Jerry thanks donor for gift of life

JERRY O’LEARY’S first thought on his last day in the hospital where he got his heart transplant was of the donor who gave him a new lease of life.

The Corkman spent a record 311 days tethered to an artificial heart machine beside his bed in Dublin’s Mater Hospital before a suitable donor organ was found last December.

Mr O’Leary, 50, from Kanturk, will spend the next two weeks convalescing in Mallow General Hospital in Co Cork before returning home.