Lizzie awaits sixth liver transplant

A WOMAN who needs her sixth liver transplant is now sleeping up to 22 hours a day as family and friends anxiously await the operation she needs at a London hospital to save her life.

Kilkenny woman Lizzie O'Farrell is the only person in the world to have undergone five liver transplants and doctors fear she will die if she doesn't have another one within the next two months.

Her last liver failed a month ago and there is no sign of a suitable transplant organ becoming available. The 26-year-old is now sleeping almost around the clock and doctors says she desperately needs a sixth transplant within the next two months. "She had a check-up just last week and her condition has not disimproved," a family friend said last night. "She's in good form, considering the situation at the moment, but she's sleeping anything up to 22 hours a day now."

Lizzie's plight was not helped by the death in the past month of her doting dad, Seamus. He had been ill for some months and had various lung complaints and breathing difficulties.

"Lizzie now spends the days with her mother," said the family friend. "Most of that time, she's asleep. Her husband, Keith Finnegan, collects her after work and she spends the nights at home with him."

Speaking recently, Lizzie said she was not unduly worried about the prospect of a sixth transplant. Doctors say she has continuously rejected the donor organs because dormant strain of hepatitis has lain low in her bone marrow for five years. This should be the last time she goes under the knife.

"I was disappointed when I heard that the liver had failed again, but I'm looking at my next operation as the way forward," said Lizzie. "I am afraid, but I am also relieved that we will be able to get our lives back to normal again. I've been feeling terrible in the past while."

She and her husband, her long-time sweetheart, Keith Finnegan, hope the next operation will soon be over and that she will have the all-clear so that they can celebrate their second wedding anniversary in September. Lizzie married the love of her life, Keith, almost two years ago. He's been at her side through thick and thin and she says she couldn't face into another operation without him: "I had my first transplant when I was 15, I had a second one at 15 and my third at 16. My fourth operation was when I was 18 and a half. That liver lasted five years. I had another operation at 23 and am now facing into what I hope will be my last one."

Lizzie's brother, Philly, 24, is providing the bone marrow Lizzie needs to help her adjust to the new liver. "The doctors were amazed how good a match we were. It is as if we were identical twins. Our marrow is the same in every way bar that his is male and mine female. It's just fantastic and a great boost."

Lizzie will be alerted by King's College Hospital in London, where she was assessed, when a donor becomes available.