Donor shortage blamed for delay in Ireland’s first lung transplant
The cardiothoracic surgery team at Dublin’s Mater Hospital have been on call since September in the event of a suitable donor being found. There are 25 people in Ireland who desperately need a lung transplant.
Six have been chosen to have the procedure conducted in Ireland, while a further 18 will have to go to Britain for the chance of surgery, if and when suitable donor organs become available. The process of establishing a transplant unit in Ireland began in 1998 when a contract was awarded to Freeman Hospital in Newcastle to deal with Irish patients.
