need for organ transplants are as multiple as the number of people seeking them. At any one time, around 500 people are awaiting a transplant. There were 250 transplants performed last year, so the demand is very high.

This figure should increase in the near future as the Government's Human Tissue Bill will introduce an opt-out system of organ donation to Ireland. It will help increase the amount of organs available for donation to patients in need.

Organ Donor Awareness Week 2023 is all about making people aware of the need for donations.

Anthony Heavey (65) from Stonepark, Longford, was eighteen years old when he unknowingly drank a poisonous substance from a Miwadi bottle. The toxin left him fighting for his life and with damage to his kidneys and liver: “It was a couple of weeks after I drank it that I became ill. It was just that sort of poison. It took time to act.”

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“It certainly was life changing,” Anthony told the Leader, “There was no such thing as Health and Safety in those days.”

The effects of the poisoning were not instant: “I went to bed on a Wednesday night at 12 o'clock, then woke up on Thursday morning crippled with pain. I was in a coma that evening. I was brought to Baggot Street Hospital, then moved to the Meath Hospital where I was put on dialysis.”

It was a traumatic event in his life and his road to recovery was a long one and proved a barrier to entering some types of careers.

However, over time his health improved and he resumed a normal quality of life, got married and became the father to two children who are now adults. After 36 years working as a postman he is now retired.

Anthony's progression from his impaired kidney function to kidney failure was a slow one: “It took years for me to get back to half-normal. The liver recovered after a while, but the kidneys were damaged for life.”

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In the past few years he required dialysis treatment, which he's been undergoing for four years. Initially he travelled to Dublin for three times weekly haemodialysis treatment at Tallaght Hospital and then began a form of home dialysis, Peritoneal, which he feels works better for him and he undergoes this six days a week for hours at a time: “The one day of dialysis I have off is like Christmas,” he tells.

His quality of life is restricted by his dialysis treatment, diet and fluid restrictions, and extreme fatigue. Anthony has been on the transplant waiting list for a kidney for nearly four years: “It would be completely life changing to get a transplant,” he says, “I know one man who got a transplant. I met him in town shortly after the operation. I didn't know him, he looked so well.”

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Anthony is sharing his health story to help the public understand the plight of people with organ failure and to help highlight the importance of organ donation for transplantation:

“I am four years on the waiting list. My consultant said she would be very disappointed if I did not get a transplant this year, but you never know, you just have to be ready for it.”

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Organ Donor Awareness Week 2023 runs from May 20 to May 27 and is organised by the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) in association with the HSE’s Organ Donation Transplant Ireland (ODTI).

This year’s Organ Donor Awareness Week campaign is built around the theme ‘Don’t Leave Your Loved Ones in Doubt!’