Organ donation: 'Have the conversation this Christmas'
(right) Who October Terry Her In Last Her Deirdre Lung Second Died Is Double Mother Without Facing Deirdre Heart And Recipient With Her Christmas Terry Daughter, Isabel Year
The mother of the transplants advocate, Isabel Terry, has urged families to talk about organ donation with their loved ones this Christmas.
Deirdre Terry is facing her second Christmas without her daughter, who died in October last year. But she said the two lungs and heart donated to Isobel in 2017 gave her six Christmases with her friends and family that she would never have had were it not for organ donation.
“I’m not suggesting you have the conversation as the little ones open their Christmas presents,” she said. “But at some stage over the festive period, I would hope some of us can reflect on the fact that there are thousands of people alive in Ireland today to celebrate Christmas who would not be here were it not for organ donation.
“When you're gone, you’re gone and your organs are no good to you anymore. I don’t mean any disrespect by that, but that's the way it is. While they are no good to you, they could be good for someone else.
“I would urge people to try and find out what they should say on a loved one’s behalf after they die, should they ever be faced with a question about organ donation.”
Apart from being one of Ireland’s only people to get a double lung and heart transplant, Isabel made headlines in 2017 because the HSE was unable to charter an air ambulance to get her to the UK for a pre-op consultation with her transplant team. As she needed a constant supply of oxygen, she needed to be flown in a specially-adapted aircraft.
A mystery businessman ended up paying for a private air ambulance to fly her to UK’s Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for the meeting from her home in Cork instead. The HSE flew her over weeks later for the actual transplant operation.
Isabel, who had had three open heart surgeries in the years before, had been born with pulmonary atresia, a birth defect of the pulmonary valve that affects the flow of blood from the heart to the lungs. The operation she had in 2017 was the sixth time she had had a call that matching organs had been found for her in the previous 14 years — the length of time she had been waiting for a transplant.
On previous occasions, organs were found to have been unsuitable. One time she was called by her UK transplant team with three potential organs — in around 2012 — only for the operation to be cancelled as she was about to take off from Cork Airport.
In another case, while she was in Dublin’s Mater Hospital, she was actually on the operating table when the transplant was called off. She recovered well from the 2017 operation and enjoyed better health than she had ever had for years afterwards.
“It brought all the family closer together,” Deirdre said. “Isabel was always the centre of our universe, and from the day she was born, life revolved around her.
On Christmas itself, Deirdre said her daughter lived for the festive season. “The transplant operation meant she could go out Christmas shopping,” she recalled.
“She loved Christmas, she loved any festive occasion, you know, just to decorate the tree, do things, just normal things that people just take for granted.”
This Christmas, like the last, Deirdre will avoid going to her daughter’s grave because she still finds it very hard, admitting “it doesn’t do anything for me”. She will instead be at home in Cork with one of her other daughters, Julie.
There, in the sitting room, is a shrine to Isabel, made up of fresh pink flowers and candles. “There may not be a seat at the table for her around the Christmas table but she will be the centre of attention,” Deirdre said.
“She won't be left out, and she will be talked about as she is at everything. Sometimes, with the way we keep talking about her, it is as if she is still alive.” She added: “Before she died, Isobel was an ardent advocate for transplants.
“She had endured a lifetime of pain and illness, right from her childhood. But the organs she received in 2017 not only saved her life but gave her a new lease of life, and she always remained so very grateful.
“Whenever I get the opportunity to promote organ donation, I take it because I know only too well what it means not just to those who receive the organs but also their families.
“We had Christmases and birthdays and all sorts of moments with Isabel that we would never have had if it wasn’t for those organs of someone who obviously had a conversation about organ donation before they died.
“Christmas is one of those times when all families get together. I just hope anybody reading this will be motivated enough to take their parents or their siblings aside and have a conversation about organ donation.
“Let them know where they stand, and be that person who could one day, after they have died, give so much hope to so many others in the future.”