Christmas wish: man gets gift of heart transplant

AFTER being tethered to an artificial heart machine for a record 311 days 50-year-old Jerry O’Leary got his Christmas wish — a heart transplant.

It was the longest time that any Irish patient has spent on the artificial heart machine and it paid off for the Corkman.

Mr O’Leary was yesterday reported to be in a stable condition in the Mater Hospital in Dublin after undergoing a heart transplant procedure that took more than eight hours to complete.